Board Member: Clyde Nakaya & Ray McCormick; Manager & Chief Engineer: David Craddick; Crew Member: Neal Iseri & Lance Nakata & Darwin Bukoski; Board Member: Roy Oyama; Crew Member: Galen Shigeta; Board Member: Daryl Kaneshiro & Larry Dill & Randy Nishimura; Plant Superintendent: Ryan Smith; Chief of Operations: Val Reyna
By Staff Reports
(LÎHU’E)–The Kaua’i Board of Water Supply and Department of Water Manager and Chief Engineer David Craddick recognized a five-member crew in the Operations Division as the Department’s Employees of the Quarter during the Board’s monthly meeting.
“The crew demonstrated outstanding teamwork during the recent heavy rainstorms that wreaked havoc on the island of Kaua‘i last month that merits outstanding recognition,” said Craddick.
The honorees include: Neal Iseri, Waterworks electrician/plant electrical tradesperson; Darwin Bukoski, plant electrician helper; and David Okamoto, Lance Nakata and Galen Shigeta, water plant operators.
The crew was recognized for superior service and unselfish devotion to duties performed during the heavy rainstorms and the weeks following the event. The storm event required long hours at all times of the day and night to perform emergency corrective maintenance in order to keep the Departments wells operational and provide uninterrupted service to customers, which included:
- Multiple equipment failures island wide.
- Three burned motors.
- Power failures at more than 15 different sites from Kekaha to Hâ‘ena that required troubleshooting.
- Two separate main line breaks (one in Anahola and the other in Kôloa) that were found and isolated prior to the tanks emptying completely.
- Three different Booster Pump sites that required motor control center (MCC) repair to restore operation.
- Communication failures at more than 20 sites that threatened automatic pump and tank operation.
“The quick response, teamwork and technical knowledge of the above mentioned employees reflect a great credit upon them and were in keeping with the highest standards of the Water Department,” said Val Reyna, chief of the Operations Division.
“Through their combined effort, no community was without water during this event,” added Ryan Smith, the Departments water plants superintendent.