welcome everyone this is commissioner suzanne at well hosting another commissioner corner it's good to see you again before i introduce my guest this afternoon i would like to give you some background on how we came to meet it was a cold winter night the date december twenty first two thousand and ten quite late at night the location a manhole near the corner of route forty one and fruitful road the attire i was wearing a hard hat of course with a city logo and a leather jacket the purpose to get a real time lesson in the latest tech nologies or as the city and i like to call it see i p p cured in place piping a function of the utilities division on a side note i have always been a cheerleader for our department and all those employees who all those employees who work there the twelve st campus is indeed ground zero for what makes this city function it's really the blood and guts the nuts and bolts of our community the participants that evening the city insident form technology employees but most notably the city's alex hernandez who was assigned to me that evening to guide me through this state of the art rehabilitative technology that night i knew that alex had the passion he couldn't wait to share that all he knew with me and why it was important to the health and well being of our city he clearly took pride in his job welcome alex alex your man days of the city's utilities department i'd like to start by saying how you got to where you are today it was an order to meet you and i understand you've been one of the longest tenured employees of our city tell me how it all began with you well i started with the city back in  three in the equipment maintenance division from there i moved to the plant maintenance in utilities moved on to lift station and to the trenches technology division which is where i'm at now which is how i came to meet temps a little bit at night out what a broad base of education and experience that you've had with this great city that's wonderful let's go back to that night talk to the citizens about what happened that night what did we do what was going on that night that late night where i met you ok that line railroad we inspected the closed circuit inspection at one of the systems that we have and it showed some deficiencies that showed little cry from infiltration coming in so we had to do something about it rehabilitate it so we contracted with situ form which they were going back we keep utilities keeps like three contractors for each one of our technology on board at all times so we can address issues as quickly as they come up so we saw that the line needed work so we did the c i p p process when that's the latest state of the about is that is the latest and greatest which is the alternative to open cut open cut would have entailed digging up fruitvale road this segment that we did went from lemon to forty one so that would have entailed excavating down to that eighteen inch pipe which was roughly about fifteen feet underground which would pretty much close down affecting neighborhoods neighborhood business is a myriad of things it would've cost probably ten times as much and would have closed down for probably six months so we did twenty one hundred feet of pipe eighteen inch pipe through the cure to place process cost us one hundred thirty nine thousand dollars and we did it at night where it didn't impact which is why you had to meet me at night because those jobs we do at night for traffic purposes as well as that's when the flows through the lines are at a minimum  but so this process is going on throughout the city now here in place describe actually what here in place does there's t v camera and yes initially we send a t v camera through the line to do the inspection like a don't have the production still to do that one day i'll get it so we first evaluate the line if we see that it's in need of rehabilitation we clean it then whichever right now i think we have we're working right now in cherokee park doing some whining that you and i i was there the other day with the other day with another pipeline that process what it is it's so you open in my own home you have a line or a bag that's impregnated it's a felt impregnated with resin just like when you're building a boat the bag is put again without excavation that's why we can get in we can get out there with water or air or steam it gets sent down the line for whatever length we're going to do we stop the bag or the contractor stops it starts filling it with hot water or steam bringing it up two hundred ninety whatever the cooking temperature is set for again two three hours whatever the manufacturer recommends when you're done you have a pipe within a pipe you have you put the structural integrity back into the you've taken care of any leaks that you might have had and where most pipes  robot and you have a person on the truck looking plain like a videogame and they'll move the robot through the line with a camera on one end and the robot at the other will get to where the connections are for the home he's got a cutter goes in cuts out reinstates him your bag in business and that's usually done in the one night how many of these projects are going on right now in the city at one particular time right now we have one project which is cherokee park and see the hansard off of north total we're working there the way that we were approaching this is key those have all been the manholes already coded and there's a logical reason for that absolutely the those coastal areas you have high ground water shore so if you have a leak it's going to be a to be gone all the time when you're introducing storm water into the sewer line that water shouldn't be there so it's taxing your system it's  having to treat and deal with water that you shouldn't have to so that's where you have seen in the past which thank goodness we're making really good headway and that's where we used to see a lot of manholes that would pop up and the  out because the storm water seeping into this sewer main were just overblown that goes to the point of we are our citizens are concerned about the recent collen and then the rain event we had about a month ago  that few hour rain event that caused a lot of flooding so our citizens are concerned and how does that help mitigate it and what are we doing i know with collen we had great improvements in our infiltration system talk to me about that how do we help  lay some of the concerns of our citizens with this season coming the hurricane season coming with rain event seasons and what our utilities is doing for that well by us aggressively going after our infiltration through these methods we've talked about we are keeping the storm water away from the sewer and water is going to find the supposed to do which is go into the storm drains and drain out the way that it should here so you're you're saving money you don't have to treat or should i say even maybe hopefully put off our planned expansion a bit longer and also are you lessen the possibility of having that pipe collapse during a rain event whenever you have holes in those pipes sand and dirt start to go in which creates sinkholes absolutely that's when you get in trouble so that greatly eliminates or reduces the possibility of that happening and especially on the barrier islands if we had to dig up and make a repair because of something like that i always and i really defended and i really pushed to do the barrier island because your ideal can imagine forbid that you had one of these lines collapse around saying arm and circle and you have to shut down for all intents and purposes saying  you know this everything you're saying affects i'm on the best you wary program board of directors this affects the environment this affects our bay this affects quality of life it affects every part of our citizens lives what you do and what you try to prevent to do it sounds like you kind of taken a leadership position on on and and you kind of exude a great deal of knowledge about what's going on what are some of the other maintenance programs going on or other things that you might want to talk about that better help the quality of life in our city from that campus well we're i speak from a utility standpoint we are obviously doing what i spoke of  the engineering department is replacing a lot of force main pressure pipes again going back to what we do is we have a lot of development coming and that was going to be my next question a lot of people saying what does this do to our infrastructure with this emerging and vast development going on well we try to stay ahead of the curve sure because most of the time the infrastructure in place has the capacity to accept what the development is going to put in it but i don't know if you remember one of the manholes that we looked at once had a date of like the one nine hundred twenty s or something that was a few years ago right yes absolutely which means that while the infrastructure might have capacity it does need to be brought up to snuff so that when you develop smart covers that that was one of them that was one of them smart covers great great technology a lot of people have a hard time wrapping their head around how we're using now to their website that secure server and see we have believe forty four of them now deployed and look at levels and they are coming i wouldn't you know new technologies new products every day so when you're all front and center on this indeed indeed we came in back when the technology was first emerging we kind of work together to bring your word is now and it's worked out very well for sid it  shows a lot of things that we previously couldn't see just because it wasn't possible when you're on the ground floor as it were getting involved in these things and i think that's great i remember that going into different neighborhoods seeing the dates of some of these as i've always said utilities is underground we don't see it we don't see the beauty we talk about everything that is so phenomenal about our city and county but we don't see what's underground or what's underground can be its own beautiful thing because it makes the city run and i can't emphasize that enough and i think you really are on front and center on that and are a great spokes person for this what you're doing there so now you've been  in the sea i p p arm for the last few years the city actually has been using it for probably fifteen ok now is going to be longer but not on the scale that we have recently because we have been fortunate to have good staff good directors your great commissioners who have said ok thank you we're going to go ahead and give you what you need to do it which is great because as you mentioned a lot of times of you can put your eye on it it's not all that much but should i use my analogy of the ferrari yes if you have a ferrari that's great to look at but the engine doesn't run it's nothing more than something that's nice to look at pretty it's pretty but don't try to move it because it won't move so we kind of see the city of service so to without exception is a ferrari this is one of the most not that i've seen a whole lot of the world but from what i've seen this is a beautiful place to live so we kind of like to absolutely i think you've brought utilities up and your passion and commitment to your job has brought the a level up to where we need to pay attention to it a lot of citizens have said to me especially recently about well what about your infrastructure that people are talking about it now because they're think they're looking at the rain events they're seeing the traffic they're seeing the development how it affects traffic little bit of the flooding so they're very concerned about it so that just prompts me to talk more and more about what we are doing in our utilities in the city of syria so to how we are trying to stay three three steps ahead of the sheriff on this and that we are working hard for that and you're a very good spokesman on that  because this is the talk of the town right now is certain development what are we going to do in the next few years do we have the infrastructure in place if we continue this development as it's exponentially growing and those are the things that utilities and you are obviously aware of and are mindful of we we try to stay with two three steps ahead because as i said before we don't want to be on the receiving end of negativity and i feel a lot better knowing that you can go ahead and put up a building sure because it's good we've already lined coded cleaned give me what you've got because it'll take it rather than the other alternative and all your many employees over there you know i i encourage citizens i've taken a tour of that whole campus on twelfth street when i became a commissioner was probably around two thousand and nine two thousand and ten before i even that night unfulfilling forty one of the tour of that campus the treatment plant that the whole area there was just phenomenal i encourage but i can't and i can't emphasize this enough that we you know we do when we for years well communities across the country where you are you putting your money where your mouth is you want good infrastructure we as policymakers need to that how much money we're putting into infrastructure this again the blood and guts of the city and all things emanate from that all good things that we have in this city we talk about all the amenities and we have great amenities  yes we do yes we do but it can't work if we don't look under the ground and know that that is being attended to and quality ways and i think we are with our great utilities department and i think  everybody comes together while in order to stay in also with all these new the secure in place piping in different smart covers all the different state of the art efforts here there are more and more companies coming on board or us which is interesting on choosing a company i know we had in situ form but there are many many c ip companies there probably many smart i mean this is just really interesting so that's another arm of it you know who you p in you know it's kind of a good thing i think it's such a form to you know to be leading the yes the move they have now the ability to line pressure pipe as well as gravity pipes so like within the very near future out after some other folks have tried it will be able to take in rather than replace a force main by the conventional means you can lot of what you might as well they're up to date couple of things here i wanted to go over that what we're doing the in the last year fourteen to fifteen the rehabilitation work three point three miles of linear feet of sanitary lines twenty seven miles mainline five hundred four manholes rehabilitated fifteen point repairs perform citywide this is really fascinating all we have done in that's just basically one year and a little over a year and there's a there's a lot more needs to be done we're moving we're moving north cherokee park rosemary district nor sarasota ok that's the line how you're moving ok we came from lido seen our minds to see us  nor serve soda and we're just going to snake our way so hopefully in another five years we'll have everything if not done at least inspected and cleaned where we two hundred miles yeah one million fifty six thousand feet so that's a lot of and lot and lot of get your grander we've done a lot of not already not a lot but quite a bit of it we just we have to keep keep the boat more yes it has it has to continue because we need to get to the point where all of this is just something in the past and we don't have to worry about it the engine is tuned fresh oil out a good to go i love it do you your knowledge your tenure on the in the city do you how do you get to the point where you know some hard core experience training seminars how do you stay up to date on all this because utilities in this whole field is emerging and growing with the needs that we have in our communities with infrastructure all the above but what i have on my side is just the time that i've been here and i saw a lot of things going there's a lot more people that are a lot sharper than if you know from a technical standpoint the gentleman i work with lot of these technologies a lot of these things i learned about by going to seminars going to show trade shows and i'm kind of like ok show me kind of guy so they say hey we can do this and this for you recognize and i can't thank you enough for being here you are oh so you give new meaning to a great employee you did this to this city your you do have that passion and commitment and i saw it that night that you just couldn't say enough about showing me  what was going on and it was for easing it was and all the employees from the company from the city just did a wonderful job and that just keeps me and i often can't go without saying a part of my interest is i'm a great learner and i love field trips i love to go and just see what's going on but i also have a son who's a civil engineer the design stormwater systems in the city of charlotte i say that every time i can and talk to him a lot about this is a really good exactly it's quite exciting and you can bond with your children any level you can to talk about what their field of interest is and what their profession is engineering is very unique and with what he does it is fascinating he wrote me the other day and said yeah i just did a c ip project on this street in charlotte because i had said we had we were at harbor a careers and i was attending a c i p p a project and it was just fab and i sent him the photos and i just did that too so what a wonderful launching and