Pipeline progress

When the Gages Lake Water Tower was first proposed by Lake County Public Works, there was a section of the population that made their objection to the development known. As with many public utility projects, the community wanted water, but people didn’t particularly want a water tower in their backyard.

“There were individuals concerned about the disruption to open space and others worried that it might devalue their property,” Austin McFarlane, Director of Lake County Public Works, tells The CEO Magazine. “It was a minefield of public concern.”

McFarlane, who has spent his career in the public service, wasn’t surprised by the reaction. He also knew the best way to address it.

“Open and candid conversations would be key to try and negate the concerns they have,” he explains.

“We had a lot of meetings with the community and walked through their concerns. Today, that tower is erected.”

More than that, it’s now a point of pride for residents.

“I actually received an email from one of the groups the other day telling us that they would like to have some sort of parade for the tower,” he says.

McFarlane is pragmatic enough to realize that they haven’t won over every single person who had objections.

“I do believe, however, that as they saw the development, people came around,” he says. “They realized it wasn’t the government ignoring their concerns and imposing their will, but the government trying to partner with the community and looking towards the future as to what’s best for us as a group.”

In the pipeline

Results like this continue to drive McFarlane, who first started at Lake County Public Works, in Illinois, as a laboratory manager 35 years ago. Each step in his career has been a building block to prepare him for the director role, overseeing a department that supplies water and sanitary sewer service to roughly 40 percent of Lake County’s residents.

Along with testing, inspecting and regulating permits in the water and sanitary sewer space, his team conducts inspections to ensure compliance with public health and environmental standards.

“Every role gave me such a broad understanding of what the department needs are, where the skeletons are buried, where the weak points are in the systems, what the staff needs are, and how to project for future growth and needs,” he explains.

---

”JJ Henderson has worked with Lake County Public Works (LCPW) on many projects over the past 20-plus years. Working with LCPW and Austin’s team has been very enjoyable. Austin and his team facilitate a partnering approach. They are professional and well organized, which makes everything run smoothly. We look forward to working with LCPW again and again.” – David Henderson, President, Joseph J Henderson & Son

---

Advertisement

Speaking of future growth and needs, McFarlane explains that there is one capital project in the pipeline that he’s particularly excited about: the Countryside Lake Consolidation.

“Countryside Lake is a water system, and our goal is to take that water system and consolidate it with two smaller water systems that, right now, we are purchasing water from another utility to supply,” he says.

“By consolidating these three systems, we’ll be totally independent and will no longer have to pay a third-party utility for water.”

Within the next five years, the trio of systems should receive Lake Michigan Water.

“The customers in this neck of the woods are going to be so excited when they realize what’s in the pipeline and coming their way,” he continues.

“Our goal is to provide stability and improved water quality for our customers. The improved and consolidated water systems will also add resilience and allow us to minimize extended water service disruptions. This is something, I believe, homeowners in these communities will appreciate.”

Technology drive

What McFarlane and his team are also harnessing to minimize costs and increase efficiency is technology.

“Technology, for local government entities like ours, is critical – not only for efficiency, but also for grabbing data and managing it more effectively than we’ve been doing in the past,” he explains.

Back in 1991, when he had just started out as a fresh laboratory manager recruit, everything was recorded by hand in a book – and tests were conducted manually, one at a time.

“Today, we have automated systems in our laboratory that can grab and run compound analyses, with results in a flash,” he says.

The same is true in the water wastewater area, he adds.

“When I started as the director, we had a SCADA – or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition – program in place, and it was limping along. It was frightening to see how other municipalities were moving ahead with their SCADA,” he explains.

An effective SCADA allows lift stations (part of the sanitary sewer system) to be managed remotely from a desk rather than needing on-site inspections.

“One of the first things I did last year when I started as the director was to revamp our SCADA and implement three large regional systems: the south, the central and the north.”

The south is online and working beautifully, he says. Work is currently underway on the central. And by the end of next year, all three regional operation systems will be SCADA literate. Other initiatives rolled out under his leadership include smart meters and new billing software. And it’s just the beginning.

“In order for us to move forward and to compete and be efficient, we have to ensure technology is a part of our future,” he says.

Growing its own

Also critical moving forward are key suppliers like design-and-build firm Joseph J. Henderson & Son, as well as the people that power the department, which currently stands at over 100 employees.

In a tough recruitment environment, when the department is not only competing with the private sector but also neighboring municipalities for top candidates, McFarlane says one of the ways it stands out is by growing its own talent.

“By investing in an individual, we find the likelihood of them staying with the department for five or ten years is much greater, because there is a sense of ownership that they develop in the area in which they’re working,” he says.

When external hires join Lake County Public Works, they’re quickly empowered to grow and develop.

“We want to make sure that we understand what their needs are, what their ambitions are, and we put them in an environment where they can succeed.

“So we let them know from day one, ‘you’re part of a team that is growing and that’s successful,’” he says.

The same could also be said about the Public Works department under his direction.