Section Chair Steve Dennis opened the conference by introducing Jamie Williams, Mayor of Santa Clara. The Mayor welcomed the American Water Works Association to his city and spoke about the important role each of the attendees played in delivering safe water to their customers. He also bragged about the 49er’s future move to a Stadium to be located a short distance (about a quarter mile) from where he was speaking. He invited us back in three years to take in a game.
The keynote speaker was Harlan Kelly from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. He gave a wonderful talk about several Tunneling projects that have been completed or are in progress. He reported that they were proactive and innovative in their approach to training and utilizing local labor. The City of San Francisco will be investing over 4 billion dollars to improve their water and wastewater infrastructure in the next 4 years. Mr. Kelly also reported that he and the City of San Francisco were not pleased to see the 49er’s moving out of town.
For now,
Joe Kerschner
President
American Water College
