05/20/2002

TML Awards - Here's a summary of the TML awards to be given at the annual conference in June. All the cities were notified with a phone call from Rae Bond last week. The awards will be announced in TT&C soon. This year we will have an "award winning" panel discussion on Monday afternoon during the conference featuring all the award winners.

Bristol, Excellence in Governing, nominated by Pat Hardy
Cleveland, police department
Crossville, Parks and Recreation, nominated by Warren Nevad
Jasper, small city progress award, nominated by Warren Nevad
Loudon, small city progress award, nominated by Ron Darden
Manchester, most improved fire department, nominated by Ray Crouch
Monterey, most improved water and wastewater system, nominated by Brett Ward and Warren Nevad
South Fulton, Special Achievement Award in the category of Citizen Participation, nominated by David Angerer

Homeland Security - Steve Wyatt attended a training session in Baltimore, MD last week covering homeland security for water systems. Here's Steve's report on the session:
"The three day session was long. It provided the attendees the Sandia Methodology on calculating relative risk for water facilities. This is the same method that Sandia (national laboratory in New Mexico) uses for security assessment of nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons storage, and dams. It is weak in the area of distribution systems. One of the participants stated that 'We have now been taught to quantify the obvious per the specified Federal method'."

"The method from Sandia is long and tedious. The city of Jackson had sent their new security manager to the class. The last day he asked if I would help him do the assessment in Jackson. I told him I would because it would allow me to work through the process with an actual system."

"The Federal bill providing funding for water assessments is still in committee. Large cities (over 100,000 population) are applying for the $114 million grant for assessments and security improvements. The smaller cities can apply for funds hopefully next year."

I'm glad Steve was able to attend. He and Brett continue to get ready for the requests that we are sure to get in this area.