Our guest speaker for the March 20th meeting was Brent Meyer, Community Development Department, City of Woodland, and the City Engineer in charge of all engineering functions.

Brent summarized engineering organization, staffing, and recent and upcoming staffing changes. He described the need for and trend of increased contracting for engineering services and a reduction in the amount of engineering performed by City staff. He also provided a sense of the philosophy of the City toward development and growth and its relationship with the City of Davis. Despite differences in views toward commercial and residential development and growth, Woodland and Davis are closely linked by such things as housing supply, employment, and school capacity, and are cooperating on planning discussions for new water and wastewater infrastructure. Brent outlined current and upcoming capital improvement projects and contracting opportunities in the areas of sewer, water, transportation, storm water and flooding, and development. In the question and answer session, there was great interest in upcoming projects, particularly the proposed surface water project and regional water treatment plant.

Juliana Walton, the winner of the Second Annual Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship, attended our March Dinner Meeting and shared with us her career goals and appreciation.

In the photo above, Past President and current State Director, Marco Palilla, presents Juliana with a “Ceremonial” check for $1,500 to mark the occasion. Juliana is a junior at UC Davis majoring in civil engineering and planning to graduate in 2014. She is currently doing internships with the UC Davis Facilities Department and the City of Lafayette Public Works Department. She is also a caregiver with In Home Support Services. A very busy and deserving young professional!

Tim Fleming, Past President, 1995—96

The Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship was established in the name of our good friend and Sierra Chapter Past President, Tim Fleming, who passed away unexpectedly in November 2010. Juniors and Seniors enrolled in Civil Engineering departments at UOP, UC Davis, or Sac State intending to pursue a career in Transportation are eligible to apply.

The Sierra Chapter donated $1,500 and hosted a booth at the Sacramento Regional Science & Engineering Fair that took place on Friday and Saturday, March 8th and 9th at Rosemont High School in Sacramento.

The annual Sacramento Regional Science & Engineering Fair includes student participants from Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, San Joaquin, Yolo, Yuba, Sutter, Solano, and Amador Counties who will become our future engineers, scientists, technology experts, and mathematicians.

This regional competition showcases achievement by middle and high school students, supported by devoted parents, teachers, sponsors, mentors, and members of the public. Top winners of the nearly 400 student participants advance to the California State Science Fair, and the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

The Sierra Chapter Directors are pleased to continue to lend our support to our region’s youth. Director Kelly Birkes, with Rick Engineering Company, manned the ACEC both and fielded questions from these inquisitive emerging engineers and scientists

April’s guest speaker is Vick Kyotani of the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (SRCSD). Vick is currently managing the $2 Billion Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant Program at the Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant in Elk Grove. This plant expansion (which is twice the size of the Airport’s Terminal B project) is still gearing up and will run through 2021.

Vick started his engineering career in the consulting business as a student attending UC Davis. After graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Vick spent a few more years in consulting before joining the Regional Sanitation District (Sacramento County) in the late 80’s. With 24 years under his belt, he is now working to deliver the largest public works project in the history of Sacramento County (and one of the largest in the state!).

Vick will tell us about the formation of the Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant Program Management Office (PMO), the anticipated projects to be done (and their RFP dates), plus the District’s conceptual approach to construction management services.

Join us on April 17th to find out how Vick and his team plan to accomplish this herculean feat of engineering and construction!

Spring has returned! This is by far my favorite time of year. I don’t know if it is the wonderful colors of the trees and blossoms, the warmer weather, the crack of baseball bats in Spring Training, or March Madness basketball, but it is undoubtedly my favorite. This year there seems to be a renewed sense of optimism with the emergence of Spring, making it even better than the past few years. I hope your business is either continuing to go strong or starting to pick up as it appears that money is again beginning to flow and projects are coming back to life.

Alas, not all is rosy at ACEC-CA as I do have some unfortunate news to share. At the March State Directors meeting we unfortunately were informed that Dave Murillo, our membership director had resigned, accepting a new career opportunity and promotion with another trade association outside of the A/E industry.

Dave was the State’s membership director for over 5 years. He also was our staff representative for many of the committees, including one that I serve on, the Business Management and Insurance Committee (BMIC). He always seemed to have an answer or insight on complicated issues related to insurance, liability, indemnification, and other business issues that the committee discusses. One of his key roles was also to send letters to our agency clients to notify them when their Standard Consultant Agreements were not exactly in line with the letter of the law, allowing ACEC-CA to take the heat for the member firms, so as not to jeopardize firm relationships with the agencies.

On the membership side of his duties, he was amazingly resilient, always willing to go the extra mile to talk to a prospective member firm or help generate leads for a chapter. Perhaps it is because ACEC-CA’s office is here in Sacramento, but he always made me feel like the Sierra Chapter was his main priority. In fact, it always shocked me back to reality when I would hear him say something like, “I just returned from meeting with some prospective members in Southern California.”

He recently shared a few anecdotes with me including that his lasting memory of ACEC-CA will ”definitely be the relationships that he made during his time with the organization.” He added that some memories that aren’t quite so clear include “those that involved Rob Salaber, Bob LoRusso and Patrón .” I’m not sure who that Patrón guy is but perhaps I should meet him? In regards to the Sierra Chapter he noted that one thing that makes us unique is that it is probably ”the most integrated chapter in terms of having large, publically held firms and smaller shops. Most other chapters are dominated by either . . . the larger firms (in metropolitan areas) or by the smaller firms” in the rural areas.

All I know is that he will be missed and my lasting memory of Dave will be a crisp, well pressed suit (best dressed in the house, frankly), a never-ending smile, and his credit card that he so generously whipped out at the local eating (and drinking) establishments!

The good news is that I understand a replacement has been hired. I haven’t met him yet, but I’m sure I will very soon at the annual conference in Monterey. In the mean time, if you have any membership issues, please contact Monica Laplander at the ACEC-CA office. You can find her contact info on the ACEC-CA website.

Given that the long “winter” (read Great Recession) appears to be over, I hope that the seeds that you sowed during that time are now springing to life as our region emerges from the doldrums.

Assuming you’re ready to go . . . “Play Ball!”