Our Lake Worth Water Plant ready for Irma

As so many people are out buying water with price gouges going on at certain establishments, this morning, I asked Brian Shields, Water Director, about the possibility of losing our water during Irma.  This is the exchange of e-mails.  The last response appears first:
..........................

There are many possibilities that cannot be predicted, but we are as secure and have as many backups as possible. Our crews are ready to respond.

Brian Shields, P.E.
Director/City Engineer | Water Utilities

City of Lake Worth
301 College Street
Lake Worth, FL 33460
V: 561-586-1675
bshields@lakeworth.org
www.lakeworth.org

City Operating Hours
Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 5:00 pm

From: Lynn Anderson [mailto:lynn113@comcast.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2017 11:24 AM
To: Brian Shields
Subject: RE: water

Thanks Brian.
Brian, about the only way we would not get water would be devastating winds that would take down our water plant?
Is this an accurate statement? Are there other ways?
Sorry to bother you, these are my last questions…promise. 😊
L

From: Brian Shields [mailto:bshields@LakeWorth.org]
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2017 11:22 AM
To: Lynn Anderson
Subject: Re: water

That is our goal

Sent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S® 6.


-------- Original message --------
From: Lynn Anderson
Date: 9/7/17 11:09 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: Brian Shields
Subject: RE: water

Brian-
Does that mean, in all probability, that we will have water running through the tap?

Hi Brian--

Do we really have to be concerned about NO water during and after Irma?

I remember past hurricanes and we had water.

Thanks.

L

Lake Worth Sewer Department at Lakeside Point Gardens

Comment Up

Lake Worth Sewer Department working hard in my community today. There was a blockage caused by some cement...done years ago--"not by these guys," I was told. The sludge/water was dammed up and staff was there bright and early to correct it before we had a problem.

This department is under Brian Shields, the new Water Department Director.

Lake Worth Water Dept - He's Baaack!

Comment Up

He's Baaack...can't believe it...Brian Shields is working for the City of Lake Worth making $125,000 a year.  He took over Larry Johnson's position as Water Director when Johnson retired. Mr. Shields has been here for about three weeks.  How come we never get any announcements when top positions change out?  Mr. Johnson was the go to guy when Bornstein was out of town. It's hard to keep up with all the changes going on in our city. Top management at our Electric and Water Departments has changed.

About eight years ago, Shields was literally the enemy when he worked as Director of Engineering Palm Beach County Water Utilities. The County's water department wanted to regionalize Lake Worth Water into its system. They had their eye on our water for years. They did not give a hoot that we had already invested $14 million into our RO system and they convinced a previous Commission, that had no clue, to enter into a bad contract that was going to cost us more than we had left in our bond. Lake Worth is famous for getting into bad deals and Jeff Clemens was responsible for that one. Retha Lowe even admitted several years later that we had made a mistake going with the county.

At the time I equated it to the idea of a parent stealing from his own child. Reprehensible. The County and Mr. Shields strong armed the City of Lake Worth, a poor city, for millions and wanted to steal our valuable water wells.

PB County attempted to lock us into a 40 year contract with a built in rate increase, thus forcing us into paying $2.5 million in piping only laid to bring other cities into their regionalization.

The County's settlement agreement was received by the City of Lake Worth on January 20, 2010 with the implication, take it or leave it because "we are confident that we could recover the full amount of our original costs should the matter be adjudicated..." The threat of law suits are always part of the game.

We ended up getting out of this very bad deal thanks to former city manager Susan Stanton who negotiated Shields and the county way down, and we continued on with our own Reverse Osmosis system, the best water around.

I also said at the time that we were well out of the county deal and thank God we wouldn't have to see Brian Shields again.  Spoke too soon. Let's hope that he will be as enthusiastic for Lake Worth as he was for Palm Beach County years ago when he played hardball and cost us a bundle.

No one understands our history.