F&V Operations and Resource Management (FVOP) announced today the hiring of 11 new employees for its Operations Group. FVOP is a subsidiary of Fleis & VandenBrink (F&V) and provides operations and management services for municipal, industrial and environmental systems.
Blair Selover, FVOP group manager, said additional manpower was needed to assist the rapidly growing operations program in Michigan and Indiana. “We still need help at several levels,” Selover said. “We are continuing to grow and expand.”
Three operations specialists have joined the northeastern Michigan FVOP staff, which services Oscoda, Baldwin Township, Tawas City and East Tawas facilities. They are Thomas Gaertner, Douglas Moen and Jeffrey McKinley.
Gaertner is a United States Air Force retiree and former operator / mechanic at the Bridgeport Township wastewater treatment plant. Gaertner brings plenty of experience in wastewater treatments as well as sewer collections systems, pumps and maintenance.
Moen, a former DPW employee for Howell, brings in decades of experience in water distribution, excavation and public works as well as general contracting and electrical. He’ll be a utility player for the water and sewer operations.
McKinley, a former City of Flint water plant operator and veteran of the U.S. Air Force, will be the plant operator at the Huron Shore water plant. He will also assist the other regional facilities.
Three operations specialists were added in Huntington. They are Chad Cripe, Jacob Miller and Valerie Miller. Cripe is a former maintenance man with the Rippus Regional Sewer District in North Manchester, IN. Jacob Miller is a former wastewater plant operator at the Huntington City plant and Valerie Miller is a former document control coordinator/senior production specialist at Ecolab in Huntington.
Cripe, who also owned and operated his own excavating company, brings a strong work ethic from his past farming experience.
Jacob Miller brings in a lot of historical knowledge of the Huntington plant and adds depth at the wastewater treatment plant.
Valerie Miller, who grew up in Huntington and graduated from Huntington University with a bachelor’s degree in biology, adds assistance primarily to the laboratory and will help with process control at the wastewater treatment plant.
Megan Manes, a Trine University chemical engineering student, is the operation intern at Huntington. She will provide assistance in the laboratory.
Dennis Haygood, a former operator-in-charge at the Berrien Springs municipal wastewater treatment plant, joins FVOP as an operations specialist in Berrien Springs. He also brings the historical knowledge of the Berrien Springs plant.
Operations specialists Dennis Eberhart and Christopher Munson have been promoted. Eberhart, a former Department of Public Works for the Town of South Whitley, was part time and ran the Meijer project in Middlebury, Ind. He is now a senior operations specialist in and he’ll assist in directing the project and help with maintenance and operations at the Huntington wastewater treatment plant as well as run the Meijer project.
Munson, a former process control specialist for the East Lansing wastewater treatment plant was overseeing F&V operations at The Old Club on Harsens Island and Norfolk Southern. He will now be the project manager and traveling superintendent and will assist operations staffs at The Old Club facility and operations at Armada, Metamora, Berrien Springs and Huntington.
Gabrielle Lake, a former office manager, is the new operations administrative assistant in Grand Rapids. Lake will help Selover with the operations safety program and handle records and billing.
The F&V Companies include full-service engineering and architectural services with specialists in the municipal, private and industrial sectors. It has nine offices in Michigan and Indiana. The firm has been locally and nationally recognized as one of the “101 Best & Brightest Companies to Work For.”
