Krista Corner Havre Daily News kcorner@havredailynews.com
Havre Mayor Bob Rice honored three city employees at the Havre City Council's regular meeting Monday. Superintendent Bill Dean, operator Garth Moody and assistant superintendent Drue Newfield were recognized for their work at the Waste Water Treatment Plant that resulted in saving the city money. City Clerk Lowell Swenson said Tuesday that had the city hired a contractor for the job it would have paid close to $35,000. Rice said the three employees went above and beyond the call of duty. "We're very grateful to all three of those guys," Rice said. "They took the initiative, and I would encourage all city employees to emulate their example. They went above and beyond and I am very proud of all three of them." The extra work involved the installation of new equipment, Dean said, and he and his crew were able to accomplish it more efficiently than if a contractor been hired for the task. "We installed Huber bar screen washer compactors which remove fibers and plastics out of the raw sewage that comes into the plant," he said. "It was pretty simple. We demolitioned it and got the old bar screens out to get it ready for the new equipment to go in. A representative from the company came up to help us out. They gave us about four to four-and-a-half days to install it. It took us a day and a half. There was some fabrication that had to be done you can't always get a square peg to fit into a square hole. It's in operation now and running really nice." Had a contractor encountered the problem and performed the fabrication, the city would have had to shut operations until a new work order was approved. The three-man, city-employed crew were not under the same restrictions.
