The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities honored Randall S. Peterson, a retiring deputy general manager, during its board meeting Tuesday.
A resolution commending Peterson for his 38 years of service was passed by the board and a plaque commemorating his years at the BPU was presented to him. Peterson will be honored again by BPU employees on Aug. 4 and at a private retirement picnic on Aug. 5.
A lifelong Jamestown resident, Peterson graduated from Jamestown High School in 1970, Jamestown Community College in 1972 and Clarkson University in 1974 with a degree in civil engineering and environmental Science. He worked as a meter reader, cleaner and inspector as a college student during the summers of 1972 and 1973, before returning after graduation to the BPU as a junior engineer.
Peterson, only the fifth full-time engineer to be employed at the BPU, first worked for BPU superintendent James Pullan. He also served under R. James Gronquist, Michael Darroch, Walter Haase and David Leathers.
Peterson earned his professional engineer's license in 1980 and also holds both water treatment and water distribution licenses issued by the state Health Department. In the late 1980s, Peterson was promoted to senior engineer and then became engineering and operations manager in the 1990s. The deputy general manager's position became water resource manager in earlier 2000 and was named deputy general manager for water resources in 2006.
According to Peterson, the small number of BPU engineers when he started at the utility required each one to "wear many hats," giving them a wide range of experiences and many special capital projects.
When asked about his favorite project, he replied, "They've all been good, there have been so many. Working at a utility of this size allowed me to be involved in projects ranging from building renovation to putting pipe in the ground. Every project was unique. It's unusual these days to spend such a long career in one place. It has been challenging and fun to do so many different types of work here. It has kept the job interesting."
Peterson has overseen many improvements during his tenure, such as the redevelopment and rebuilding of both the Cassadaga and Poland Center well fields in the 1970s, in addition to the erection of a new storage tank at the Cassadaga well field. Peterson oversaw the purchase and installation of the utility's initial supervisory control and data acquisition system, which provides remote control and supervision of the many utility field properties as well as data collection which previously had to be gathered or read by hand.
Since the District Heat and District Chilling division development, Peterson has been responsible for overseeing the design, installing the distribution lines for the utility and for the continued maintenance of the two systems. He also directed the renovation of the former Monitor Furniture Factory into what is now known as the BPU Operations Center of offices and garages.
In the mid-1990s, Peterson's responsibilities expanded with oversight of the Wastewater and Solid Waste Divisions when these divisions were transferred from the city of Jamestown to the BPU. He developed the utility's regional fuel depot on Steele Street, which has brought fuel savings to the BPU, police, fire, Department of Public Works and Jamestown Public Schools while diminishing the risks of multiple fuel tanks throughout the city.
Peterson oversaw installation in the early 2000s of the Water Division's automated meter reading system, which allows the BPU to read customer meters utilizing a radio signal bounced between the meter and a van driving through the neighborhood, reducing the amount of time it takes to read the meters.
In recent years, Peterson completed a significant project in the upgrading of the Wastewater Plant's trickling filters, an improvement which was completed early and under budget. He has directed this summer's replacement of the digester covers at the Wastewater Plant as well as the installation of a liquid chlorine project. Other recent projects included the refurbishment of all three BPU water tanks and the construction of an addition to the BPU's Solid Waste Garage.
"Dedication to serving the public is what makes the BPU such a fine organization,'' Peterson said.
