The California Water Environment Association president, Christoph Dobson, PE, Director of Operations for the Sacramento Area Sewer District, installed the 2014 Golden Empire Section board of directors January 9th, in Bakersfield, CA. Aqua Operations’ Clint Hilderbrand was installed as president, Patrick Ostly, PE, of Kennedy/Jenks Consultants as vice president and president elect, Stacy Billings of Veolia Water as Secretary, and Amando Garza, PE, of Cannon Engineering as treasurer. GES First year board members installed include Chad McBride, Chief Plant Operator of North of the River Sanitation District, and Michael Popichak of Aqua Operations.
Emily Winther, Laboratory Director for the City 
of Bakersfield was honored as outgoing president by Hilderbrand and Greg Wolf, Industrial and PreTreatment Inspector for the City of Bakersfield and the GES 2012 president, for her service to the CWEA in 2013. Emily was recognized by the CWEA GES in 2011 for her outstanding service in her profession.
Dobson and Wolf recognized Stacy Billings and Veolia Water of Arvin, CA, represented by Dale Ducharme in Stacy’s absence, for its outstanding safety record in 2013.
Pictured below right is Aqua Operations’ Michael Popichak and Patty Banducci, 2010 CWEA GES president and recently retired Chief Plant Operator for the City of Bakersfield (November 2013). Congratulations Patty! Check back here at Mike’s HEADworks for upcoming GES sponsored events throughout the year, including updates for the GES 5th Annual Night at the Blaze baseball game June 13th – tickets available 
soon so get yours early before this event sells out!
CWEA upcoming events include the 2014 P3S Conference in Ontario, CA, February 24-26, and the 2014 Annual Conference in Santa Clara, CA, April 29-May 2nd (registration now open at www.cwea.org).
