The department was recognized for its pubic education campaign.
“Only rain should go down that drain,” said Super Murph (a.k.a. Plant City Utilities Chief Plant Operator Patrick Murphy) in an entertaining and informative YouTube video about not dumping leaves or debris in storm drains.
The video, one of the “Conserving Water for a Cleaner Plant City” series of public service announcements produced by Fryed Egg Productions last year to provide residents with tips aimed to help them do their part and follow best practices to support the City’s water supply, helped Plant City earn a Public Education Award at the Florida Water Resources Conference.
Other video topics included: grease management, irrigation, Florida-friendly landscaping and storm drain maintenance.
The award recognizes events/campaigns for significant accomplishments that foster and support the development of public outreach programs as well as integrate public education.
That’s exactly what the videos do; break down the complex water and wastewater treatment processes to make it easy to understand and teach residents how to do their part to maintain the water supply.
“The videos were just the Utilities Department reaching out to citizens to try to put some tidbits of information out there for them so they’d remember something with a little humor in it,” said Murphy, who’s worked for the city for 20 years.
Plant City received a second award when Murphy received the Leroy H. Scott Award, recognizing a wastewater treatment plant operator who did the best job in operating a plant.
“That’s the top award you can get in the state of Florida,” said a surprised and thankful Murphy. “I love this job, I do this for the safety of the citizens and the protection of the environment, that’s the satisfying part of working in this field.”
He’s also appreciative of the support he receives from city leaders. The city commission recognized the department for its achievements at its meeting last week.
“Not only does our water quality continue to win awards but once again our staff are recognized within their peer group for their outstanding contributions, the videos were an outstanding example of an effective way to communicate with the public,” said City Manager Bill McDaniel.
