Recognize Your Leaders

collect and distribute research projects, topics, and areas of interest. We will also work closely with the other established Technical Committees to maximize the available resources and not duplicate efforts. Based on this new direction for the committee, we are proposing a name change that will be proposed to APWA in the future. We are suggesting that the committee be referred to as the Engineering and Technology Research Committee. Though it’s a subtle title change, it does more accurately reflect the new role that we hope to take on in the future.

The committee also hopes to work closely with the House of Delegates regarding the possible role that delegates can play in collecting and disseminating information to the chapters about possible research topics as well as research efforts currently underway. The E&T Committee recognizes the critical role that the HOD plays in serving as a channel to the chapter membership. The committee hopes to forge a solid working relationship with the HOD that will benefit everyone in APWA.

Though these changes and concepts are still being formulated and obviously must be approved at various levels throughout APWA, the Engineering and Technology Committee hopes that our efforts are well received and will lead to even better service to our membership. Regardless of the final results of the recommendations, the exercise and self-examination by the E&T Committee will provide longstanding benefits into the future. We welcome the comments, suggestions and feedback of the members. Please let us know what you think.

Jim Nichols can be reached at (432) 6857205 or jnichols@midlandtexas.gov. Carol Estes, staff liaison to the E&T Committee, can be reached at (816) 595-5222 or cestes@apwa.net.

This sixth article in the series of Recognize Your Leaders is submitted by Hesha Gamble, the County Engineer for County of Greenville, South Carolina, and member of the APWA Leadership & Management Committee. Leadership can come at many levels and she is recognizing the leadership of a longtime staff member through different pavement management programs.

Arguably, one of the most important public assets is our roads. The roads are truly the lifelines for any community, and many would tie the growth and development of a community to the condition of its roadway network. Over the years, Greenville County has been an innovator in South Carolina with regards to pavement management approaches. Our management has evolved from in-house maintenance to an aggressive and comprehensive design-build road improvement program handled by a construction management team. As this multi-year program has come to an end, our pavement management is now staff-led using traditional contractor-bid methods for paving and inspection services. As in any agency, staff turnover occurs and sometimes the history of certain processes is lost. For Greenville County, the one constant throughout all of these changes has been Ron Bettis. Ron is the lead paving inspector for the Engineering & Maintenance Division and has been involved with the pavement management activities since 1997.

Ron Bettis showed leadership potential even from the beginning, being recognized with the “Prime Mover” award in his first year with the County for being an outstanding employee, as well as participating in the “Future Leaders” program.

Over the years, Ron has taken the lead in managing the County’s use and evaluation of innovative and greener technology in the paving and maintenance process, including the use of geo-textile fabric and recycled rubber in the paving process. He was instrumental in the testing and eventual purchase of the Rovver pipe camera unit. He has conducted research on various pavement methods and often makes suggestions to fine-tune our paving processes to get the best and most economical paved road. Ron has even taken the initiative to develop training courses on project management and asphalt roadway inspection for our Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) center. He is currently assisting the LTAP center at Clemson with the development of a conference on “green” paving techniques.

It is his wealth of knowledge and dedication to the 450,000 citizens of Greenville County for the past 15 years that has helped the County continue to be leaders in the pavement management field. He deserves recognition for his diligence and perseverance.

If you have a leader that you would like to recognize, submit their name and a brief summary of the project you would like to recognize them for to Becky Stein at bstein@apwa. net.