A Message from Executive Director Andrew Burroughs

It’s a pleasure to serve the public, but, like managing a business or running a household, it’s not without its challenges. As in previous years, I have developed annual goals for our utility to strive for continuous improvement in 2025 and beyond. These goals are grouped by our agency’s core values. While these goals and core values have been communicated regularly amongst our management team and our staff, we’d like to share them with you. As we report on our progress on these organizational priorities to you each month, you can view our previous updates below:

• Annual Goals – April 2025
• Annual Goals – March 2025
• Annual Goals – February 2025

Customer Focused

I’ve developed four goals for the year that, if achieved, will be of tremendous benefit to our customers:

Goal 1 – Field Exposure for Customer Service Staff – It is important for our customer service staff to be able to spend time with our field crews. This helps them feel more confident answering questions and brings us closer together as a team. The goal is for our CSRs to spend 4 days each with various field crews to learn from a wide array of experiences.

Goal 2 – Plan Review Compliance – Our Planning & Construction Division team does a great job reviewing plans for new construction and remodels, but there is a perception among the development community that it takes too long to complete these reviews. The goal is to be on time at least 98% of the time.

Goal 3 – Phone System Improvements – The most common complaint I receive is that a customer has called repeatedly and cannot get anyone on the phone. Unfortunately, our phone system isn’t the most user friendly. The plan is to fix that with a new phone system with more modern features and reporting capability by 10/1/2025.

Goal 4 – MyUsage Portal Participation – We have the new MyUsage Portal for customers to have access to their own usage data. It’s helpful for people to be able to track their flow well in advance of receiving a bill so they can pinpoint where they could potentially reduce flow. Also, they can set alerts if they have continuous usage so they can get ahead of potential leaks before it’s a major problem. Our goal is to have 15% of our accounts enrolled in MyUsage by the end of the calendar year. That’s a very ambitious goal, but one that will be very helpful to our customer base if achieved.

Community Aligned

Our second core value of being community aligned. We have four goals associated with this one, and all of them are at least tangentially related to our capital projects work, meaning those projects that are significant investments in improving service availability in our community. For these goals to be met, our efforts are going to be heavily dependent on both me and the Planning & Construction team.

Goal 1 – Exit 42 WPCF Kickoff – We must start moving on the new Water Pollution Control Facility plant at Exit 42. Our goal is to have a progressive design-build team selected and underway before the end of the calendar year.

Goal 2 – SPLOST Construction – While we’re making overall progress on the Exit 29 SPLOST project, we have not met our expectations on the neighborhood extensions. This is a two-part goal. First, we must get a design completed in a timely manner. Second, we need to have a contractor on task with the first neighborhood extension project before year-end.

Goal 3 – 319 Grant Usage – We were awarded a grant by the U.S. EPA in partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to assist with sewer connections in the ARCO area of Brunswick. Our goal is to have 50 new customers connected to the system by year- end with the use of these funds. This funding is being provided for septic-to-sewer conversion for the first time here in Glynn County, so we need to make it a tremendous success.

Goal 4 – Master Plan Update – A master plan is a comprehensive document that guides future growth and development for a specific area. We update our Master Plan once every five years, so it’s time to get that process started. Why do we update it so frequently? We must consider how much activity has occurred both at our organization and with private development over this time. Our goal is to have the revamp underway by August 1, with the goal of completing it in early 2026.

We want to prepare for future growth at Exit 42, utilize our SPLOST funds to help out neighborhoods that don’t have access to service, use grant funds to help customers that may struggle with the finances of connecting to get onto our system, and we want to update our guideposts for the next planning period.

Transparent & Accountable

Our next core value is to be transparent & accountable to each other and to our customer base. I’ve developed three goals, with one being completely outward facing, one being both a benefit to internal and external transparency, and one that’s fully internal. I think it’s a good mix!

Goal 1 – Website KPI/Goals Dashboard – The approach here is to take all our annual goals and create a dashboard on our website for staff and the public to have access for viewing. You’re looking at that dashboard now, with details provided on the infographics listed above.

Goal 2 – Water Service Line Inventory – This is a regulatory requirement but one that is very visible since the results are uploaded to our online dashboard. Our goal is to reduce our unknown materials by at least 10% over the next year.

Goal 3 – Targeted Training – A recurring question I hear from our staff is regarding how they can pursue professional development. This year, all supervisors will include at least 3 online training courses that are targeted at each individual employee’s needs and wants. This will help focus our efforts on making all team members even better over the next year.

Value & Invest in Employees

Our next core value is to value and invest in our employees. We have three goals in this area that I’m excited to share with you:

Goal 1 – Zero In on Safety – The OSHA standard metric for safety practices in our industry indicates that we should be having less than 5 safety incidents per year. Our goal is to never have a safety incident. Everyone will focus on having a safe week every week.

Goal 2 – Orientation Improvements – In order to better serve our newest employees, I want to formalize improvements in our orientation process to include required safety, emergency preparedness, and administrative training before moving on to their assigned work location. The goal was to have these improvements in place before April 1, which we accomplished.

Goal 3 – Mentorship Program – We’ll be creating a new mentorship program where more experienced team members will be able to mentor less experienced team members in other divisions. Look out for more info in the coming weeks, but I’d love to see at least 10 mentor relationships formalized by June 1.

Continually Strive for Improvement

Our next core value is to continually strive for improvement. This one seems straightforward as a core value as it impacts all our goals, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of complacency and not work hard to improve each day. We have three goals in this area:

Goal 1 – Unit Cost Reduction – Each year, we need to strive to drive our unit cost for water and sewer treatment down. Flows will likely increase, and sometimes that necessitates more spending. However, working on reducing unit costs should be a priority for us. The goal is to see measurable decreases in both unit costs this year.

Goal 2 – Increased Licensure – Professional licensure is required to meet statutory requirements in many cases, but it is also important for operational flexibility, increasing our employee skill sets, and improving employee retention. Our goal is for staff to attain 12 new licenses, with 6 of those 12 being higher-level licenses.

Goal 3 – Inflow & Infiltration (I&I) Reduction – I&I was a major problem for us last year due to groundwater seeping through cracks in underground sewer pipes. The 4002 CIPP (cured-in-place pipe) project will help reduce this type of infiltration by rehabbing existing pipe with a liner, but we must remain diligent in looking for other I&I reduction opportunities. Our goal is to decrease the per-customer flow rate to our wastewater plants by 10% compared to last year.

Positive Can-Do Engagement

Our next core value is to go about our work with positive can-do engagement. Honestly, this is the core value where I see the most widespread issues with our staff. Too often, we gravitate to the negative. So, we’re going to focus on looking for the positives, and these three goals can help us do just that:

Goal 1 – Award Winning Utility – Our teams do fantastic work. We’ve been recognized by the Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP) for the past several years as an award-winning water utility with their Platinum Level Distribution Excellence Award. The goal is to win awards for both water and sewer. I want all our teams to be recognized for their efforts.

Goal 2 – GAWP Involvement – Too often we remain in our own bubbles and don’t stay up to date with industry trends. Also, we don’t know how the challenges we face compare to those at other utilities. I want our teams to be involved with GAWP committees so they can cross paths with utilities statewide. The goal is to have 6 additional team members involved in GAWP committees by year end.

Goal 3 – Committed to Wellness – Wellness works for two reasons: first, the better our health, the happier we tend to be. It improves our positivity and our outlook while making us more productive. It also helps to lower our insurance costs. We’ve begun our Strive for Five Wellness Challenges. The goal is to have 50 employees participating in those challenges.

Thanks in advance for giving our commitment to continuous improvement your attention. Where we fall short, I welcome your feedback. Please feel free to communicate with me directly or complete our online customer satisfaction survey here.

Andrew Burroughs, P.E.
Executive Director
912.261.7108
aburroughs@bgjwsc.org