Ric E. Echler Louis Pohorence
Village of Montpelier City of Cleveland

Gregory L. Reinhart Joe Iliano
Village of Paulding City of Cleveland

Mike Field Mohammad Hague
Village of Swanton City of Cleveland

Scott Belcher Tony Chesser
City of Middletown Lancaster

Jesse Johnson Joe Ross
City of Middletown Lancaster

Tod Moyer Rob Devol
Miamisburg Lancaster

After very close edge-of-your-seat final competition, the Northwest District Team edged out the Southwest District Team by one question. Congratulations to our reigning champs: Ric E. Echler, Gregory L. Reinhart and Mike Field and to all the teams involved! Our hope is to enter the winning team in the national competition in New Orleans this June.

Thanks to the Cleveland local arrangements for all their help especially Tom Loren. We had very nice audience participation prizes donated by the City of Cleveland Division of Water. I also would like to thank Ron Schwartzwalder, moderator and Curtis Truss, Julie Gillenwater and Nick Pizzi, judges. Additionally, I very much appreciated all the hard work of my committee members in pulling the event together - Dick Pohlman, Curtis Truss, Marvin Gnagy, Mike Burris, Russ Bales, Herb Nagel and Tom Loren.

I would really like to encourage managers to allow at least one member of their operations staff to participate in the Top Ops competition at the District level. Here are a few of the reasons why:

Operators studying for Top-Ops will become more knowledgeable in the areas of water treatment, pumping, water quality and many other areas of water supply.

Top-Ops gives you a chance to showcase the knowledge of your operators and first-line supervisors.

Top-Ops rewards your employees and adds to their job satisfaction.

Top-Ops participation gives your employees a free admission to the technical sessions and exhibits.

Top-Ops allows your employees to network with other knowledgeable operators.

Operators can gain contact hours for participating in Top Ops.