This Metropolitan Team Goes the Distance
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Editor's note: This story was originally scheduled to run in March. Although the Marathon happened several weeks ago, what these Metropolitan staff achieved is an accomplishment worth celebrating.
From a first-timer to a veteran of 16 marathons, four WRM employees ran the Los Angeles Marathon fueled by a bucket list of personal challenges and health goals along with some heavy carbs, coconut water, and peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
For veteran
Alice Webb-Cole,
her running was fueled by inspiring thoughts of her young granddaughter’s recent bravery to participate in a school talent show.
Like
Nadia Hardjadinata
, Alice shares the running hobby with her husband. Nadia’s training was interrupted by a December injury, so her actual training only lasted two months. It involved extensive running, yoga, weight training and a smart regimen of sleep and healthy eating. Nadia’s inspiration includes “runners who ran with strollers or disabled people” who she deems “extra inspirational.”
Stephanie Franco
ran her first marathon, training for only six weeks. She admittedly “had always been active and exercise daily so had a strong foundation to build off of.” It is “a testament to the strength of our bodies, what we can do when we commit ourselves and achieve feats beyond our limits,” she said.
Testing his sheer willpower, stamina, and sense of humor was
Carlos Carrillo,
running his second marathon. He hit a wall at mile 20 and was unable to continue running. “I more or less limped the last 6.2 miles but I wasn’t the least bit disappointed. I remembered why I was doing this.”
All of the runners had supporters waiting at the finish line or following their progress online, and found joy in sideline humor, like signs that read, “I trained six months to hold this sign.”
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Former Classmates Are Helping Chart the Future
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Planning the region's water needs for the next 25 years requires collaboration between Metropolitan, member agencies and others with a stake in reliable water supplies. It also requires internal coordination at Met between different disciplines.
One particular partnership might have started many years ago when
Brad Coffey
and
Dee Zinke
, two of those involved in developing the new Integrated Resources Plan, were students attending Virginia Tech at the same time.
“I used to wave at her across the Drillfield and she ignored me,”
Brad
jokes.
“Not true,”
Dee
responds. “In fact, I think I was the one who remembers seeing Brad, but he didn’t know me.”
Fuzzy college recollections aside,
Brad
explains the importance of the 2020 IRP. The IRP process began in 1996 and targets were periodically revisited and revised. The 2020 report will have the benefit of hindsight – a chance to reflect on lessons learned and decisions to reach targets of reliability which included developing local resources. It will also have a different planning method known as Scenario Planning where multiple visions of the future are explored by identifying drivers that can change outcomes, such as population growth or accelerated effects of climate change.
Normally a very interactive process, the pandemic limits in-person collaboration, but virtual community and agency events are being planned.
And if you think
Dee
or
Brad
have lost any of their Va Tech pride, you’d be very wrong. Every day,
Dee
uses skills she learned as a communications and psychology major in her role as Met’s AGM and Chief External Affairs Officer. And outside of work, she rarely misses the chance to watch a Hokies football game.
Brad’s
school pride runs deep too. He was inducted this year into the Civil Engineering Department's Academy of Distinguished Alumni. “I’m so grateful for how Va Tech prepared me for this job,”
Brad
says, “and how my service at Metropolitan has also been recognized.
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Keeping Others Safe Runs in Her Family
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Her mother cared for patients as a cardiac ICU nurse. Her father wrote safety plans for handling chemotherapy drugs as a pharmacist. And now
Annette Eckhardt
ensures that Metropolitan employees work in safe environments as a Senior Occupational Health and Safety Specialist in WSO. something we are all much more sensitive to today.
Annette
cites her parents, along with faculty at UC Irvine where she earned a degree in environmental analysis, for sparking her interest in occupational safety. She emphasizes the importance of being proactive in helping her colleagues with hazardous materials management, training and emergency preparedness.
“I like the idea of working to improve the environment, safety and health and keep people
out
of hospitals,” she said.
Annette
recently celebrated 25
years with Metropolitan. She’s served as the Mills Treatment Plant safety representative, working on all six chlorine containment handling projects and also on rotation as team manager within the Operational Safety and Regulatory Services Section.
One of her career highlights: Helping to establish Women at Metropolitan.
Annette
served on the WaM formation committee and is currently serving her second term as VP. She’s working to build connections between women in the field and those at headquarters, in support of WaM’s mission in providing a platform to nurture professional and personal growth.
A goal for the next year is to help increase outreach to women in the trades about opportunities at the district.
Outside of Metropolitan,
Annette
enjoys outdoor sports with her two sons, ages 11 and 13. She previously paddled competitively with an outrigger canoe team and even participated in a Catalina Island channel crossing.
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