‘Water guy’ retires after 30 years
It was a job posting in the Ramona Sentinel approximately 30 years ago that sent resident Johnny Brean, then a recent high school graduate, along a successful career path at the Ramona Municipal Water District. The water operations superintendent plans to retire May 26.
“It’s great working in the same town you live in and grew up in,” said the 1982 Ramona High School graduate.
Brean was 20 years old and working in construction when the job of utility worker at the water district piqued his interest.
“I was reading the Ramona Sentinel one day and saw the position open and thought ‘well, I’ll apply for that.’ And it was that simple,” he recalled.
He didn’t get that job, but soon after another utility worker post opened and the district called him.
At the time, he did not expect to spend his career at the water district.
“When I was hired I thought, ‘well, I’ll spend a couple of years here until I decide what I want to do,’ and there you go, right? Here we are 30 years later.”
As a utility worker, he read meters. Over the years he moved up to utility 2 worker, then systems 2 operator, chief systems operator and in 2008 became the water operations superintendent.
“I’ve enjoyed it,” he said. “It’s had its moments. It puts you under a test of yourself but I’ve enjoyed it.”
As water operations superintendent, his responsibilities include covering field operations from the meter reading staff to the utility staff to systems operators in regards to bringing water into the community and moving it throughout to end users. He also oversees some of the maintenance staff and some electrical operations.
For him, the most enjoyable part of the job was the satisfaction that “we accomplished our goal for the day, the week or the month, in that we delivered good quality water to our customers and we did the best job we could for them.”
One of his challenges when he became the superintendent was adjusting to the staff’s needs and day-to-day activities.
“Probably the biggest challenge was just making sure that all departments and all the staff is working well and have the same goal,” he said.
Brean said he has been spending quite a bit of time on the new pipeline along San Vicente Road as the current water main needs to be relocated in certain spots to accommodate for construction of the realigned roadway.
The pipeline project, he said, “is very much an operational challenge for us and coordinating how we’re going to keep water or how we’re going to keep the current pipeline in service as much as possible while the construction is going on. So there’s been a lot of coordination and dealing with that.”
Typically, Brean said, he meets with the San Vicente Road construction contractor once a week. Customers who have had to experience some short water shutdowns have been understanding, he said.
His retirement will not affect the pipeline coordination, Brean said, as district contract engineer Ricardo Soto is the project manager.
Another accomplishment during Brean’s watch was the Poway Pump Station Secondary Power Source. Completed in November 2014, the project added natural gas to operate the pumps that bring water up the hill to Ramona.
“There were plenty of players in that,” said Brean. “I think it’s a good idea. After the ’07 fire, one of the important things was to get that secondary source of power to provide the pumps to enable to run in the event of a power outage. That was something I was definitely looking forward to getting into place.”
Now, he’s looking forward to retirement and having some time for himself. Brean said he enjoys doing a lot of different things.
“But at the same time, you know, my wife’s going to have me do the household chores so I’m kind of looking forward to that,” he chuckled.
His wife, Melissa, has just gone back to work full time, Brean explained, so he will be taking care of household activities.
The Breans have two daughters: Brooke, 21, who attends Cal State San Marcos University, and Brenna, 18, a student at Grossmont College.
“They’re excited for me,” he said.
Asked whether he’ll miss anything about the job, Brean replied, “I’m going to miss the guys. And the challenges. I’ll definitely miss the guys.”
He’ll also miss the customers.
“When I say ‘customers,’ for me it’s just growing up in this town and just seeing people at the store...So everybody knows me: ‘Oh yeah, you’re the water guy.’”