City of Vacaville’s Utilities Department Shines at CWEA Redwood Empire Section Annual Awards Dinner
The City of Vacaville’s Utilities Department emerged victorious at the California Water Environment Association (CWEA) Redwood Empire Section Annual Awards dinner earlier this year. The Department received accolades in seven categories, showcasing their commitment to excellence in water management and environmental protection.
The Dr. Jenkins Research Achievement Award was conferred upon the Utilities staff and HDR Engineering, Inc. for their outstanding work on the chlorination improvements for the reduction of trihalomethanes project. This accolade acknowledges exceptional engineering research by individuals, groups, or agencies, highlighting the City of Vacaville’s commitment to innovative solutions in water treatment.
The Field Utilities/Collections team was honored with the Collections System of the Year award, with individual recognition going to Bill Moore, who was awarded Collections Person of the Year. These accolades showcase the team’s exemplary performance in managing and maintaining wastewater collections systems.
Justen Cole, Director of Utilities for the City of Vacaville, expressed his enthusiasm at the recognition.
“We are delighted to be recognized for several awards this year,” said Cole. “Our team has a collaborative spirit and dedication to teamwork that have elevated our collective achievements. Thank you to all of our award winners for their invaluable contributions.”
CWEA, with over 10,000 members statewide, is dedicated to empowering, educating, and connecting water professionals to protect public health and the environment. The Redwood Empire Section, of which the City of Vacaville is a member, proudly represents agencies in Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, and Solano counties.
Vallejo poet invited to nationally attended creative writing festival
The annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival returns to East Central University April 4-6, marking the 19th year the festival has taken place. Among the list of invited poets is Vallejo local, D.L. Lang.
Lang is an internationally published poet. Her work appears in over 60 anthologies globally. She has performed her poetry hundreds of times at festival, demonstrations, and literary events across California. She received proclamations from the California State Senate, California Arts Council, and Vallejo City Council for her service as poet laureate.
Her poems have been transformed into songs, used as liturgy, and to advocate for a better world. A winner of the 2023 Curbside Haiku contest, her haiku was displayed across downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma and archived at the Woody Guthrie Center. She also performed at the 2023 Woody Guthrie Folk Festival as a Woody Guthrie Poet. KPOO, KPFA, KALW, and KZCT have broadcast her poetry.
The three-day festival holds a rich history for not only ECU but for the hundreds of writers who have been featured over the years. The festival offers the opportunity for an array of well-known and up-and-coming writers from across the country to converge on the ECU campus and share their works with one another and an avid audience.
More than 70 published writers from Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, California and other states will be reading in 25 sessions during the 3-day event. The festival features former poet laureates, professors, graduate students, nurses, full-time authors and a wide variety of other professions.
Local Residents Named to Dean’s List at Biola University
Approximately 1,600 students were named to the Biola University Dean’s List in Fall 2023. Biola students are placed on the dean’s list to honor those with a GPA of 3.6 or higher while enrolled in 12 or more credits and whose cumulative GPA is at least 3.2.
The following local residents were named to the dean’s list:
- Amelia Bartlebaugh from Fairfield, majoring in Nursing.
- Isaiah Burton from Fairfield, majoring in Music Performance.
- Allison Cline from Vacaville, majoring in Biological Science.
- Sarah Cummings from Dixon, majoring in History.
- Stefanie Owens from Fairfield, majoring in Nursing.
- Mahri Tiemann from Suisun City, majoring in Comm Sciences Disorders.
- Caleb Wirth from Vacaville, majoring in Engineering.
- Hailey Wurzbach from Fairfield, majoring in Psychology.
- Tatum Wurzbach from Fairfield, majoring in Business Administration.
Biola University celebrated 116 years of impacting its surrounding communities this month by going back to its LA roots and serving the homeless community in downtown Los Angeles. Biola is a nationally ranked Christian university in the heart of Southern California. In a recently released study in the book Christian Higher Education: An Empirical Guide by Perry Glanzer, Biola scored the highest out of 570 Christian colleges and universities in North America for making Christian faith central to its identity, curriculum, community and policies.