Wayne Nadasde, City of Kelowna Construction Supervisor, believes in keeping his crew current with the latest equipment and training. “I have a versatile crew and they are willing to learn. I put a lot of focus on training, and maintain an attitude that if I can’t learn something new every day, then I need to retire. I don’t have an endless training budget, so I look for quality training that fills a purpose.
Nadasde oversees a unique construction program in the City of Kelowna. When he began, like most cities, construction was running silo-style with divisions for water, sewage, drainage, etc. with differing in-house regulations and standards for each division. He had a different vision and helped make changes so that his crews run now as if they work for a successful construction company meeting the standards and expectations of the consultant/ contractor community. “We still tender work, but we do a portion of it ourselves every year. We function just like a contractor and our crews do it all: utilities, power, communications, cable, traffic systems, water, sewer, drainage, road works, curbs, sidewalks–property line to property line. We typically take on the projects that are very sensitive in terms of customer service, where construction causes a lot of closures, or water or power shut-downs. As city employees, our people are very sensitive to the public. We also tackle projects where an outside contractor might have to carry a lot of liability. We assume all the risk and do the project ourselves.