Page 11 - Jan-Feb 2021 Vol 38 No 6

Frank Kirk Meritorious Service Award
Michael Marino, Jacobs Engineering

Mike Marino currently is the area manager in the Jacobs Engineering
Chattanooga office, and the program manager of the City of Chattanooga
Sewer System Consent Decree Program. He has more than 25 years of
consulting, management, and project engineering experience. Marino
earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University and MS in
Environmental Engineering from Mississippi State University. Over the last
ten years, he has provided continuous service to the City of Chattanooga as
a program manager and project manager for various projects, all relating to
solving the sanitary sewer overflow abatement. Marino was instrumental in
negotiating the City’s Consent decree with the EPA, and continues to guide the
city in execution of the CD as the program manager. As program manager, he
works across many departments in the City of Chattanooga and other public
utilities, and has created strong working relationships and rapport with all the
department leaders and staff with whom he regularly interfaces. On a personal
note, he enjoys traveling and exploring the world on his time off, spending
quality time with his wife Ruth and daughter Melanie, who is enrolled in her
second year of college.

Tennessee Chapter Award of Merit
Jamie Edwards, City of Knoxville Equipment Operator 3

Jamie Edwards has been with the City of Knoxville’s Public Service
Department for 25 years doing various equipment operator duties. He has held
many operator positions including, but not limited to, tractor operator and
knuckleboom operator, and has a gift of being able to operate anything put
in front of him. He always competes in the local and state Equipment Rodeo
and has won many first, second and third finishes. Edwards always has been
the employee to show up on time, work hard at any task he is given, and see
that every job is completed correctly. With his knowledge and experience, he
always has provided excellent service to the residents of Knoxville.

Charles Walter Nichols Award
Charlie Thomas, Knoxville

Charlie Thomas has been an exemplary employee with the City of Knoxville
for nearly 12 years. He left the private sector and began with the city as a
household hazardous waste (HHW) technician for three years, then served
as the city’s risk manager for three years. He currently is manager at the city’s
solid waste management facility (SWMF). Thomas treats every employee with
respect and holds them to the highest standards. The solid waste management
facility has never looked better or operated more smoothly than under his
leadership.
He meets every challenge head-on. Thomas continues to receive kudos from
the public regarding the employees as well as the facilities – this alone is a
testament to his staff and management style, as people must be really impressed
to compliment a waste management facility! The City of Knoxville SWMF
houses a flagship HHW facility, one of only four permanent HHW facilities in
Tennessee. Because Knoxville’s HHW program is run so well, the city was invited
to apply for state funding to expand the facility, including the addition of a
mobile collection vehicle. Thomas enthusiastically accepted the opportunity, and
the program received the funding. He has helped oversee a significant on-site
expansion, all the while continuing normal operations at HHW and the facility
as a whole. The expansion began in early summer 2018 and was completed in
late 2018. A mobile HHW truck was purchased and outfitted to collect waste off-
site and bring back to the facility for processing. Thomas is a figurehead at the
facility as well as a good sport – he is featured on the custom wrap for the truck.
He has taken a function transfer station from seven years ago and turned it into a
jewel of a facility that the City of Knoxville is proud to run.

View online at tnpublicworks.com 11