I have the good fortune of representing Grande Water Management Systems for the state of Ohio. I’ve been working with Grande for almost 20 years. Over that time I’ve had the pleasure to work with Nick Grande, the owner and president of the company.
I enjoy working with Nick for many reasons, but the main reason is that he has a great passion for his work. I don’t know about you, but I think there’s no better person to work with than one that is passionate about what they do. You see his passion soon after meeting him. Nick’s an engineer, so every problem he hears about is an opportunity to provide a solution. You can practically see the number crunching taking place in his head as you’re talking to him.
Nick’s company specializes in designing and manufacturing equipment that helps to minimize combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and to lessen the impact they have on our rivers, streams, and lakes.
What got me thinking about Nick and writing this blog about his passion were photos I found on my phone of Nick the last time he was with me here in Ohio in early 2020. The photos are of Nick in a CSO storage basin working with collection systems operators. He was there to help them reconfigure and adjust equipment in the storage basin to improve its performance. It was a cold February day and Nick was harnessed up and down in the tank getting the job done. He wasn’t down there just giving directions. He was down there with a wrench in his hand showing how to properly install and adjust the equipment.
While the donuts and coffee brought to the site helped make it a little nicer, but they didn’t make any less frigid that morning.
This is not a rare occasion for Nick. This has been my experience with him for the past 18 years. He’s been down in a sewer helping a contractor correct the installation of a bending weir or out in a cold and muddy farm field helping a contractor install a flow regulator.
You have to care a lot about your job to endure these kinds of conditions to make sure the job is done right. This kind of passion is not unusual in the water and wastewater industry. It’s pretty typical for operators and maintenance crews to be called out in the worst conditions to correct a malfunction in the collection system or at the treatment plant. Look no further than what was taking place in Texas last week. Operators were out in single digit temperatures repairing broken water mains.
As an operator at a treatment plant, isn’t Nick the kind of person you want designing and manufacturing the equipment that goes into your collection system or treatment plant? His hands on, down in the trenches, work ethic means he knows what it’s like to work in the often inhospitable environments you work in. He’s going to make sure his equipment performs so you don’t have to go into those places on that cold wet night.
Contact me if you’d like to learn more about Nick, his company, my company, and the kind of solutions we can provide for your wet weather challenges.
Smith Environmental 