GREENFIELD — Nicholas Dezelan has spent the past few weeks getting his feet wet as Greenfield’s wastewater manager.
“Wet, but staying clean,” he joked.
Dezelan started as manager of the Greenfield Wastewater Department on May 6. He replaces David Scheiter, who retired earlier this spring after more than 30 years at the utility department.
Of the half a dozen people who interviewed for the position, Dezelan, 37, had the skills city officials sought in a manager, said Mike Fruth, director of Greenfield Utilities. Dezelan has helped operate dozens of wastewater plants across the state and has earned the highest wastewater license.
Dezelan, an Indiana University graduate in environmental management, previously worked at Astbury Water Technology in Indianapolis for the past 12½ years. The company contracts with Indiana municipalities to assist in operating and maintaining water and wastewater treatment plants.
Dezelan traveled the state visiting different cities and towns. Most recently, he had been the operator of record for the treatment plant in Cumberland. But the hands-on and day-to-day operations was wearing him down, Dezelan said, so he began looking for wastewater management positions with better set hours and little travel.
Dezelan also grew up in Greenfield, and his father and stepmother still live in town.
The last three weeks has been a learning experience, Dezelan said. As he gets accustomed to managing an entire city department, he’s been trying to absorb as much information as he can from the staff.
The treatment plant’s manager of 45 years, Paul “Eddie” Williams, is also retiring. Dezelan said he’s been “picking (Williams’) brain and learning about the different nuances and tricks” of the treatment plant.
Fruth said Dezelan has big shoes to fill with Scheiter’s retirement.
Scheiter started at the wastewater department 34 years ago as a plant maintenance worker and sledge truck driver. He next went to the lab and was later named wastewater manager in 1990. Fruth said Scheiter kept the plant in “excellent” shape and was innovative as a department head.
“He treated the plant basically almost like it was his own home,” Fruth said. “He’ll be missed.”
Scheiter created the employee apprentice program for the water and wastewater utilities, Fruth said. He also initiated a sewer rehabilitation program that replaced sewer laterals throughout the city after the wastewater department absorbed the sewer department in 1997. Scheiter said most cities and towns in the state are just now starting to rehab sewer infrastructure.
“To get that done and being ahead of our time, I think that was one of my proudest things that we did,” Scheiter said.
Scheiter said he most enjoyed working with former coworkers at the treatment plant and at city hall.
“They have a tough job that a lot of people wouldn’t think of doing,” he said about plant employees.
In the next few years, officials are also planning to upgrade and expand the treatment plant, Fruth said. The plant needs efficiency and safety improvements, he said, which could cost about $1 million.
