Name: Leslie “Les” Gardner
System: Grand Isle Fire District 4
Job Title: Chief Operator
Les Gardner is retiring after nearly 40 years as a water operator.
Be advised that this interview contains mildly explicit language.
Tell us about your career in the water industry.
Les started operating Grand Isle Fire District 4 when the previous operator asked him to take over. Les agreed because it was close to where he lived and he only had to go in three days a week. He became a certified operator in the summer of 1987.
Les Gardner
Name: Leslie “Les” Gardner
System: Grand Isle Fire District 4
Job Title: Chief Operator
Les Gardner is retiring after nearly 40 years as a water operator.
Be advised that this interview contains mildly explicit language.
Les Gardner
Tell us about your career in the water industry.
Les started operating Grand Isle Fire District 4 when the previous operator asked him to take over. Les agreed because it was close to where he lived and he only had to go in three days a week. He became a certified operator in the summer of 1987.
But as time went by, the job became more demanding. “Things started getting more sophisticated and the next thing you know it was every day and sometimes two or three times a day, sometimes all day long you had a problem,” Les said. “A lot of problems over the years, when something in the system went wrong it would call me many nights. I’d get up in the middle of the night and get dressed and came down because there was nobody else to do it.”
Do you have a favorite story or memory?
Les has many funny stories from over the years. Here’s one:
“This woman called me and said her father had dirty water, so I went over to check his water. I looked outside first, and I didn’t see any leaks or anything which sometimes creates dirty water. I knocked on the door. The man came to the door and I said, ‘Your daughter called me and said you have dirty water?’
“He said, ‘Oh yes, it’s filthy.’
“He went to the cupboard and took a glass out, got some water, and I held it up to the window. The only way you could see the water in the glasses was where it ended on the top. The water was clear and there was nothing in there. I said, ‘Boy that don’t look very dirty.’
“He said, ‘Well… try that glass on the counter.’
“I picked the glass up, without even putting water in it, the glass was filthy as hell.
“He said, ‘That’s the one I use to take my pills.’
“I said, ‘Well change it once in a while, clean it once in a while, you won’t see the dirty water anymore.’”
What is your favorite part of the job? Least favorite?
Les said his favorite part of the job is “trying to figure out something new.” He likes “when you’re trying to do something different, [and] you got to do it half a dozen times before it turns out right.”
His least favorite part of the job is collecting water bills and telling people that if they don’t pay, he’ll have to shut their water off.
What’s your proudest moment of your career?
Les feels proud “When the board says, ‘We need to do this or that and the other thing,’ and I can sit there and say it’s already been done, that’s a good feeling.”
How have you seen the water industry change over the years?
Les said, “What sticks out the most as a hurdle is the online reporting.” He feels it is overly complicated.
This can be a hard job that gets little thanks. What kept you motivated?
Les says the job became part of his daily routine. “I get up in the morning, eat breakfast and all, [get] dressed up, go down there [to the treatment plant]. I’ve done it so long that it just don’t seem right to not go down, it’s just it’s the daily chore I guess you’d call it.”
Do you have any advice for new water operators?
“Do the best job you can. Don’t wait for something else to go wrong, get it fixed now. Call for help if it’s more than you can do. You’ll find that everybody’s happy with their water as long as they turn the faucet on and the water runs. The day they can’t get water out of that faucet, all hell breaks loose.”
How do you plan to spend your retirement?
“Helping Andy [Paradee, the new operator] any way I can and signing up for more classes to keep my certification. Even if I can’t do it physically, I’ll be there mentally.”
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Les had one more story to share:
“We had a leak up on Moccasin Ave. It was a homeowner’s leak behind the curb stop. So, we had to shut the water down on that line. I shut the water down, I fixed it.
“The next day when I came in, I had all kinds of water usage. Leaking out somewhere, so I said, ‘Well that must be the leak there but not showing yet.’
“I looked for it, went over the lines everywhere and I couldn’t find the leak nowhere. This is in the middle of winter, the lake was all froze over. I had my wife come down and watch the meter and I went and shut off all the ends. You know, shut off the end and call her and say, ‘How much water going?’ and she’d tell me, and you know it didn’t make any difference.
“About three days into the week I figured out in my sleep where the damn leak was. I got up the next morning and I told my wife I knew where it was. They had an old water system years ago and their pump house was a hole in the ground with cement blocks. They had hooked onto our system years before.
“When I come to the pump house, you could hear the water running through it. It wasn’t on our line, we didn’t really have a right to go there, so I called the people who owned it.
“The owner said, ‘If you fix that leak there, I’ll have water?’
“I said, ‘What do you mean? You don’t have water?’
“The owner said, ‘I haven’t had water since Monday.’
“I said, ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me?’
“The owner said, ‘Well, I could see you were busy. You were going back and forth, back and forth all the time so I knew you were busy.’
“I said, ‘I wouldn’t have been so busy if you called.’
“When we got into the old pump house, they had plugged the line with a wooden plug which had blown off and the water was running back into the lake. But it was frozen so you couldn’t see the water anywhere.”
Thank you, Les, and to all of Vermont’s water and wastewater heroes who perform essential services to protect the health and environment of our communities!
Do you know a Water Hero who should be featured here? Email info@vtruralwater.org