Donohue was honored as Kenosha Water Utility’s (KWU) 2017 Outstanding Support Organization at their recent annual service recognition banquet. Donohue is only the fourth non-city entity to receive this award in the banquet’s 57-year history.
The award recognizes a partnership that began over 15 years ago when Donohue performed a screening evaluation at the Utility’s wastewater treatment plant. Since then, Donohue has worked on a number of projects for the Utility, including a sludge building upgrade, phosphorus study, structural analysis at the equalization basin, Focus-On-Energy grant application, a headworks upgrade, BOD analysis, and the energy optimized resource recovery system project.
During the awards ceremony, General Manager Ed St. Peter remarked, “The employees at Donohue have a lot of experience and are very intelligent, but on top of that they are great-natured individuals that are open, honest, down-to-earth, easy to understand, and genuinely care about the results that they are giving you. They follow up with questions regarding the projects and how things turned out. Our staff was really impressed with the results of these projects. Not only did they do what they were hired to do, but they kept our interests first and foremost throughout the projects. They didn’t just work for us, they were our partners.”
Earlier this year, KWU, Kenosha-based Centrisys Corp., and Donohue received ACEC Wisconsin’s Grand Award for their efforts on the energy optimized resource recovery project. This prestigious award recognizes one project that represents the highest degree of technical innovation, client satisfaction, and contributions to the engineering industry. The new facilities have reduced energy and solids handling costs 20%, reduced dependence on fossil fuel energy by 40%, removed 10,000 tons annually from landfills, and produces a Class A biosolids product that allows for the annual reuse of 500 tons of nitrogen and 250 tons of phosphorus.
Donohue personnel have also volunteered their time with Kenosha’s Dream Playground and traveled to Guatemala with KWU personnel to build water infrastructure as part of the Wisconsin Water for the World organization.
Craig Brunner, President of Donohue, remarked, “We are honored to be selected by the Kenosha Water Utility. They are an outstanding organization that truly cares for its employees. We look forward to continuing our partnership and providing the same level of client-centered service as we have done in the past.”