Leadership class goes behind the scenes

There are many things people take for granted is what one member of the 2012 Leadership Jim Wells County Class said during the community profile session in January.
“We pass by the sewer and water plant and don’t think twice about what goes on there,” Jennifer McGwire said. “We just flush or open the water and take it for granted that these services are there.”
As part of the Community Profile session, the class visited the Homer Dean Water Treatment Plant, the Northeast Sewer Plant, CHRISTUS Spohn Alice and Covance Research.
Despite a cold northern wind, the first stop took the class outside to the Homer Dean Water Treatment Plant.
“I am a city employee and I did not know how or where the water for the city was processed,” Valerie Mejia said. “I see these guys come through my office but was not aware of what they did.”
The class was shown how the city water is treated, purified and tested as part of their stop.
After the water plant is was off across town to the Northeast Sewer Plant where Smiley Valverde met the class. The class walked around and saw how sewage is treated and processed.
“You don’t think about it when you flush at home,” Alessa Dominguez said. “This is really fascinating. In the country I am from you don’t see the cleanliness or the out-product. This was really amazing.”
Following their visit to the sewer plant it was off to CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital where Margot Rios and Steven Daniels provided an in depth look at the hospital with a very informative tour. The class was able to see parts of the hospital not normally seen by visitors to include the ICU, Heart Cath lab, the lab and the operating room.
“I thought Dr. Kamat was really informative and the way he talked about the heart cath lab,” Mauricio Gonzalez said. “To see Dr. Texieria still doing surgeries was equally impressive.”
After lunch, the class received an in-depth look inside Covance Research with Dr. Karyn Armstrong giving an overview of their services followed by a tour around the complex.
The class will reconvene on February 9th when the class travels to Austin to study state history and government.