Water Association general manager retires
Long-time Greater Pine Island Water Association General Manager Bill Thacher has announced his retirement. The big day is June 29.
Originally from Fort Lauderdale, Thacher found his way to the water business almost by accident.
“I guess it was just fate,” Thacher said. “I’ve been working since I was 14 years old and after taking two weeks off after the Air Force, I found a job parking cars at a local country club. In order to make more tips I started to clean golf clubs, shine shoes and clean golf carts basically anything for tips.
“As fate would have it, the corporation that owned the country club built a water and sewer plant to support the country club,” he continued. “After it was built, their plant operators would use our gas pumps to fill their vehicles. Well, that gave me an opportunity to talk to them, and I found out that you only needed a high school diploma to work there.”
Thacher earned the necessary licenses and then a degree from Alabama.
“I was originally interested in public administration as a city manager or a county manager,” Thacher said. “And over the years I’ve had opportunities to become a city or county manager but decided that their ‘life expectancy’ was too short at just 3 or 4 years. When I did a study, I learned that utilities directors were in short supply and decided to follow that course.
“Once I changed my plans I began looking for a small water system I could manage,” Thacher said. “An opportunity turned up in the small city of Inverness, Fla.,” he added. “I managed to get my foot in the door as a utilities director and following that managed waste water with the city of Boca Raton and the water system with Broward County.”
After a number of years Thacher and his wife wanted to get back to Southwest Florida. When he learned about a job in this area, he responded with a resume.
“When I heard back, I didn’t know where Pine Island was and had to look it up on a map,” Thacher said. “There’s another Pine Island but in the listing it said ‘Bokeelia’ and I realized where they were talking about. I came down and visited for a few days and to me Pine Island had the same small town feel of Inverness. My wife and I decided to go for it but take a year to see if it would be a good fit.
“I arrived on Pine Island a month after 9-11,” Thacher said. “We rented a house in St. James City and then bought a house a year later. This was a great job until Hurricane Charley hit. Fortunately, I had experienced Hurricane David in Boca Raton.
“We evacuated the island and came back to find the roofs torn off both this building (administration) and the plant building,” Thacher said. “We had a trailer delivered and used that for administration. In short order we had the plant up and running so we could make water. But the lines out to Matlacha, St. James and Bokeelia were severely damaged. What happens is not damage from the rains, but the winds blowing over trees. Roots from the trees wrap around our pipes and when they go over the tear up the pipes.
“We got Matlacha back on line in about 2 days,” Thacher continued. “And all of St. James within 4 days but by then my crews were exhausted and we still had Bokeelia … which was totally destroyed we couldn’t get any water to Captain Cons. Going north everybody has these fish tables with maybe a 1/2-inch pipe. When the tables were blown over, the lines were pulled out so when we turned on the water it was just gushing out of those open lines. We were putting out three times as much water as the people were receiving.”
All in all the island was very fortunate thanks to FEMA funds.
“Those funds not only allowed us to make repairs but enabled us to make improvements,” Thacher said.
As to retirement, Thacher said he still has family in Citrus County.
“My family still resides in Citrus County and we are building a home there on a golf course,” Thachers said. “We both enjoy playing golf. We’re going to keep our house on Pine Island and use it as a base for Hurricane football season… I’m a Miami Hurricane fan and I’ve had season tickets forever. My wife and I have plans to attend every Hurricane game in every city they play in for a season. And we look forward to being involved in the community just like here.
“These 15 years on Pine Island have been great,” Thacher said. “Working here at the water company and being involved in our community has been a wonderful 15 years. This has been a very interesting career… but that’s enough.”
On May 5, Laurie Adams, the new general manager, begins her career at the Pine Island Water Association. Adams is relocating from Burlington, Vt., where she was assistant water quality director.