John Powell made the effort

It was a year ago when John Powell, attending a Walhalla City Council meeting, volunteered to call his alma mater to gauge interest in organizing a course to train future water plant operators.  He made the call to Tri-County County Technical College.  Unfortunately, Powell was told there’s just not enough interest among students who would enroll.  Walhalla has a new treatment plant, but city officials say they are worried that skilled treatment plant operators are either retiring or flocking to where they can draw higher pay.  And that’s leaving their city in a quandary.  During the height of COVID, utilities’ superintendent Scott Parris wore a protective mask to lessen the chance that the virus might afflict him at a time when he’d be forced to substitute for a plant operator.