FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11/19/2002

CONTACT: Bob Schettler (760) 482-9609

EL CENTRO - The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors honored employees Ronnie Jones and Manuel Cruz as the December 2002 Team of the Month at its meeting Tuesday.

Jones, heavy equipment supervisor, and Cruz, heavy equipment assistant supervisor, devised a plan that is expected to save the District more than $250,000 next year by replacing large pickup trucks, used at construction sites, with smaller models.

A number of one-ton pickup trucks have been used by the District to transport large bucket attachments required for heavy excavator work. The team found that by reorganizing and tightening the heavy equipment schedule, and by permanently assigning two excavators to construction duty, the need for the bucket attachments to be transported by the one-ton pickup trucks could be eliminated.

For 2003, the savings are projected through the replacement of 12 one-ton pickup trucks with ½-ton models. The District has about 25 one-ton pickup trucks.

"This is an efficiency for 2003," said Mario Escalera, general superintendent, construction & maintenance, Water Department. "But as time goes on, more savings are possible as more one-ton trucks will be replaced with ½-tons."

As a result, the team has improved the overall planning and scheduling of all heavy equipment. The new replacement ½-ton pickups will be assigned to high-mileage users in the Water Department, and the remaining low-mileage pickups will be routed to the heavy equipment operators.

Ultimately, the need for one-ton pickups in the future has been eliminated, Escalera said.

The efficiency measure is a result of the team making a careful evaluation of the section's equipment needs, he added. In fact, over the last two years, Jones and Cruz have been rotating construction equipment to increase efficiency.

"These men should be recognized for their exemplary foresight and vision," Escalera said. "They have demonstrated the type of positive leadership found throughout IID."