THOMASVILLE — When a Florida utility needed help meeting its growing customer needs, a Thomasville company was ready to go.

The work on the Jacksonville Electric Authority’s (JEA) Blacks Ford project not only helped the utility provide service to customers in St. Johns County, it also led to Thomasville’s Davco, an Evoqua brand, earning an award from Water & Wastes Digest for its 2017 Top Projects, as selected by the magazine’s staff. Awards for the top 10 water and wastewater projects and five industrial projects were presented Oct. 2 in Chicago.

Davco built a 600,000 gallon per day wastewater treatment facility, needing 109 fair weather days to complete the work.

“Everything just seemed to go smoothly,” said site construction manager David Collins. 

JEA was designing a plant expansion to handle the subdivision and the growth, said project sales manager Earl Griner. 

“But it was going to take them two years to get it designed,” he said. “They needed some extra capacity. They had to have this up and running so they could have the new houses on line.”

“With a quick turnaround,” added Wilson. “They are building subdivisions left and right around the plant.”

So Davco designed and constructed the smaller plant that could be used quickly. The plant itself has a life span of more than 50 years and once the larger facility is built, projected to be 2 million gallons per day, the Blacks Ford plant can be relocated to another spot where JEA needs it.

“This plant can be cut down and moved to another place,” Wilson said. 

As the general contractor, Davco supplied all the materials and installation. The company used both new and refurbished equipment at the five-stage biological nutrient removal treatment system.

While Davco didn’t clear the land for the small plant, the company did the rest of the ground work and poured the slabs, along with manufacturing the parts of the facility.

There was an average of four to five people working on the site each day but on the day of the concrete pour, there were about 25 people, Wilson said. Work on the pour started in the wee hours of the morning, not long after midnight, to avoid traffic and northeast Florida heat. 

JEA has been a frequent customer of the company’s.

“They like our work,” said Harry Bryant, business director for Davco.

Evoqua finished its work August 30, 2016, and winning the award was a welcome prize for the company.

“To me, it’s about providing a customer solution, which in turns provides employment for our employees,” Bryant said. “It gives us the ability to recognize employees for the work they did, whether it be from an execution standpoint or from a process standpoint. It was a successful project, but we’re moving on to the next one — and not forgetting that one. Winning the award helps us not forget what these guys have done.”

Bryant and Joey Herndon also said the award, and the company’s work, speak to the stature of the firm.

“I think reputation is everything in today’s market,” Bryant said. “We’re about service after the sale. And that’s how we maintain our reputation. The customer can call us back two or three years later and we will treat them as if they were giving us an opportunity for a new sale. Our reputation is we do what we say we’re going to do. In today’s world, I don’t know that’s prevalent.”

Said Herndon, “Reputation is paramount in our business.”

While the company doesn’t get such recognition for every project, Herndon said the same effort and pride goes into each order.

“An award like this stops us and reminds us of the dedication, reputation abilities, talents, all the things that go into making a project successful,” he said. “That’s what this award has done for us. Plus, it kind of boasts us a little bit to us our competitors and everyone else in the market.”

There were more than 800 entries for Water & Wastes Digest’s consideration, so the Top Project award also means something else to the company.

“It gives us bragging rights,” Bryant said.