Photo by Cindy Votruba Larry Polfliet talks about a camera used by the Marshall Wastewater Facility that runs down sewer lines to inspect for problems.

MARSHALL — When Larry Polfliet saw the city of Marshall had a job opening back in 1989, he thought he’d give it a shot.

Little did he know that 30 years later he’d still be working for the city. He was recently named the City of Marshall 2018 Employee of the Year. The annual award recognizes an outstanding city of Marshall employee who demonstrates creativity, exemplary performance, provides exceptional contributions and models excellent service to the city’s residents.

Polfliet graduated from high school in 1976 and entered the Marine Corps. He got out of the Marines in 1981 and went to vo-tech in Canby for diesel mechanics. He worked for an International dealership for seven-and-a-half years before an opportunity arose with the city of Marshall.

“They were looking for someone who had mechanical skills and was willing to learn the trade of wastewater,” Polfliet said.

He started with the city in March 1989 as a wastewater treatment operator and then became lift station operator in 1990.

Polfliet said Bob VanMoer, the current superintendent of the Marshall Wastewater Treatment Facility, taught him how to take care of the lift stations, both sanitary and sewer.

“We also did the industrial sampling,” Polfliet said.

“It wasn’t too many years later we started what is called a collection crew,” Polfliet said. “They bring all the wastewater to the treatment facility.”

Polfliet became the collection system assistant superintendent in May 2003.

“We are also in charge of the stormwater, making sure all the storm sewers are working correctly, to make sure stormwater gets to the holding ponds or to the river.”

Polfliet said the collection system today includes 13 lift stations — two are storm and 11 are sanitary.

And as of April 2018, the city has 1,353 sanitary manholes and several hundred storm manholes and catch basins.

The facility runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Around 3 million gallons of wastewater come through the plant daily. Polfliet said there are miles of underground sanitary and storm pipes the vary in size; the storm can be 8 inches to 48 inches and the sanitary are 6-inch up to 32 inches.

“It keeps us busy,” Polfliet said of the sanitary and storm water systems, keeping them serviced, cleaned and repaired when needed. “We do all our own maintenance.” Polfliet said there’s a lot of

As the assistant supervisor, Polfliet has three operators who work with him as a team.

Polfliet said they’re always looking for new and better ways of doing things for the city and for the wastewater facility. According to a news release from the city, recently Polfliet led the research and implementation in new biosolids application dragline equipment that was a new way of applying the wastewater biosolids to farm fields for beneficial use as a fertilizer. This process has led to not only a reduction of staff time and savings to the city in equipment operations, it also led to safer and better working conditions.

Polfliet said there’s daily chores, such as sampling their industry, checking lifts, and as of this year, filling in with the city shop for snow removal.

“We’ve done that before,” Polfliet said of helping out with snow removal.

There’s 13 full-time employees at the wastewater facility, Polfliet said. “Variety is huge here,” he said. He said tasks include mechanical work to fabrication, televising, where a TV camera is run underground, new projects, troubleshooting and satisfying their permit regulations.

Polfliet said he’s seen a lot of changes throughout the years.

“It’s been a good run for me so far,” he said. “I’m blessed with the guys I’ve been working with.”

He also earned the Minnesota Wastewater Operators Association 2018 Class 5C Operations Award. The award is for outstanding operation of the city of Marshall’s sanitary sewer collection system for the past year.

When he was at city’s Employee Recognition event earlier this year, Polfliet said he remembered Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson describing the person who was getting Employee of the Year.

“I was floored, when she announced my name, it was nuts,” Polfliet said. He said it was “very humbling” to receive the award, and it occurred to him that he didn’t get it by himself. He made sure he thanked everybody who had been there for him, the guys from all the departments who helped him and those he works with at the wastewater plant.

“To achieve that award with a lot of awesome employees the city of Marshall has…I want to thank everybody involved in making it happen for me,” Polfliet said.

“It’s a great place to work” Polfliet said of the wastewater treatment facility. “It’s been pretty darned good.” He said he loves his work, and they get challenged quite a bit.

“The job itself has been a good challenge for me,” he said.