PROJECT SUMMARY
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection mandated that a requirement for water and wastewater operators' license renewal, a series of continuing education unites or credits would be necessary. This mandate was viewed as significant in as much as each operator found it necessary to schedule time to attend classes and tender payment for the credits. In the North Florida area there are few facilities that provide this training at any cost, and in the immediate area the facilities that do provide this training have costs for classes that are prohibitive; and with the additional travel and lodging costs the total expenditure makes the securing of these credits a significant item in the budgets of the municipalities and private operators, alike. The costs were significant enough that our project at Live Oak, Florida began to seek partnerships with providers in order to mitigate some of the expense of complying with the department's rule.

Lake City Community College, a public institution, was under-utilized and desirous of providing community education, but did not have the required instructors for the training classes. OMI-Live Oak, Florida had several operators that required the credits, and OMI had operators with teaching/training expertise. Live Oak also had budget constraints and limitations that placed financial pressure on the project. OMI-Live Oak forged a contractual partnership with Lake City Community College to provide the necessary unites to operators not only in Live Oak, but to operators from Pensacola to Fort Myers. Lake City Community College secured needed utilization and cash, and OMI-Live Oak and all operators in the North Florida region received the required continuing education credits. Each organization benefited to the extent that the partnership in an ongoing program.

This partnership was a resounding success, and the program is viable with additional seminars scheduled utilizing the facilities, technology and resources of Lake City Community College, and utilizing the expertise of OMI operators and management. This partnership is a symbiotic relationship with each organization benefiting from the contractual arrangement. Additional educational and training partnerships between OMI and Lake City Community College are in the planning stages.

The Live Oak water and wastewater treatment plant operators are employed by OMI, and these operators operate the treatment plants for the City of Live Oak under the contract terms between the City and OMI. OMI and Lake City Community College entered into an agreement to offer continuing education units (CEUs) for the operators at the treatment plant facilities. These CEUs are required by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for operator licensure renewal. This rule is new to the state of Florida, and the licensure renewal cycle that ended April 30, 2003 is the first renewal cycle that required the CEUs.

Most municipal budgets had not addressed this added expense, and the North Florida area is painfully deficient in providing these required classes. Therefore, the cost of the continuing education classes and the travel required to attend these classes are a significant line item in the budgeting process. Lake City Community College, Florida Rural Water Association and Florida Water and Pollution Control Association, and OMI-Live Oak partnered to provide the necessary training at an affordable cost to the area municipalities and operators. The contract between the individual groups dictated that the college provide the facility, technology to produce the classes and collect the monies and enroll the applicants in the training. Florida Rural Water Association and Florida Water and Pollution Control Association provided the mailing lists of operators requiring CEU training, and they provided the conduit for awarding the CEU credit to the operators. OMI provided the instruction and the instructors for the programs, and OMI pledged the critical number of trainees required to that endeavor could be scheduled by the college.

This financial commitment and program commitment was necessary to that each entity could accomplish their task; a task that was not able to be a reality singularly, but became a resounding success in achieving the stated goals of the partnership. The college enjoyed financial gain and the utilization of the facilities which are important in these times of reduced state funding for education.

OMI-Live Oak, along with many other municipalities and private operators, gained the required CEU training and a convenient time and location, and they gained the credits at an affordable cost. This partnership is ongoing, and it provides a great service to the North Florida area, which is mostly rural when compared to the remainder of the state. Also, this partnership has grown into a certification program for operators of water and wastewater treatment facilities, and the partnership has grown into an environmental studies program at Lake City Community College providing trained personnel to operate the treatment plants in the region. OMI continues to be intimately involved in this course of training. The OMI-Live Oak project was able to realize a savings of about $8,000 for the City in CEU training expenses, and OMI has benefited from the training opportunities by employing trained personnel from the college program.

This contractual arrangement allowed a mandated requirement by the Department of Environmental Protection for water and wastewater treatment plant operators to earn CEUs in order to renew their license to be offered at a greatly discounted cost to the operators and the municipalities. The arrangement allowed the credits to be offered more efficiently, and at the same time Lake City Community College received much needed utilization of the facility. OMI-Live Oak was able to obtain the training necessary for the operators' licensure renewal at an affordable and convenient cost to the City, OMI's customer. Moreover, the program was enormously successful resulting in operators attending from all over the state due to the discounted costs for the training that this public-private partnership provided.