Meet Sue Vest, serving FCLWD for more than three decades
The District turns 60
This year the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District (FCLWD) turns 60 years old. That’s a lot of water! We think marking six decades of service warrants a bit of celebration. After all, it’s not every day that you turn 60!
Throughout the course of 2021, we will be honoring and celebrating the men and women who have helped us reach this milestone. The FCLWD could have never made it to this place without the amazing individuals who call this place home.
We are proud to highlight some of those longstanding hard workers this year as we remember the past 60 years of service and look forward to the future of providing water to our community.
Without further ado, we would like you to meet our good friend Sue Vest, who has been with FCLWD for more than half of that 60 years! Sue has seen many changes and has worked in many different positions in her tenure. We are proud that she is kicking off this new 60-year celebration series.
Meet Sue
Sue Vest has worked at the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District for 31 years. When she started working at FCLWD, President George H. W. Bush was in office and “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice ruled the radio waves.
After graduating from Aims Community College with an associate degree in Architectural Engineering in 1989, Sue applied for a job offering that the District had advertised in the Coloradoan. She was hired as a temporary employee on January 8, 1990.
Sue started by working as a temp for two years before she was hired on as a full-time employee. In her more than three decades with the District, Sue has watched FCLWD grow, right along with Fort Collins, in ways she could have never imagined. She started as a draftsperson with positions over the years including pretreatment coordinator, project reviewer and CAD technician.
So what has been the most significant change that Sue has seen happen during her long tenure with the District? That’s easy for her to answer, – the growth! In the past 30 plus years, Fort Collins and the FCLWD have seen massive growth as more and more people move to Northern Colorado.
From Sue’s perspective, the District has managed to grow from a small water supplier to serving thousands of customers. Through it all, the District has been keeping up with the changing industry and technology. The population boom across the Front Range and Northern Colorado into Fort Collins has placed FCLWD on a trajectory for growth that many would have never even imagined 60 years ago.
Sue notes that the District’s employees have always put the customer first, from customer service to engineering to operations. FCLWD staff have been and will be here to serve the public. Always.
Looking ahead
What should customers know about how the District is preparing for the future? Sue states that the District is committed to assuring there is water to support future growth through many different avenues. As the population continues to grow and the demand for high-quality, reliable drinking water only increases, the FCLWD wants to ensure it will be here for the next 60 years and beyond to meet those needs.
During her time with the District, Sue has seen big impacts on the value of water. The District not only supplies water to support local customers and regional growth, but it continues that supply through droughts, wildfires and other natural events that place demands on the water supply.
While Sue has participated in many projects over the years at FCLWD, the one she is most proud of is the mapping work she has done. Sue has been involved in mapping, which involves creating maps of the 60-square-miles within the boundaries that comprise the District, since she started. It has been an honor for her to see how GIS mapping has progressed from paper to digital creations.
It has been an adventurous journey for Sue, full of good times and difficult times. Through it all, the FCLWD staff has come together as a team, even during challenges like the pandemic this past year. She has made new friends and helped plant a Garden In A Box at the office – twice. Sue helped organize trash pickup in the Red Tail Ridge Open Space one summer and she always enjoys the District’s BBQs. Over the years, Sue has participated in projects that have taken her out of her comfort zone – creating growth for herself and the District.
As we reflect on the 60-year anniversary of the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District, Sue summarizes what FCLWD means to her, “The District is not just a place of work but home to me.”
