The Orange Water and Sewer Authority is advancing a new strategic plan to help guide its investments and priorities over the next five years — with the organization joining 97.9 The Hill to share details on its draft plan this week for “Wonderful Water.”
OWASA Strategic Initiatives Manager Mary Tiger said the water and sewer agency got “a lot of feedback” one year ago while organizing a community survey to gather information for the upcoming strategic plan.
“That initial scan was so important [because] we’re not coming up with strategic goals and initiative out of thin air,” said Tiger. “It was really founded in what the community was interested in, what the community needed and it was using that [survey] that we were able to identify larger-scale projects that you’ll see in the strategic plan.”
OWASA staff then took those responses and sifted through them to develop this draft plan with six strategic priorities. Tiger said one of them was evident in nearly every respondent to the survey: adapting to and preparing for climate change.
“OWASA’s operations affect the environment and we are also affected by the environment,” she said. “So, you’ll definitely see that show up in the strategic plan, and other ways that we’re impacting the environment. Water quality, land management — all have strong consideration in that plan.”
Updating the local government entity’s service to match with the growth of technology is another priority, according to Tiger, created in response to community feedback.
“There’s a lot of opportunity out there to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of what we’re doing,” she said. “But we also want to be really mindful as we’re identifying, evaluating and pursuing tech and innovation. We’re, first and foremost, doing that in a secure manner with cybersecurity and making sure we’re very cautious.”
The other strategic priorities in the draft plan are employee recruitment, retention, and development; equitable services; and service reliability and resiliency.
OWASA wants to continue to hear from the community even now, as the draft plan awaits a review and approval by its Board of Directors.
“It’s posted on our website at owasa.org,” said Tiger, “so I’d really encourage folks to check out the plan, to reach out with any questions. Or: attend the board meeting, if you’d like to speak to the board about the draft plan, because they’ll be slated to approve it.”
The OWASA Board of Directors will meet and consider the draft strategic plan on Thursday, September 8. It will be the first return to the OWASA Community Room in its Jones Ferry Road facility in more than two years.
You can listen to the full conversation below, and visit the Wonderful Water page here for more interviews and stories about the work OWASA does in our community.
Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents use roughly 7 million gallons of water a day, and “Wonderful Water” is a monthly conversation sponsored by the Orange Water and Sewer Authority highlighting its work to keep our community growing and water flowing.
