[Music] from tackling flood risks to enhancing infrastructure Ross bitner's work has a lasting impact on Idina recently the American public works association's Minnesota chapter named Ross Bitner the city's Engineering Services manager Public Works manager of the year with 12 years of service to the city he's been recognized for his dedication and innovative solutions Edina TV takes a closer look at how bitner's efforts continue to improve life in our community this is the first of its kind in Minnesota Weber Park is home to a large pond popular with four pod here's a whole bunch of ducks and feathered visitors the duck was trying to get up on the ice here and then here's a whole bunch of ducks but this Pond is also doing important work we just had a a storm a few days back and the Pond paused its normal pump down process so it's actually holding water about a foot higher than normal right now this is called smart infrastructure and it can prevent damaging floods in the Morningside neighborhood it makes a forecast of how much water is going to be coming and then it'll actually pump down ahead of time the Morningside flood infrastructure project was named environmental project of the Year by the American public works Association Minnesota chapter we're just over a thousand members primarily engineer uh working for cities the counties and States it also selected Engineering Services manager Ross Bitner as manager of the Year Ross is just a fantastic guy really committed to the industry not just within the city of udina but the entire industry advocating for storm water type projects environmental improvements um just to make sure that he leaves his position and leaves the community in a better place than when he started none of the work really happens alone you know it's fun to work on uh these teams and with the spirit of Public Service uh driving us what we do is really make sure that you know normal happens every day in a community work that often goes unrecognized so the apwa celebrates projects that are making a difference and the people who make it happen it's easy to push the processes that were in place before you uh Ross doesn't do that he's willing to dive into the details talk about what works what doesn't and really push some of these initiatives that we need to a lot of times they're hard expensive create a lot more work but they do leave the world in a better place than when he started Bitner says for those entering the engineering field working in the public sector comes with lasting rewards what we build uh is here on the landscape and our successes and our failures are right there in front of the community so when you really get a project that's a hit that uh connects with what what the community wants um you know you couldn't take this away from people because uh it's really uh it's knit into the fabric and in a community built largely during the post World War II boom years there's a lot more work to do we want this community be thriving you know 20 or 50 years hence so uh we we have a lot to do but uh yeah it's a it's for a good purpose and uh it's about keeping the community strong I'm Dan Carpenter for ad TV the city estimates the now completed Morningside flood infrastructure project avoids $150,000 per year in Damages