For the initial Blair County Historical Society’s 2024 speaker series, Mark Glenn, President, Gwin, Dobson, & Foreman, presented “The Horseshoe Curve Reservoirs – The Making Of An American Water Landmark” at the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum. The presentation was based on his research for the 2017 AWWA American Water Landmark Award.

Jericho Hilling, construction engineer for Gwin, Dobson & Foreman’s projects for Pennsylvania-American Water Company in the Pittsburgh region, is sworn in as a volunteer with the Oakmont Volunteer Fire Department. Jericho is pictured here at the swearing in ceremony with Oakmont Borough Mayor, Sophia Facaros.

Bellwood Dam improvements include an intake tower and labyrinth weir spillway, as seen below. To the right is the existing spillway, which will be demolished after the project’s completion.

Thanks to these Gwin, Dobson & Foreman volunteers for helping to pack food for the Altoona Mountain Lion Backpack Program. Each week, Altoona’s nonprofit backpack program packs food for over 1,200 Altoona area elementary school children. The food packs are then taken to city schools where they are distributed to program-eligible children who might otherwise have no or little food on weekends. The Altoona Mountain Lion Backpack Program is not government funded and relies solely on donations.

Contractors recently completed the Alexandria water project which included 40,000 ft. of waterline replacement, water treatment plant renovations, Robinson Run intake dam upgrades, installation of 400 smart meters and a new storage tank. Pennvest provided project funding to the Alexandria Borough Water Authority consisting of a $5.8 million low-interest loan and $7.3 million grant.  

John Walter was GD&F’s construction inspection under the direction of Bob Lechner, Construction Operations Director. Matt Orner, Senior Project Manager, ensured that all project goals were achieved including timely completion, budget compliance and system functionality. 

Matt recently completed twenty-five years at GDF and has been responsible for many large infrastructure projects in the region.

Jim Balliet of Gwin, Dobson & Foreman Engineers was recently awarded the Guy E. Shaffer Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Pennsylvania Rural Water Association. 

The award is in recognition of Jim’s technical accomplishments in advancing the functional use of water and wastewater treatment technologies and his dedication to training and educating managers and plant operators at PRWA conferences and continuing education events.  

GD&F President, Mark Glenn, noted that “early on, Jim Balliet became an authority on water treatment technologies. He has since led our environmental team in pioneering the use of membrane filtration, ozone treatment, and coagulation chemistry refinement using zeta-potential, among others. We congratulate Jim on being awarded this prestigious honor in recognition of his technical expertise and for the training, guidance and support of plant operators and system managers over the last 33 years.”

Photo: GD&F’s Jim Balliet with Joel Jordan, Director of Education, PA Rural Water Association 

Work proceeds as beams and bridge go up on the Bellwood, PA Dam safety project.

The Borough of Hopewell has been awarded a supplemental PENNVEST $1.5 million grant and a $44,110 low-interest loan to replace its existing wastewater treatment plant with an extended aeration process. In addition to $2 million in CDBG funding, the $3.57 million project is funded almost entirely by grants.

Maggie Weitzel, Gwin, Dobson & Foreman’s consulting project engineer, said, “It’s the best case scenario for the borough. We’ve been working hard to get this money.” The project will resolve current violations of effluent quality and will eliminate discharge violations that negatively impact water quality in the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River.

Once Hopewell officials and the Bedford County Commissioners formally accept the funding package, Weitzel said the project is “ready to go.”