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Posts for John W. Carpita, PE

Can You Keep Yourself in Ice Cubes? – Water and Sewer Affordability

February 23, 2017  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Water Utilities

Water and sewer utility bills are increasing statewide as cities, counties, and water/sewer districts replace aging infrastructure, increase their resiliency, and comply with new rules. This post considers the impact this may have on utility bills across the state.

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Smarter, Safer Roads by Design

November 8, 2016  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Streets and Sidewalks

This post looks at how "smart roads" of the future might impact how local and state agencies design roads and traffic management systems.

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Capturing O&M Knowledge and Expertise from (Soon-to-be) Retirees

March 14, 2016  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Administration

Some advice from local government public works leaders on what types of strategies to use to help ensure a smooth transition as employees retire.

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4 Things You Should Know About Asset Management

January 28, 2016  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Administration ,  Asset Management

Many jurisdictions feel that AM is too hard for them. But in this blogt we explain how AM can be a fantastic tool for any size jurisdiction and doesn’t take a huge investment to get going.

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Do Prevailing Wages Always Prevail? Lessons Learned from our Recent Webinar

December 15, 2015  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Purchasing and Contracting

This blog post highlights some key takeaways from a 2015 MRSC webinar on prevailing wages.

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Legislature Tweaks Contracting Statutes

June 8, 2015  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Purchasing and Contracting

An overview of the important changes to contracting statutes from the 2015 legislative session that affect local governments.

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Filling Gaps in your City’s Streetscape

April 23, 2015  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Streets and Sidewalks

How can cities or towns orchestrate streetscape retrofits adjacent to undeveloped lots so that the improvements are installed in a manner that is cost-effective and not haphazard?

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Important Tips for Writing Your Agency’s Procurement Policies

January 29, 2015  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Purchasing and Contracting

Adherence to an agency-wide procurement policy/procedure manual is critical to combat irregularities in purchasing and bidding and maintain public trust. If your agency doesn’t yet have a procurement manual, or if you’re looking to give yours a refresher, I’ve put together a few tips in checklist form to help you get started.

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Tacoma's Murray Morgan Bridge, courtesy of Scott Hingst.

The Case for Asset Management in Public Works

September 11, 2014  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Administration

This is a guest post from Toby Rickman, 2014 APWA-WA President, and Deputy Director of Public Works for Pierce County.  This post is adapted from an article in APWA-WA's latest issue of PUBLICworks Magazine.

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What’s in Your Water Mains?

July 23, 2014  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Water Utilities

An article in the April 2014 AWWA Opflow magazine caught my eye, particularly as the City of Longview is featured. The article is entitled: “The New Ice Age: Pigging Effectively Cleans Water and Wastewater Pipelines." First of all, what is a “pig”? For eons, it seems, utilities of all sort have been cleaning the insides of their pipelines with rubber and metal tools of varying degrees of...

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Doesn’t That Just Get Your Goat!

April 21, 2014  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Administration

Once in a while. I get a research request that appeals to my (admittedly) wry sense of humor. Many of you, I am sure, have heard of goats being used for vegetation (weed) control. Probably some of you have even...

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Chameleon Contractors

March 5, 2014  by  John W. Carpita, PE
Category:  Administration

I recently received a research request involving a contractor who was operating under several names, which in itself is not a bad thing, but in this instance at least one of those "aliases" was an obvious attempt to cover up a bad reputation as another company.  MRSC and the agency's attorney had discussions about how to develop supplemental bidder responsibility criteria to address this issue. ...

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