County of Berks Facilities and Operations

Rex Levengood, Facilities and Operations Director for the County of Berks, and Josh Williams, Projects and Operations Manager, discuss their respective jobs with Berks County Commissioner Michael Rivera.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to County Connections. I'm Commissioner Michael Rivera. Today I have two special guests with me today that we're going to talk about important things that happen in the county. So just think about this. The county has 133 different structures, be it buildings, be it garages, sheds, whatever, different facilities, 133. The county has different parks. The county has one road, which is County Welfare Road, up in the Leesport area. But the county has many different physical assets. And the question is who takes care of all of these and how does that happen? So today I have two special guests with me who are going to talk to us about that. I have Rex Levingood, who is the director of facilities and operations for the county, and Josh Williams, who is the projects and operations manager. And they're going to give us an inside look as to the different properties that the county has, how they manage them, what they do with them, and different projects that are going on in those different areas here throughout the county. So, Rex, Josh, thank you for joining me. Thanks for having us. Okay. So, director of facilities and operations, Rex.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

What does your department do? Because it's not just about the 133 uh assets or the parks and other physical properties that the county has. So tell me a little bit about what your department does.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Sure. Um, well, every day is different. You may come in with a game plan uh nine out of ten times that changes depending on um unexpected circumstances that come up. Uh we pretty much touch every single department within the county. Um we have administrative oversight. Uh we have uh I have 11 managers, um 133 staff members that that help in overseeing uh the assets and uh of these buildings and the asset management of these buildings, the uh improvement uh replacement strategies, um the budget and capital and contracted uh planning that goes along with uh maintaining these buildings. Um I think somebody figured out there's over two million square foot of property within those 133 um buildings. But I guess at the end of the day, what we do is maintain the health, safety, and welfare of county employees and and citizens.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

So there's a lot that goes into what you do because you also, when the doors close, you have a cleaning crew that comes in as well to the courthouse, uh, to the services center, to other properties as well. Uh on for the elections, your department also delivers the uh equipment, picks up the equipment, takes it back to election services. So there's a number of things that that your department does to make sure that things are running uh for the county.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Yeah, we're we do a lot behind the scenes, um, you know, and that's you know usually what you want to hear when everything's running smoothly, you don't know about it. But we're you know, um we do as much preventive maintenance, you know, foresight as we can, but there's always some issues that come up. But one of the most satisfying things about how I feel and uh all of our managers do is being able to help and assist uh uh people through those those uh situations. We are a 24-7 uh essential um operation. Uh we have three shifts in different not all locations, but in in a lot of the different locations. Uh our department also oversees the fleet of the county. Um we have 160, around 160 vehicles in our fleet. Um we also oversee the bridges uh uh within the county, and that's also in conjunction with uh our planning department. Also oversee capital projects, so we have a lot of major and minor, uh, but we have a lot of capital projects uh moving forward to to uh you know meet the needs of our you know community and um you know the services that we provide for our community, uh you know the community gets larger every year, so do the services that are needed. So a part of that is you know making the amenities and uh that we try to do within with space allocation and then um also uh providing those needs to the citizens.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Okay. That's one of the reasons I wanted to bring uh Rex and Josh in today is because they are not an outward-facing department. They work inside the county. Most people don't know who they are, what they do, but without this department, really county, the county couldn't function, right? Because the buildings wouldn't be able to open if there would be an electrical plumbing issue, whatever it may be, it would not get resolved. There's many, many things that would not get done without this department and the work of Josh and Rick's uh and their team there. So that's why I felt it was important to bring them here, highlight what they do, and let people know really how much goes into running a county because a lot of times we just look at the parks or we look at the buildings or we look that we have to come into the courthouse, but we really don't know what goes into running all the assets of a county.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Uh Josh, tell me a little bit about what your role and what you do. Sure, Michael, thank you for asking. So I'm the county project manager, so I touch almost every one of our facilities pretty regularly. Rex alluded to, we have 130 some odd facilities. Some of them are very old. We have buildings from the 1700s, we have brand new buildings, all of them need to operate and function at a level that we can, number one, maintain, you know, county services, county safety, safety for our stakeholders, our employees, and maintain operations because we do provide these emergency responses support, and we support every other major department throughout the county. So my job as project manager is really aligning our internal stakeholders' needs, the commissioners' desires and wishes, what you folks need, our budgets, and maintaining, you know, all of our outside vendors, contractors, engineers, designers, and putting everyone together to create a cohesive project that fulfills our needs and really hits our planning and budgeting.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

And it's quite a lot. We have a lot of projects moving at one time.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

And we're going to talk a little bit about that, absolutely. Yep. So, Josh, how long have you been with the county and what is your background? What qualifies you to do your job at the county?

SPEAKER_00 6:48

So I'm a newbie with the county. I've been here about a year and a half now, which time flies. My gosh, it still feels like I'm catching up. Yeah. So my background, what brings me to Berks County. Um, you know, my background is in architectural uh management, facilities management, project management. Um I initially went to school, and you may not even know this, I went to school to be an architect, and that's what I planned on being. That didn't work out. I went to school during the financial crisis, so I switched to a facilities role. And uh throughout my career, I've really focused on um, you know, engineering principal, design, and project management. And I actually, previous to working here, I was a project manager for a local engineering firm for about five and a half years overseeing large engineering projects, design, case studies, and a number of uh you know opportunities for local clients. Okay, so coming in with the county, I lead the projects and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Okay, we're glad to have you on board because there are a lot of projects going on here at the county. So Rex, how about you? You've been with the county a long time. Give me a little bit about yourself and your background.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Well, I took a little bit of a different path. I came uh I came into attrition with this with this position through the trades. Um when I started out, I started out um in many different trades, but uh uh became a plumber and then a master plumber and got licensed in an HVAC, um many certifications in electric, welding, gas piping. Um continued my education with um some college classes and some schooling, um eventually getting a PMI from Penn State for project management, um, and really tried to make the most of all the opportunities that came to me through there, whether led to being the foreman to the service manager to the estimator, the project manager, and um eventually to the deputy, and now uh deputy director here with uh uh director with the county. Um I've been with the county for 15 years. Um was a master plumber for the county for many years, and then um became a deputy director for a year, and now I've been five years as a facility uh as a director of facilities and operations.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Okay, so you uh grew up through the ranks in the county uh to where you're at now, which is the director of the department. So a lot of different things go into what you do. Yes. What do you like to do the most of your job?

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Most I I think what I like most about my job is is is providing a service to others that that you know uh everybody has different skills i in life, and you know, uh sometimes most of the time when it comes to facilities or operations, it may be an inconvenience to others, but um for us we're just constantly trying to improve on the quality um um and the surrounding of uh people's lives, really. Um and again going back to that creating a uh healthy and uh safe environ environment for everyone. And um that's really what I enjoy most about it is helping people. That's how I that's how I feel about it. I enjoy helping people. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

What do you find most challenging about your job?

SPEAKER_02 10:14

The procurement process of uh what it takes to initiate some of these uh uh projects is it can be very challenging in with the county as well as municipalities and governments. We have different rules and uh codes that we have to abide by to uh accomplish these uh large-scale projects that we do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

And just so you have an idea, it depends on what the job is or different processes. Yes. Uh we do we do have a great purchasing department that helps that out, but still uh Rex and Josh need to know and understand the process. Uh one thing at least that's very hard for me, and I don't think it's necessarily the best thing is when you have a project that you have to do and it has to go to the what is it called, the lowest. Lowest bidder. Lowest responsible broth. The lowest responsible bidder. Uh we all know that the lowest responsible bidder is not necessarily the best way to go, right? Because we've seen many times how that has had a negative impact and it has cost the county more money and more time. Uh things have projects have gotten delayed for a year or so, so uh it's not always good to be people may say, well, I understand why it should be the lowest responsible bidder because it's county, it's taxpayer dollars, and and that's understandable, but it doesn't always work out uh the way the law was intended uh to to make it work out, because as we all know, cheapest isn't always best.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

I that that that that is very true, and that can be very frustrating, but something I am I'm proud of uh and our department is uh the the knowledge that we have internally right now with with my background of of pretty much touching everything that every being a part of every process there is with construction, whether it's gent GC and through the primes, and Josh's engineering and and his project management knowledge as well. We really feel that between us and Doug is not here, our our deputy director and his construction background, that when we go to we are involved with these projects, we are doing the best we can to prevent scope creep with contractors and or any unnecessary change orders because we have the internal knowledge to to call it out, whether it's something that we really need to move forward with or whether we don't.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

And that's great. It's good that that you have that knowledge, right? Because you never know they're saying, well, you need to do this, and you say, no, we really don't need to do that, we can do it this way or we can do it that way. Correct. Yeah. So that really helps look out for the taxpayer dollars.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Yep, yes. So we I know Josh does too, but something, and Doug, he's not here, but we all take great pride in cheating.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

So, Josh, although you've only been with the county a year and a half, what is your favorite part of your job?

SPEAKER_00 13:17

I like the variety, I'm going to be honest. Every day it's something a little bit new to what Rex alluded to. We have projects touching everywhere throughout the county, every operation, every type of building, every day is a little bit something different. I have large projects at our wastewater treatment plant that I may spend my morning at, and then I'm over at the jail working on a separate project, or we may be doing an electrical project downtown. Every day is something a little bit different, and I get to work with really some incredible people, both within our department and every department throughout the county as I work with stakeholders to understand what they need and align, you know, budgeting and necessity to get these projects moving forward. As Rex said, I mean, we are serving people, we're serving our internal stakeholders and the county at large. Okay. And what would you say is the most challenging part of your job? Well, I don't want to steal your thunder. I will say procurement code sometimes is difficult. But also, I would say part of it is really aligning everyone's expectations to what's realistically possible while being fiscally prudent and responsible to the taxpayer dollar. Because at the end of the day, I'm a taxpayer as well. We have 300-year-old buildings. I would love to do major projects at every one of them, but we need to be realistic and we need to be conscious to our budget requirements and pick and choose what's necessary, what isn't, and what would be the biggest bang for the taxpayer. Yep. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

That's that's always a big issue, right? What do you do with the money that you have? Because sure there's many, many projects that you said we would like to do this or we need to do that, but just like every other department, you have a budgets constraint uh which you need to work in. Absolutely. Do you off head, do you know what is the size of your budget? Capital budget.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

With the current projects that I have open, I'm in excess of forty million dollars right now.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

So I was gonna say it's close to forty million dollars.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Yeah. And that's currently active, you know, capital projects that are moving forward. We have a number of larger projects, you know, several years out that we are planning for, but it is a it's a significant investment.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Okay. So when you Josh, you just said there are several projects a few years out. Talk to me about the capital planning process. What does that look like? You you don't say this year, okay, well, next year we need to replace A, B, and C, and this is what we're going to put in the budget. Talk to me about that process as to how do you determine how far out do you look at, how do you prioritize?

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Sure. And I mean, Commissioner, what a great question because we're dealing with such large amounts of money, and some of these projects take very long. A lot of folks think, hey, you have money this year, go get it done. That's not the case. Some of these projects I'm working on are two to three years in development before we're even ready to break ground and start working. So we have a you know, a five-year capital plan that we look at where we look at, you know, what are our biggest deficiencies, what are our biggest concerns for operation, when can we realistically do those? When do they fit into the budget? And we try to work off of about a five-year plan of uh, you know, projects lined up. Now, occasionally we have to move them based on you know certain outside requirements, but it really is a team effort as we meet with our internal team, our facility managers, our fleet manager, our bridge, you know, our team overseeing our bridges and decide what is the highest impact, what's the biggest liability, and or what renovations do we need to continue county business or even expand our offerings as we bring new buildings online.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Yeah, we work very closely with the budget department and they're great to work with. And uh, you know, we look at the end of the useful life of our equipment and and you know, our buildings and really try to plan accordingly and try to you know avert any of those emergencies or overreaction moments and and try to strategically plan within a budget that that is set for the county and and um what we can accomplish um pretty much five years at a time. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

If you look at that, make sure that the county has the money for that. Obviously, things may change from year to year, right? The plan is fluid. Uh if it's needed, it be needs to be it can be changed and modified to meet the current needs of the county. But you do have that plan there, so it's not like okay, well, you know, this heating unit went bad and we need to replace it. You're looking at, okay, how much longer does it have? How much longer will this last?

SPEAKER_02 17:31

And we try to be proactive instead of reactive, yes. And it's it's always fiscally beneficial as well to be proactive and reactive.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, okay. So right now the the uh the county has different projects going on. What are some of the larger projects that youths are working on right now?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Sure. So our largest project at the moment, we are currently in design, and uh actually phase one of the project is uh reopening the youth detention center up at our north campus. That is a shared project between us and another uh number of other counties that we're pitching resources to reopen and uh reoperate that facility. So phase one is a decentralization project where we're taking our steam system down at our north campus that feeds the current building, our youth detention building, and we're putting in uh new boilers, water heaters, uh air handlers, everything that's necessary to take it off of and retire our campus steam system. And we're working with partners right now to design and reopen the facility proper. So that is a multi-year large budget initiative.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

That that's that uh the steam plant that's explain what it is a little bit for those people who are watching this because I don't think that does that even exist. Do they make those any more in the time they do? Okay. Oh yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Yeah. Uh 30 years ago it was it was the most efficient way to heat and uh domestic and you know, and heating of of a campus. Um there are many, many facilities to Penn State. I know they have a campus alike to that. And as we do at our North Campus, where we have uh the Haim and the jail, um the youth detention center was running at one time, and we've also decoupled a couple of those buildings already as technology progresses and you get the condensing equipment, and we've got gases now available along County Welfare Rogue, or um it wasn't at that time that that boiler ran off of oil um for many years, and and um uh just trying to um make those improvements. But steam's around and it's not necessarily a b a bad thing. It's just a lot of uh a lot of people just don't understand it or or or have a misconception of its safety of the steam.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

But uh and commissioner, our system was out of it. It was end of life. That's really what it comes down to. We had a large centralized boiler plant that would provide steam for you know hot domestic hot water generation, building heating. It uh operated a number of items, including kettles and cooking equipment, even throughout these facilities. And as we took facilities offline, it created issues for the plant's operation because we're cutting off more and more of its load. And these underground lines that we, you know, use to pipe the steam into the buildings are failing and starting to deteriorate. So we're at a position now where our boilers are end of life, our underground infrastructure is failing, and uh it's time to add some new equipment. So the new equipment is going to be significantly more efficient, again, as Rex said, newer and more modern, but it's also going to be easier for our team to operate.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

So there again, you look at what you had, what the future needs are, what new equipment, new technologies are out there, and you adjust accordingly. Absolutely, yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

What other projects are you have working on? Oh, a big one being our uh downtown space allocation projects. So as we're looking at our courthouse, as we're looking at our uh county services building at our main downtown campus here in Reading, we're asking questions of what do we do? What does the future look like for these buildings, and how are we going to support both the county at large that utilizes these facilities and our internal workers? So we're looking at you know modernization and renovations of the uh courthouse and of the services center to bring them up number one, you know, code compliance, make them comfortable, make them last, updating uh utilities, updating our electronics and our data centers throughout these. And uh it's a large multi-phase project as we you know move departments, renovate areas, and really look at what does the future hold? So this project's been interesting because we're working with a uh partner architect firm, and we're meeting with each department head and asking the questions you know, where are you in five years? What does your staffing look like? What do you need to operate? What do you see as your growth? How can we design a space to support you, to support your growth, and set you folks up for success over the next five, ten years? And that's a large project for us. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

For those who aren't aware. Uh the county has two main buildings in downtown Reading. It's the uh courthouse and the county services center. They're connected by a bridge on three different uh stories that connect one to the other. How old is the courthouse?

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Going on a hundred years old. It was built in 1933, is when it was opened.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Okay, so in yeah, in seven years it'll be a hundred years old. Uh and the services center was built when? 93. 93, so not as old. Uh but when you look at this building, almost a hundred years old, old plumbing, old electric, old HVAC, uh, you know, different issues that every old building deals with. Absolutely. That's correct, yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

As well as historical preservation. It is a historically listed building. I mean, it's gorgeous. Well, everyone loves it. And when you take a look at it, it just, you know, screams old courthouse. However, it needs a lot of uh TLC to bring it up to that level it needs to to operate.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

And even the services center, about 30 years old, that you know it's 30 30 some years old. You still need to do upgrades to it. Uh just like people that have a house, there's things that you always go bad, you need to repair, you need to upgrade, you need to maintain. Uh when you open up a wall to fix something, you find three other things that need to be addressed as well. Excuse me. So these are all issues that you go through, but on a much larger level as well. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Yes. Yeah, you're supposed to be a but uh yeah, you break it down like that and simplify it. Yes, it is. Um you know, the more the older the building, the more difficult it is. You know, you have you also have abatement issues you have to deal with, you know, we're dealing with concrete and plaster versus popping open a ceiling top. Yep. You know, so uh or cutting open drywall. So uh anything that we have in the courthouse is is is quite an undertaking to stay on top of and and try and maintain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Okay. The other uh big project you're working on is the agricultural center. Absolutely. There's different phases. Phase one is done. We're you're working on phase two. Talk to me a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Sure. So the agricultural center located up at our north campus. When I started with the county a year and a half ago, we were just about halfway through the construction of uh renovating the rear portion of the facility. And this is uh a rather large facility that has a number of departments. Some of them are internal county departments, some of them are uh, you know, outside. We have uh Penn State working out of there, our agricultural department, uh and some outside vendors as well, USCA, federal USDA. So we renovated the rear portion of the building, that's closed up, and now we're starting and we're just about to put that out to bid, actually, to uh redo the front of the building or the front portion of the building. So that includes uh architectural upgrades. Again, what we talked about of modernizing our office spaces, putting in that modern technology we need to operate, updating our elevator, bringing that up to modern code, and going through updating bathrooms, updating finishes, and uh, we're moving a new department into that building, we're putting the coroner's offices in there, and a number of other strategic initiatives, including even the exterior, to make it more energy efficient and operate better. So this will be a multi-phase project. Again, even though this is the just the front portion of it, we're going to do it in two separate phases so we can still keep uh some of the departments active and operating throughout that department and I'm sorry, throughout that building. And uh, we're excited. That one will be uh about a year or so, about a year to a year and a half of construction. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

So a lot going on. Got about two minutes left. So I want to ask you some questions before uh we f we we finalize the show. When you're not working, what do you like doing for fun?

SPEAKER_02 25:55

I I love riding motorcycle and going on extended trips, not just uh I love my three-hour tours on the weekend as we affectionately call them to go get lost. But uh I truly enjoy packing up for multiple week trips out on the road on my motorcycle and seeing this beautiful country that we live in. Yeah, it's I highly recommend it. I like to travel, but I prefer a car. I know, I know, most do. Most do. It it comes with a lot of challenges and difficulties, but it's a it's a different feeling and a different perspective. Yeah. Uh for sure. Um yeah, I I really enjoy that. Going out west and seeing some of our national monuments and parks and uh truly about you know something I I love to do and enjoy to do. Right. How about you?

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Well, I agree with you. I prefer car as well, but I must say I'm an outdoors guy. I love hiking, I'm a fisher. Uh during the winter I love working in my wood shop. I like to keep my hands busy. Um I have a pregnant wife at home, though, so I don't have very much free time anymore. Uh yes. So my free time is very prim very uh, shall we say, not very much of it right now. We'll have less once uh less and less. So when I'm able to get out and enjoy the outdoors, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

But yeah.

unknown 27:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Awesome. Well, unfortunately, our time is up. There was still a lot, lot more that we had to discuss here, but our time is up for today. So I'm gonna invite you back for a future show if you want to join me again, Rex. I know this was your first show and you did a great job. Thank you. I was very and Josh, Josh is a pro, he's been on different times. So but thank you for joining us. Thank you for the work that you do at the county. Hopefully, you enjoyed today's show and learned a little bit more about how county government runs and all the things that happen in the background that we don't see on a day to day basis. Thank you for joining us in County Connections. Enjoy the rest of your day.