Tom Reski has stepped down as a member of the Fountain Hills Sanitary District Board of Directors after serving for nearly 19 years. Reski attended his last board session on Wednesday, Dec. 16, and Board Chairman Jerry Butler had prepared a review of Reski’s service to the district.

He served with 11 different directors with only one, Bob Thomson, sharing the entire tenure.

Reski attended 245 board meetings, compiling a 90 percent attendance record. On two occasions he attended more than 40 consecutive sessions (42 from 2003 to 2006 and 44 from 2008 to 2011). In 2017 he attended 18 meetings, the most in a single year.

Butler noted he has worked with two district managers, two attorneys, two accountants and two assistant secretaries. Reski served three terms as board chairman.

When Reski joined the board in 2002 the district had a debt balance of $5.2 million. That was paid off in 2005 and, with Reski’s help, the district has remained debt-free since. Also, during his first year in office the district began the process of developing a new administration building.

Butler pointed out that Reski also had a way of getting to the heart of an issue and moving topics forward in a positive way. In a review of the minutes of 245 meetings, it was found he voted “nay” only a handful of times. His first no vote came in August 2003, 20 months into his tenure.

“Reflecting back, it is clear that Tom never lost touch with consideration for the staff and the district’s customers,” Butler said.

In 2005, during Reski’s first term as chairman, he helped establish a monetary award for staff with 20 years of service or more, and that year the district approved $50 gift certificates for staff at Thanksgiving.

With his engineering background and experience Reski was efficient at handling the many complex technical issues that came before the board and the district. These included helping golf courses, which use the Sanitary District effluent for irrigation, address issues related to the high sodium content of the wastewater. There was also the issue of developing a plan to serve potential development of the State Trust Land within Fountain Hills.

“Needless to say, a lot has happened during your watch and the community owes you a huge debt of gratitude,” Butler told Reski. “The best that I can determine is you now represent the District’s third longest tenured director, third to Bob Thomson (over 21 years and still serving) and Bruce Hansen (20 years, 8 months).

“And as one engineer to another, there’s one more statistic to share…that during your nearly 19 years of service you have successfully seen to it that over 13 billion gallons of wastewater have disappeared. Think about it, that’s a lot of wastewater!”