PA-AWWA Operator Spotlight is on: Jesse LaVigne, Hatboro, Pennsylvania
Jess LaVigne of Hatboro, Pennsylvania,
designed games and animation while at
the same time instructing students in
game development. Now he is training
to be a water treatment operator
at Downington Municipal Water
Authority and plans to use his One
AWWA Operator Scholarship from the
Pennsylvania Section and Water Equation
for courses in programmable logic
controller (PLC) programming. (PLC is an
industrial computer control system that
continuously monitors the state of input
devices and makes decisions based upon
a custom program to control the state of
output devices.) Jesse hopes to become a
plant PLC technician.
“This kind of training is a critical step
forward, not only for me, but also for the
water industry as a whole. Programmable
controllers continue to play a growing role
in our industry, especially for operators.
It is vital that we grow our understanding
of how these systems work so that we can
make better decisions about how and
when to rely on them.”