Spotlight On: Melissa Meeker, CEO, The Water Tower

Gainesville gets a taller water tower as part of multi-million dollar grant

photos courtesy of Ed Doiron Derric Byington, an employee with Kansas-based Gerard Tank company, is shown here last Saturday, Oct. 25, working to align the top of Gainesville’s new center water tower as his co-worker Kile Kennedy waits patiently on the ladder below him. After it was aligned, two men climbed on top and welded the cap in place. The new tower is funded through a mutli-million dollar grant the city received to improve its water syst…

Spotlight On: Melissa Meeker, CEO, The Water Tower

October 2025 — Melissa Meeker, CEO of The Water Tower, sat down with Focus: to discuss how federal grants have helped transform the nonprofit organization’s workforce training programs, the impact AI and new technologies are having on the water utility industry, and what The Water Tower is doing to help recruit and retain talent in a challenging and ever changing market space. What changes over the past year have most impacted the organization a…