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A Resolution honoring the contributions of Tom Palko of the Department of Water and Sewerage Services upon his retirement.
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WHEREAS, Tom Palko was hired as the third stormwater employee of the Metropolitan Department of Public Works in March 1985. He was an Engineer-in-Training, fresh with a degree from University of Tennessee, working in a meat department cutting chickens. Within five years, the other two Stormwater employees had left, and Mr. Palko became the head stormwater employee; and
WHEREAS, since the first FEMA flood maps were developed in 1982, Mr. Palko missed only three years of flood mapping and has been involved in all nine subsequent revisions; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Palko started the Stormwater National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program in 1996, when Nashville was issued the first Phase 1 Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Permit; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Palko established Nashville's successful Floodplain Home Buyout Program, purchasing and removing 485 homes in the floodplain and restoring nearly 250 acres of Nashville's natural floodplain, turning much of that into public park land; and
WHEREAS, the Stormwater Division ("Stormwater") moved to Metro Water Services ("MWS") in 2002. Mr. Palko was named Assistant Director, adding the Maintenance Division to perform daily routine Stormwater maintenance activities such as cleaning inlets. The Stormwater Division has grown to a total of 136 employees; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Palko led efforts to create and continuously update the Stormwater Management Manual to regulate impacts of development on stormwater runoff, which includes one of the most stringent floodplain development restrictions within the nation; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Palko launched Stormwater funding with a user fee in 2009, which now brings in $35 million annually for maintaining and improving stormwater infrastructure including hundreds of Stormwater Capital Improvement Projects to minimize flash flooding impacts to residents of N...
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