Page retires from FPUD

Fallbrook Public Utility District engineering manager Mike Page retired from FPUD February 5.

Including his employment with the Fallbrook Sanitary District prior to that district’s merger with FPUD, Page spent nearly 23 years with the utility district.

“I really enjoyed working with FPUD a lot. I loved my job,” Page said. “Just time to move on with my life.”

Although Page’s primary water activities are now recreational, he has agreed to spend some additional time at FPUD as a consultant.

“Mike has been a huge asset to Fallbrook, first working with the Fallbrook Sanitary District and later for FPUD,” said Keith Lewinger, who has been FPUD’s general manager since 1999.

“He’s been involved in virtually every major construction project since the merger, and he’s made sure that the district received what it contracted for when a project was built,” Lewinger said. “I could always count on him to do that. We got what we paid for and nothing less.”

After graduating from Huntington Beach High School, Page attended junior college before spending time in the United States Army. After his discharge he resumed college at the University of Washington.

Page’s first employment was with the Orange County Sanitation District, where he worked for ten years. He then helped build the Encino water pollution control plant in Carlsbad and subsequently worked at Camp Pendleton as a field engineer for the Department of the Navy.

Page had a consulting engineering business for three years before joining the Fallbrook Sanitary District. He was a construction contract manager when the Fallbrook Sanitary District was building the district’s water treatment plant in 1987. While the plant was being built the sanitation district asked Page to become not only a regular employee but also the district’s operations manager.

Page remained as the operations manager until a 1994 election approved the merger with FPUD. He then became FPUD’s engineering manager. “It gave me more responsibility,” he said.

Page’s responsibilities with FPUD included all capital construction, recycled water, and waste water. “It was a great move,” he said.

In 1988 Page met Fallbrook Sanitary District administrative assistant Patti Platt. They were married in 1995, and Patti Page now works as FPUD’s operations technician.

Page has two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. A daughter and two grandchildren live in Gilbert, Arizona, while a son and the other two grandchildren live in Temecula. “That’s what I want to spend time with,” Page said of his family.

In addition to family and other travel, Page plans to be active in boating, sailing, waterskiing, kayaking, fishing, and motorcycle riding. He recently sold his boat in preparation for buying a new vessel.

“The best part of working for FPUD was the group of people that I worked with,” Page said. “It was just an easy place to work, and I really enjoyed my job.”

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