Water Serviceman III
"I always knew I would be a tradesman," Paul Ries said of his career path. It was never in his blood to sit in front of a computer for eight hours a day. He was destined to be outside and not in, to be moving and not stagnant, which shows in both his profession and his hobbies.
Paul started in the carpentry industry, building cabinets. Shortly after, he got into the utility business and made a home there. He worked at Sierra Pacific for 22 years as a gas serviceman before getting his start at TMWA in 2001 during its inception. This year, he is celebrating his 30th year in the utility industry.
His favorite aspect of working at TMWA is the activity he gets moving from place to place, never doing the same thing. Paul's daily schedule isn't always predictable; his day, which sometimes stretches to 12 to 13 hours, normally consists of investigating leaks, responding to customer complaints, setting and exchanging meters, turning on and off water and checking water pressure.
It is evident that he still loves his job at TMWA after all these years. "I enjoy working with customers; I've been doing it so long," he said of his daily customer contact.
Beyond his job at TMWA, he has made a hobby of prospecting gold, silica and agates, which are colorful gems, like quartz. Prospecting is looking for gems and minerals on a specific area of land, and the mineral rights to that land belong to Paul. Once he finds these minerals, he hopes to sell to larger mining companies for a profit. Paul has hard rock gold claims in Plumas County and silica and agate claims in Churchill County. In addition to prospecting, Paul takes an interest in hunting, fishing, camping and hiking. "You need to get up to the mines somehow," he said of his claims, which are in the mountains of Northern Nevada and Northeastern California.
Between his days at TMWA and prospecting in his claims, he is still able to make time for the number one thing in his life: family. Paul is a loyal family man and his father is the reason he lives in Nevada, among many other things. He falls third from the end in a family of nine children, and the members of his family have been his strongest influences in his life.
