On February 10, the Sparks Elks Lodge 2397 named Casey Mentzer its 2022 Sparks Citizen of the Year.
As the lead engineer at the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility (TMWRF), Mentzer is passionate about his job. He was born and raised in Sparks and earned a B.S. degree with a focus in chemical engineering and then a Master’s in Public Administration from University of Nevada, Reno before joining the wastewater treatment plant that serves Reno, Sparks, and other areas of Washoe County.
“I always wanted to do something with the environment,” Mentzer said when asked why he chose this profession. He says he started at TMWRF in operations and has worked his way up to lead engineer, employed by the plant for more than seven years now. He taught the Hazardous Waste and Emergency Response standard at the Truckee Meadows Community College Safety Center doing mock tabletop, chemical response, and decontamination drills with his students, and serves as the president of the Nevada Water Environment Association, overseeing all the wastewater treatment plants in the state.
Mentzer’s many awards aside from being named the Elks Lodge Citizen of the Year include receiving the Morgan Operational Solutions award (given to those who’ve made outstanding contributions to the water environment profession), being named the Wastewater Rookie of the Year in 2017, and titled the Young Professional of the Year in 2021 by the Nevada Water Environment Association (NWEA).
“I love seeing the human impact of this work. A key part of what I do is preserving the environment and protecting public health, and seeing the impact on the community is gratifying,” Mentzer says about his job.
He also volunteers quite a bit, promoting DEI within the engineering industry by helping to create a scholarship for underrepresented groups of students pursuing their education in engineering, creating more virtual and hybrid training opportunities with NWEA to support rural Nevada communities, and even hosted a virtual presentation with the Sparks Heritage Museum and Cultural Center about the history of wastewater treatment in the Truckee Meadows.
With all this Casey still finds time to be an amazing husband father to his two daughters and son that he and his wife Megan are happily raising here in Sparks. He truly does care about Sparks and the people here,” says Sparks City Councilman Donald Abbott who nominated him.
Mentzer himself says that he has remained in Sparks because he loves the sense of community here, and when we spoke, he was playing with his kids at Pah Rah Park. He believes that Sparks is big enough to have things going on (like the Best of the West Rib Cook-Off and Pumpkinpalooza) yet intimate enough to know your neighbors.
Still, it caught him off guard to receive the Citizen of the Year award.
“I was surprised when I got the call. It was a very humbling experience, and it means a lot,” Mentzer says about being named the Elks Lodge Citizen of the Year. While his contributions to the environment through wastewater treatment makes a notable difference, it’s not normally talked about or noticed in the community.
“We’ve made a lot of strides in using less money, less energy, and less chemicals in wastewater treatment over the last few years and it’s awesome to be acknowledged,” he says. “It’s nice that our contributions to the environment warrant receiving the Citizen of the Year,” Mentzer adds.
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