On the day he started work in May 2011 as a second-shift maintenance foreman at the Town of Enfield (Conn.) Water Pollution Control Facility, Kevin Shlatz got a surprise.
“On the first Monday, the plant superintendent told me, ‘I’m retiring,’ ” Shlatz recalls. “I said, ‘Oh, how long from now?’ He said, ‘On Friday.’
“ ‘Friday when?’
“ ‘This Friday.’ ”
Being the only member of the team with a Class 4 wastewater operator license (the highest level in Connecticut), Shlatz became plant superintendent. Enfield is his fifth clean-water plant — he was an intern at one and an employee at three others, and
