Lisa Nabors Retires With 37 Years of Service to City > City of Kannapolis | City of Kannapolis

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Water Resources Supervisor Lisa Nabors is retiring from the City of Kannapolis after serving 37 years in the department.

Lisa began working in water resources in 1986 as an employee of the Kannapolis Sanitary District – this was before Kannapolis was incorporated as a City. The district managed the water and sewer for the City as a part of the operations of Cannon Mills. When Kannapolis was incorporated the next year, in 1987, and assumed the responsibilities of water and sewer, Lisa became one of the city’s first employees.

She was a meter reader in a field where there are few female employees. “I would see people running from house to house, business to business, reading the water meters and I thought that job would be fun, and it would be a way to exercise and stay healthy versus sitting behind a desk all day,” Lisa recently said. “So I applied and was hired.”

At the time the City had 9,000 customers – now there are over 22,000 water accounts to service. “We would literally get on a truck and ride on the sideboards. Someone would drive and we would jump off and on as we went house to house reading the meters. We would average reading 300 to 400 meters daily. There was no technology at that point. We had notebooks and we would write everything down. We kept busy avoiding dogs, and some people who would not be happy that we had to shut their water off for nonpayment but I have loved my job.”

Lisa would eventually leave the daily job of reading meters and be promoted to Crew Supervisor helping train others to do the job she loves. While technology in the field has made the job less physically demanding and there is less daily interaction with customers Lisa said,

“I will miss the people I work for and our customers. Both are family to me. Over the years we have been able to help our customers, looking out for those who are elderly or in need. You develop friendships, do small things for them such as taking them meals, or helping in any way we could. I plan to volunteer in the community and stay in touch with everyone and spend time with my family in North Carolina and Virginia. This really has been the best job and I will miss it.”