New PCWD interim GM is Marine vet

When 2022 begins Jan.1, Jeremy Potter will assume the role of interim general manager (GM) of the Pine Cove Water District. Potter, the current field foreman, was asked to assume the GM’s role at the board of director’s November meeting. The need for an interim GM occurred with the announced retirement of current GM Jerry Holldber.

Potter will be the interim GM for six months or until the board chooses a permanent successor to Holldber, and that could be Potter, who has been with PCWD for 18 years.

Potter is a bona fide mid-westerner. Born in Kearney, Nebraska (the sandhill crane capital), his family then moved to southern Colorado (near the four corners area) and then to Wyoming.

Within a week after his high school graduation in Wyoming, Potter enlisted in the Marine Corps. “I loved it,” he said. “I even was deployed to the USS Pearl Harbor.”

After four years as a Marine, including a mission in Kuwait, Potter was assigned to Camp Pendleton, which is where he began his California life and met his wife, Kati.

After starting their family, they soon moved to Idyllwild. Besides being a mother, Kati is the huge smile serving guests at Ferro. Their youngest son is in Idyllwild School and their daughter and oldest son work in Idyllwild.

His PCWD career began in 2003. After 18 years, Potter said his job is not “tough, just work. All parts are equal. I’m proud of the clean, potable water we provide. It’s tough to find better water on the Hill.”

Whether it is digging trenches for mainlines, carefully avoiding a rupture of other underground utilities, stopping leaks or helping plan the new maintenance building, Potter enjoys it all.

And that attitude is how he will serve as the interim GM. “I’ll look forward to continuing to provide the best water we have up here.”

As winter passes and the warmer and drier months arrive, Potter knows the district’s infrastructure will draw much of his attention.

After nearly two decades in the field and in trenches and wet and muddy, Potter also recognizes that the new job will require much more desk time inside the office. This will be his toughest adjustment.

“Thinking about the legal aspects of the work and the district will be new and important,” he said. “The challenge will be the paperwork for the state and health departments.” After connecting pipelines, filling trenches and plugging leaks, he can go home to Kati and family. “But now there will be reports and I’ll have to see the project through to its whole end,” he added.

“I want to reassure the customers, with Jerry retiring after this year, nothing will change here,” he averred firmly. “We will continue to provide clean, potable water. I know that when a customer turns on the faucet, they expect water to come out. That’s number one for me …

“It won’t fall apart under new management,” he avowed.