Ardaman Milestones

Several Ardaman employees have received special recognition or reached important milestones in their careers.

RETIREMENT CONGRATULATIONS!

Deborah Strott, Corporate Administrative Assistant, retired on August 28th, 2022, after 18 years with Ardaman. During her tenure at Ardaman, she assisted three presidents and many administrative staff, as well as the corporate engineering group, with a variety of administrative and support tasks.  Deborah was always ready to help and was well-liked by many Ardaman employees.  We wish her a long and happy retirement!

 
Ken Nicholson, Orlando Branch, Senior Environmental Technician, retired on August 23rd, 2022, after 28 years with Ardaman. Ken came to Orlando from his hometown of Fraser, Michigan. He earned a B.S. degree in Natural Sciences from Western Michigan University in 1980. At WMU, he met his wife, Deb. They were married in 1979. Ken and Deb lived in Apopka, where they raised two daughters, Saundra and Heather.  

Ken was instrumental in the success of the Orlando branch, where he led field operations and data acquisition for thousands of environmental and geotechnical projects. He first joined Ardaman in 1993 but left in 1996 to manage an outdoor products business. He returned in 1997, staying until his retirement in August 2022. His expertise was wide-ranging. Ken conducted soil and groundwater sampling, operated and maintained remediation systems, conducted tank closure assessments, monitored contaminated soil removal, chemical, and bio treatment, well installation, development and sampling, slug and drawdown testing, Phase I and Phase II ESAs, asbestos surveys, site vicinity and well surveys, elevation surveys, dewatering monitoring, and other such environmental tasks. On the geotechnical side, Ken monitored drilling, conducted soil borings, monitored sinkhole grouting, monitored pile driving, resistivity surveys, staking and utility clearance, etc. He even was known to help out in the QC lab and drilling department. Ken spoiled many engineers by doing his work so well and being the eyes and ears of the department. When Ken was on the job, there was not much need for the engineer to go out in the field.

His favorite memories of Ardaman were about the people he got to work with and the challenging jobs. In Ken’s own words, “The drillers, working in rain, swamps, sinkholes, on the side of I-4, always busting their butts. The other technicians, floating down rivers mapping springs, wetland surveys, construction inspections. The diversity of things I did. Even the regular contractors we used. All willing to help when you needed it.”

Ardaman held a party for Ken on August 23, 2022, at The Porch to celebrate his retirement. Attendants included his mentor and former Ardaman great, Terry Warren, and his trainee, Michael Denton. Ken then rode off into the sunset, selling his Apopka house the next day and promptly moving to Battle Creek, Michigan where he is spoiling his granddaughter, Leah.