Retired operations manager Jon Yasin (left) with new operations manager Kellen Boyce (right). Photos courtesy of California Water Service
California Water Service hired its new Kern River Valley operations manager, Kellen Boyce, in late August.
Boyce told the Kern Valley Sun, on Wednesday September 18, that he and his wife were married on Dome Rock and had their wedding reception dinner at McNally’s. They were now retiring in Kernville, which was why he decided to take on the position. “I used to come up here and have a lot of fun. I grew up in Bakersfield,” he said.
The previous Operations Manager, Jon Yasin, is retiring and has been training Boyce. “He’s a great manager and a great friend. He really just took me right in and showed me around in much greater detail than I could have imagined. He’s just moving on to a new chapter,” Boyce said.
Yasin does not plan on leaving Kern Valley although he’s retiring. “You were in great hands with Jon. He was a great manager. He’s a leader in this community. He’s really assembled a great team. He’s passing the baton to me,” Boyce said.
“My goal is to take it to the next level. My passion is water. I drink this water. If I’m treating the water I’m drinking the water. I want to know that the water that’s being provided to you is safe, clean (and) reliable. Rest assured we will not sleep without providing the cleanest, safest water possible.”
Boyce now wants his team to know how important and vital to the community they are. He also wants everyone to know he is approachable and that if you see him, as a neighbor around the community, he hopes you will greet him.
Boyce has been in the water industry for over 30 years. He will serve as operations manager to the upper and lower Bodfish area, a portion of the Lake Isabella area, Onyx area, Lakeland, Kernville, Wofford Heights, primarily the area around the lake, some sections of Antelope Valley, Leona Valley and some pocket areas, which he has a supervisor tending to.
He has been commuting from Canyon Country while he sells his home located there. “My home for the last 22 years has been Canyon Country. This is a big change for us. My boys are all grown now. So we were empty nesting, raising some dogs we have, Queensland heelers,” he said.
Coming from a family in the water industry, his grandfather was into irrigation of farming. But his mother who was a second-generation water worker for Cal Water, out of Bakersfield, encouraged Kellen to go back to college. Boyce was working in the oil field before he took his mother’s advice and attended Bakersfield College. He then went to work for a private chlorination company. He eventually worked for a bigger company in Crescenta and managed a team for production and maintenance.
One of his sons decided to pursue the water industry as well. “I fell in love with it, and my son fell in love with it. And he is now a fourth generation water operator working in the water industry” he said. “Water has just been in our family since the beginning of time it seems.”
In the direct future Boyce doesn’t foresee making many changes to the company.
He hopes to achieve a good work-life balance for his team. The position is on call at all times because water never stops moving. People are always bathing, watering, and cooking. Whenever the wind comes in, the company is on high alert, to get a generator running. Boyce arrived at the very tail end of the Borel Fire. “We were having people brought in from outside our region, from like East L.A., Bakersfield that could help relieve the operators here because there was no rest during that period of time,” he said.
Boyce said that after he acclimates, he wants to become active serving within the community, as he has always done.
“The goal is just to just continue to provide this service to you and your neighbors and your families here.” he said. “I want to just make sure we do the best job we can.”
