Steven Rutkowski

Background

About Steven Rutkowski

I grew up in Ubly a small town in the “Thumb” of Michigan. Both my parents were raised on family farms there and I would help out my grandparents during the summers. As a family, my three younger brothers and I spent a lot of time outdoors, hiking and camping. I was very active in high school sports and with Boy Scouts becoming an Eagle Scout at age 13. After Highschool, I went to college at Michigan Tech in the UP which was the perfect environment for me to grow a learn as I branched out on my own for the first time. At Michigan Tech, I developed a passion for Water and Infrastructure. I had several opportunities to work aboard assisting rural communities developing design solutions for them to obtain clean drinking water. This was a resource they had never had access to before. During my design, I began to understand the lack of resources these communities had. This allowed us to utilize problem solving skills and to think out size of the box to create practical approaches to build and maintain this infrastructure with the goal to provide clean drinking water. These experiences were impactful and inspired me to pursue this as a career after college. All of this helped shape me into who I am today. Currently, I am a project manager in municipal engineering focusing on water infrastructure improvements. I have a passion for rural and semi-rural communities. These underserved communities don’t have the staff and resources of many large metro organizations. It’s my ambition to serve them using my technical expertise through my engineering background, along with using practical solutions that I learn from time on the farm and working in rural communities abroad. This practical approach backed by sound engineering allows me to save my clients time and money. Speaking of money, another key issue I hear over and over from the rural communities that I service is funding. Although funding and securing grants isn’t as exciting to me as nuts and bolts of engineering design, I understand it is a vital part of getting these projects done. I know experientially that without funding no project can be completed no matter how great the design is. To obtain this, I work to engage with all stakeholders advocating for our infrastructure needs and pairing them with Local, State and Federal funding opportunities. Outside of work my wife and I have 4 beautiful children which keep us very busy on a daily basis. I am passionate about sports (especially the Detroit Lions!), enjoy camping, being outdoors, reading, board games, and doing projects around my house.