Despite the unlikely title of Indefinite Delivery Order Contractor, William Singleton has delivered a superior product that, as he puts it, “speaks to the environment” in Palmer, Alaska.

Under contract to the NOAA/Central Administrative Support Center via Burns & McDonnell Engineering, Bill captured NOAA’s January Team Member of the Month award for his work as project leader in designing a 6,700 sq. ft. West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center for the National Weather Service. NOAA staff calls his final design product “seamless.”

The Air Force thinks highly of Bill's work too. As an Air Force Reservist, LTC Singleton is about to become a Colonel.

In designing the center, use of recycled materials was a priority. Energy efficiency goes well beyond required conservation standards. Landscaping is designed for zero water beyond natural irrigation from rain and snow. Perhaps most importantly, the emergency generator is dual fuel -- natural gas and propane. Given the center’s locale in an earthquake zone, and its critical role of predicting tsunamis which arise from earthquakes, the center must remain fully operational at all times. Its purpose is to monitor seismic activity 24/7. Because of careful design, the center can dependably do that. Power and heat have to be on at all times.

Work on the Tsunami Warning Center was also complex because – with no break in services -- it calls for construction of a new center to replace the existing adjacent one, then moving all activities into the new building and demolishing the old structure which contained hazardous materials. This is expected to occur without a single break in operations.

Bill says that while working for the weather service is especially intriguing “because the services are so vital,” he relishes interacting with everyone at NOAA. He’s been doing it since the mid-1980s when, right from the preliminary concept, he helped create 15 facilities for Census employees from coast-to-coast.

“My job is to take a design need and figure out how to address it. That’s what an Indefinite Delivery Order Contractor does.”