LOCKPORT — Beginning Monday, Paula Sattelberg will be in charge of water and wastewater operations in two cities.

Late last week, the mayors of Lockport and North Tonawanda signed a ground-breaking intermunicipal agreement to share a top administrator. The arrangement should save both struggling cities money in both the short and long terms.

Sattelberg has been Lockport’s director of utilities the past 21⁄2 years. Her promotion by Mayor Michael Tucker was deserved and logical, he said, as she had lengthy familiarity with and hands-on experience in both parts of the city’s utilities operation.

Sattelberg did not plan her trip to the top floor of utilities. Instead, she said, she ended up there by being at the elevator door at just the right time, a few times.

Armed with a biology degree, Sattelberg got a job in the city wastewater treatment lab in 1980 and started raising children with husband Ed, a steel cutter. Time passed, and still not sure what career she was supposed to be pursuing, she enrolled in the MBA program at University at Buffalo. Four years of night school later, she had her advanced degree — and her third child. Her plan to combine science and business into a unique job opportunity was shelved, or so it seemed.

Today, it sounds as though neither Ed nor the Sattelbergs’ grown children are surprised by Paula’s landing the job of two-city director of public utilities. The kids’ reaction to her making more local history? “OK, mom’s doing something else again,” she said. “They’re used to it.”

On the topics of utilities management and women in a male-dominated field, here’s a Q&A-style interview with Sattelberg.

QUESTION: You climbed the ladder in water works. How?

ANSWER: I started out in wastewater treatment in 1980, in the lab across the hall (from the Lockport utilities director’s office) and just kind of moved up, from lab technician to senior lab technician to pretreatment coordinator. Then, when Pete Sharkey retired his position (director of water and wastewater operations) I ended up taking his job. Michael (Diel, former utilities director) was here, and I was physically up at water. I started there in January 2004 and got my water (treatment plant operator’s) license in 2007. I thought it was a good idea for us to have more than one person with a Grade 1A up there. Our chief operator has a 1A ... and I am certified to be the chief operator of the water treatment plant as well. ...

Out of curiosity, I checked with the health department and learned there are only two of us (women with operating licenses) in Niagara County.

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Q: What’s involved in getting an operator’s license?

A: It’s training. There’s a course you go through, you have a test at the end and you have to work at a treatment plant. Because I had a college degree in science, I only needed two years of experience for the 1A. If you’re like most of the guys there, who have only a high school degree, you have to work 10 years to get your 1A.

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Q: Have you considered going for a waste water license?

A: No, there’s more of a requirement ... . I’ve gotten to the point where I’m strictly administration. To get the license, I would have to be an operator, and that’s just not practical.

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Q: Ever get the question from guys on staff — what’s a gal like you doing in a business like this?

A: No, they’ve been very accepting. When you’re dealing with people from a higher-level position, they tend to be easier going.

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Q: Have you worked with other women in water or waste water treatment?

A: In water, yes. In waste water, I’ve worked with lab technicians but not operators. That’s an animal that doesn’t exist. ... I don’t think it’s something that would appeal to too many women; water’s a little cleaner. You start talking about sludge and it’s like: Ehh.

At the conferences held by the New York Water Environment Association (a wastewater industry group), you’ll see more women in the business now than there ever have been, but most either work for the state, like DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation), or they work for the organization. They’re consultants or engineers, they’re not operators.

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Q: Well, now you’re the boss of water works in two cities. Did you crack the glass ceiling — or is gender not an issue?

A: It’s never mattered. It’s never been an issue, as far as getting or not getting a job, or getting promoted or not getting promoted. The city has been very good about the right person for the right job. ... I can honestly say I’ve never come up against a gender issue working for the city. They may be backward in some other things, but not that.

I think the bigger crack is the sharing. That’s phenomenal! These intermunicipal agreements are just about unheard of, especially something like this, sharing a department head between two cities. I think this is setting some precedent.

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Q: What are the challenges for water works in the two cities?

A: The challenge is, people don’t like paying for their water. The challenge is convincing them that what they see as really expensive isn’t really that expensive. I mean, my water bill is about $140 for three months, and that includes sewer. I pay $156 a month for cable. ...

The other thing is, people think water is cheaper in the town, because (town property owners) get a water bill that’s like 30 bucks per quarter. But that’s just based on their consumption. If they look at their tax bill, they get taxed based on value of their house, and part of that is the water district fee and the sewer district fee. There’s an average number, (indicating) a family of four uses X amount of water; if you take that gallonage in Lockport and what somebody pays for it, anyone in the town who has a house worth $100,000 or more pays more for water, just on the value of their home. It’s not on usage; you pretty much have no control over what you pay.

We try to tell people that (in Lockport), but when they’re on the other end of the phone screaming their water bill’s too high ...

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Q: What’s the most exciting part of your new job?

A: I hope that I can help. I know Mayor Ortt is really concerned about the cost of (North Tonawanda) water bills. To have somebody new looking at what’s going on, who knows? Just because you’ve done something the same way forever doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it. If I can find one little thing to tweak, maybe I can help. Or maybe I can find something to bring back here (to Lockport). Sharing ideas is always a good thing. Water and wastewater people especially are always asking other: Who did you buy this from? How did you do this? We’ve saved each other money a lot of times.