ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — "I am out in the field fixing things like pumps and motors, and I paint," Alex Horton said, listing the things he does at the St. Augustine Water Treatment Plant, when he is not actually operating it.
How this 37-year-old St. Augustine man started working at the plant is not a typical route.
When he was younger, "I ended up involved with the wrong people and I started doing drugs," he said. "I’ve been arrested a few times."
Horton eventually landed in prison on drug charges. And even in prison he was doing drugs. And then his cellmate said something that blew him away.
"He said, 'What are you doing man? If you can’t get it right in here, how are you supposed to get it right out there?' I was like, 'Wow, he's right,'" Horton said, throwing his head back.
So Horton made the decision to change himself, and took courses in water management while he was in prison.
When he got out, he tried to get jobs with different county water plants, but they did not like that he had a criminal record.
But the City of St. Augustine allowed Horton to volunteer at its water treatment plant. It's a gated facility for authorized personnel only. So why would the city take him on?
"We don't really care what people have done in the past. It’s about what they can do now. We gave him a second chance and he really proved himself," Horton's supervisor Patrick Timoney said.
"It says they are willing to help people who are reaching out to better themselves," Horton said.
Of course there was a background check and interviews. Horton believes the fact he was not a violent officer also helped his case.
When Horton started volunteering at the water plant, he said his "sole mission was to beautify the plant."
And he did. He painted nearly everything, rid the pipes of rust, laid new flooring, cleaned rooms and restored the lab.
"I picked one thing at a time and I did it," Horton said.
He was renovating the place, just as he was reinventing himself.
"I wish I had ten of him as employees," Timoney said.
Two years after starting as a volunteer, Horton is now a full-time plant operator, and he is not stopping.
"I had to do it. I had to work on myself," he said.
The City of St. Augustine is willing to hire former inmates, something not many employers are willing to do.