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First Posted: 12/27/2013

Clarks Summit resident and board member of the Abington Regional Wastewater Authority Cesar Lopez has dedicated his time to the community at home and abroad.

Lopez recently returned from a two-year deployment in Afghanistan, where he served as a Department of Defense civilian under the Army Corps of Engineers. “It’s great [to be back]” said Lopez, who is now in Clarks Summit with his wife Cathleen and three children, Alyssa, 13, Thomas, 12, and Isabel, 8.

A position with the Army Corps of Engineers at Tobyhanna Army Depot and the desire to be closer to his wife’s family originally brought Lopez to Northeastern Pennsylvania. When he completed his active duty for the U.S. Army in 2004, Lopez transitioned to civilian life in Houston. He said after earning his master’s degree in business administration at The University of Texas at Austin, he and his wife relocated to Clarks Summit after he obtained the position with the Army Corps of Engineers at Tobyhanna.

“What attracted us was the sense of community,” Lopez said about Clarks Summit specifically. He and his wife enjoy that their children have so many activities to participate in such as the Earth Camp funded in part by the Abington Heights Educational Improvement Organization, Shakespeare in the Park from Ghostlight Productions, Little League, and more. Lopez also expressed his satisfaction with the Abington Heights School District. “Their school program really impressed us,” he said. Overall, Lopez said it was appealing that Clarks Summit and the Abingtons had so much to offer families in the area.

Lopez said spending time with his family and having more “leisure” time is what he enjoys the most since returning from his deployment last year. He values the luxury of working full time and being able to attend his kids after school and extracurricular activities, as well as having time for fun on the weekends. While deployed in Afghanistan, Lopez worked long hours, on average 10 hour days, working seven days a week and only having Friday afternoons off.

However, to Lopez the work was worth it.

Lopez went to Afghanistan partly because he felt the work he completed while deployed in Iraq on active duty with the U.S. Army was worthwhile. According to Lopez, “To be able to go back and rebuild where it’s needed is tremendously rewarding for a civil engineer.”

In Afghanistan, Lopez served in the Kandahar Area Office and finished his tour in the Herat Province in the Herat Area Office in Afghanistan. He was responsible for overseeing a group of project engineers, construction representatives, and administering construction contracts. Lopez said projects included building various types of facilities for the Afghan National Army, police, and border patrol including everything from housing, to classrooms, to rebuilding infrastructure.

Not only has Lopez served his country abroad, he gives back to his local community as a board member of the Abington Regional Wastewater Authority (ARWA). Lopez said the ARWA is currently undergoing an expansion of the infrastructure that is, “necessary to accommodate further development in the area.” Lopez said his background in construction, project management, and contract administration helps him contribute to the community through ARWA.

As rewarding as the work for his deployment was, Lopez said, “Two years of being away from the family, you miss out on a lot.” Lopez said he doesn’t plan on going on any more deployments in the near future. He said he has been, “blessed with great kids and great opportunities,” and looking forward to this new year.

“I want to spend time with the kids and my wife, and just be a family man.”