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Chris Cherry has 9 years of service as a City of Clarksville, Gas & Water employee and 30 years of experience in the water and public works industry. Chris is the Clarksville Water Operations Division Assistant Manager, a role he has served since 2023.

Chris holds and maintains a Grade IV Water Treatment Plant Operator and Grade II Water Distribution System Operator certifications by the State of Tennessee Water & Wastewater Operators Certification Board.

Chris Cherry began his career in water at the Town of Smyrna Tennessee utilities department where he advanced through the ranks from a gas laborer. Within a couple of years, he became the Maintenance Supervisor of the Smyrna Water Treatment Plant; one of the most technologically automated water treatment plants in the southeast for the time. His responsibilities included learning and maintaining the facilities mechanical, electrical, operations technology and information technology systems. During his time at Smyrna, he obtained a Grade II Water Distribution System Operator and Grade IV Water Treatment Plant Operator certifications by the State of Tennessee.

Sammy Gray is Director of Government Affairs for Appalachian Power in West Virginia, where he is responsible for managing relationships with state government officials, members of the West Virginia Legislature and various state agencies and trade organizations.  Sammy leads the state lobbying efforts for the company in Charleston, WV.   

Prior to his current role, he served as Senior Advisor of Government Affairs in West Virginia for FirstEnergy Corporation, an electric utility with 6 million customers in West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. 

He is chair of the Utilities, Telecommunications and Energy Coalition of West Virginia, a trade organization of utilities in the state, and is the past-previous chair of the Government Relations Committee of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce. 

Sammy holds and undergraduate degree in History and Political Science from Glenville State University, and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from West Virginia University. 

Tyler Hayes has nearly six years of service as a City of Clarksville, Tennessee, Gas & Water employee. He has four years of upstream oil and gas experience and six years of experience in natural gas distribution. Tyler is the Clarksville Gas Operations Division Assistant Manager, a role he has served since early 2021.

Tyler is a graduate of the University of South Alabama with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Early in his career, Tyler was employed at contract company Grand Isle Shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, as a rigger and material controls clerk, where he gained valuable upstream oil and gas experience. Tyler also gained management experience as an outside account manager for the equipment and controls sales company, AWC Inc., and the electrical distributions and transmission services company, Southwest Electric Company.

Tyler is intimately involved with local, state, and federal natural gas associations. He is the current sitting President for the Middle Tennessee Gas Distributor’s Association (MTGDA) and a member of the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Gas Association (TGA).

Phillip Whittinghill has 31 years of service as a City of Clarksville, Gas & Water employee and 29 years of dedicated experience in the water industry. Phillip is the Clarksville Water Treatment Plant Manager, a role he has proudly served since 2013.
Phillip holds and maintains a Grade IV Water Treatment Plant Operator and Grade II Water Distribution System Operator certifications by the State of Tennessee Water & Wastewater Operators Certification Board.

When Phillip joined Gas & Water in 1993, his first job was with the Gas Division and in 1995, he moved to the Water Division where he has served since. Phillip has filled many roles at the water plant from his early beginning as a water plant operator to the roles of maintenance technician, maintenance supervisor, operations supervisor, assistant superintendent and then in 2013 he took over the important position as plant superintendent. He has overseen several plant construction projects throughout his tenure at the water plant with the most recent being a plant expansion bringing water service capacity to 28 million gallons per day (MGD). This expansion also added a state-of-the-art low pressure hollow fiber membrane filtration system.