March 2026 Vol. 81 No. 3
Features
Randy Belanger recalls busy year, anticipates even busier 2026 for NASSCO
CORINNA HUNT, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
When Randy Belanger was asked to get involved with NASSCO in 2015, his initial reaction was one of apprehension.
“I had kids, and it was just one more thing to have to do, already working 55-60 hours a week — it’s like, ‘How am I going to do this?’” he said. “It has been, from a personal standpoint and a professional standpoint, one of the best decisions I ever made, and one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.
“On the professional side, the wealth of knowledge that members are willing to share about solutions, products and services is amazing; nowhere in the industry will you find more knowledgeable people willing to share and help you solve problems,” he said. “On the personal side, I serve side-by-side with many of [my company’s] competitors, and so many of them have become personal friends. The networking aspect of NASSCO can’t be overstated. You get out of NASSCO what you put into it.”
Belanger is vice president of sales for Visu-Sewer, one of the oldest and largest sewer inspection, maintenance and rehabilitation companies in the United States, founded in 1975 by Ernie Alexander – one of the founding members of NASSCO, in 1976.
“Ernie became president, in 1985, and then once his son Keith got involved, he ultimately became president of NASSCO in 2003,” Belanger said.
Belanger spoke with Underground Infrastructure the week before NASSCO’s 2026 conference – where he handed the presidency over to Tad Powell and stepped into the executive role of immediate past president. He shared insight into that role, the past year, and what is coming up, particularly as NASSCO celebrated its 50th Anniversary.
CHANGING ROLE
UI: What exactly does the new role mean for you in the coming year?
RB: The executive committee is comprised of the secretary/treasurer, vice president, president and past president, and is part of the overall board; we have nine total board members, and four people are on the executive committee. Once a month, the executive committee meets and talks about all things NASSCO.
The past president’s position, really, in my eyes, is about continuity, to continue to coach up and help those coming behind me to make sure things are seamless. There are certain duties that the president has that we now have detailed in our Board Policy to make it a little bit easier, but in large part, the president leans on the past president to make sure they’re doing the things that need to get done. An example would be doing the review of the executive director, which happens every year.
UI: What were some of the top priorities for NASSCO throughout this past year, and where do they stand now?
RB: Boy, there’s a lot. Probably one of the biggest things that we’ve started on is a succession plan for our executive director. Sheila Joy is our current executive director and she’s going to be retiring in 2028, which is fantastic for her and not necessarily for us, so one of the big things we’ve started is the search for her replacement. That’s well underway.
We’re trying to grow our public agency membership group, so we basically did away with their membership fee – any municipality, city, village, or whoever has a sewer system, can actually join NASSCO for free at the moment. The last time I looked, we saw a 30-percent increase in municipalities, but I think it’s higher than that now. We haven’t made the decision if it’s going to be an ongoing thing; right now, we’re just rolling with it to see what develops. Our goal is to ensure these public agencies stay involved in NASSCO.
As part of that initiative, we’re enhancing the search function of the website. Right now, members can go in and search for contractors, and the idea is, with more municipalities being members, we’re bolstering the search mechanism. So, the end users – generally all of our industry clients – can go to the NASSCO website and search for contractors, suppliers and engineers that are in their area and are NASSCO members. That helps the membership and provides a resource for the municipalities to be able to learn who they can potentially utilize for their projects in their area.
One big accomplishment is, back in 2023 or 2024, we purchased all rights to the Pipe Assessment Certification Program codes, which were derived from an organization in England called WRc, the Water Research Centre. The Centre originally created the foundation of the current defect codes, and NASSCO was, in essence, licensed to use WRc's codes, so we paid them a royalty every year.
NASSCO bought the intellectual property rights to PACP for the territories we serve; we no longer pay royalties, which is a great financial benefit. This past year we made our last installment payment, so we own PACP rights in our territories outright, and moving forward, we don’t ever have to worry that we wouldn’t be able to utilize those codes in the future because now they are NASSCO property.
LEADERSHIP
UI: Regarding the executive director search, is there a projected or ideal timeline for making a selection and finalizing that transition?
RB: We’re actually looking to hire an associate executive director by the end of this year, and then that person would shadow Sheila Joy through 2027.
They’ll have big shoes to fill; NASSCO has grown substantially under Sheila’s leadership, and there’s a lot of moving parts. What many people don’t understand is NASSCO is a small business. There’s a fair amount of revenue from PACP, a relatively small staff, and they’re very busy and have a lot of things going on. It’s important to find somebody who knows how to run a nonprofit, and that’s probably more important than being somebody from the industry. We perceive that it’s easier for somebody to learn the industry than it is for somebody to learn how to run a 501(c)(6) trade association.
As I’ve been on the board, I’ve been very blessed to have Sheila Joy as the executive director because she is extraordinarily passionate about the industry and about the organization. Her retirement is a big loss, so it’ll be challenging to find somebody who can step in and keep doing the things that she’s done over the last decade.
UI: As president, what was your biggest focus this past year?
RB: That growth initiative really was the biggest focus, which I guess dovetails with NASSCO’s mission to set standards for the assessment, maintenance and rehabilitation of underground infrastructure, and to continue to grow the trenchless technology industry. By educating municipalities or the system owners of the technologies that are available, it makes them aware of their options, what may be the most cost-efficient solutions and ways to avoid having to actually be disruptive to their clients – which are the residents – by digging up streets, closing off roads, impacting business, etc. If we can educate the municipalities on all the tools that are available, that goes a long way to also growing the trenchless technology industry.
NASSCO has a lot of resources on its website, and I don't think municipalities understand how beneficial NASSCO’s website could be to them. By getting more of them on-board as members, I think we can continue to grow the industry. We want more projects going the trenchless technology route than we do digging and replacing, which significantly saves tax dollars, allows municipalities to get more work done within their limited budgets. It completely makes sense, and that’s why the industry has taken off over the last 20 years.
Through that process of education, we’ve seen a lot of growth within the industry. We’ve also seen a fair number of new products come into the industry, which is great. The goal, really, is to provide municipalities with the best options available to solve their problems at the lowest cost.
NEW YEAR, NEW GOALS
UI: Is there anything in particular that NASSCO is looking forward to in this new year?
RB: One of the primary focuses is going to be finding the new executive director, so that’s going to take time. There likely will be another styrene study, but we haven’t defined exactly what the need is and what the best way to approach that would be. Perhaps most important is our focus on private property building drains and laterals. With the introduction of NASSCO’s building sewer and drain inspection (BSDI) and drain cleaning programs, we will better serve the small contractors by setting standards. We are also preparing to aggressively target private property owners and realtors to make sure they hire only NASSCO-certified professionals via our public-facing website, certifieddrainpros.com.
UI: From a personal, as well as a business standpoint, what are you most looking forward to coming up next?
RB: In terms of being past president, I’m looking forward to doing everything that I have been doing on the board of directors and as part of the executive team. The only real difference is that I’m not responsible for running the meetings. I’m looking forward to continuing doing what I have been doing, participating as much as I’ve always participated.
I’m also looking forward to being a resource to Tad [Powell, 2026 NASSCO president], to help him grow into the position. I guess my goal with that is to make sure at the end of this coming year, that I’ve done everything I felt I could to leave the organization in a position where it’s running smoothly and then turning it over to Tad as past president.
Really, just making sure there’s continuity and nobody skips a beat – and there’s not one of us that’s ever that important, so to speak. But it’s making sure the board remains open in terms of everybody being able to voice opinions and speak freely, and for us to have open discussions without any animosity. We’ve been very inclusive, and we want to make sure that openness continues, and I don’t see any reason that it wouldn’t.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
NASSCO, (301) 479-8077, NASSCO | Underground Infrastructure Industry Resources
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