Last week, representatives of Kentucky’s public drinking water and wastewater utilities gathered for Kentucky Rural Water Association’s (KRWA) 33rd Annual Conference and Exhibition held in Louisville, Ky. Nearly 800 utility professionals gathered at the Galt House to hear presentations from industry experts, network with peers, and tour Kentucky’s largest exhibition of products and services available to public utilities. Conference participants were Searching for Effective Solutions to the many issues affecting the water and wastewater industry.
East Logan Water District was among 10 drinking water and wastewater utilities featured during Tuesday morning’s Member Appreciation Breakfast as Wooden Bucket finalists and honored for their outstanding service during the past year. Tom Fern, State Director and Vernon Brown, Community Programs Director, USDA-Rural Development, were on hand to present all of the honorees with plaques of recognition. Other utilities honored included Barkley Lake Water District; Bronston Water Association; City of Caneyville; Henry County Water District #2; Lebanon Water Works Company; Mt. Sterling Water Works; Ohio County Water District; Prestonsburg City Utilities; and Wood Creek Water District. However, during Wednesday’s Awards Luncheon, East Logan Water District’s dreams came true, receiving Rural Water’s highest honor for 2012, the prestigious Wooden Bucket Award. This award is presented to a water and/or wastewater utility that has made substantial and lasting improvements in providing high levels of customer service and high quality drinking water and wastewater services in its community, including having shown exceptional efforts in meeting the needs of their communities, enhancing their operations, and complying with regulatory requirements.
Bill Stokes, East Logan’s Chairman of the Board, was thrilled to receive the award saying, “We all want to thank Kentucky Rural Water Association for the many years of support to East Logan Water District. We are fortunate to have had such a great long-term working relationship between board members and management for over 30 years. On behalf of the board, we want to thank C.K. Hanks, Hanks Construction Company and the staff for their superior management. East Logan strives to provide excellent service to our customers. We are very proud of our utility and honored to receive the 2012 Wooden Bucket Award.”
Barely able to contain her excitement, Jana Hanks, East Logan’s Office and Public Relations Manager added, “The bar has been raised now and we must continue working hard to receive this prestigious honor in the years to come. We are proud to serve and meet the needs of our great customers and we are humbled to receive this outstanding award. Our dream has finally come true and we will continue to work toward excellence and move forward in our service and meeting the needs of our customers. This Wooden Bucket award will be displayed in our office with pride to remind ourselves daily that hard work does pay off.”
The Kentucky Rural Water Association is a statewide, non-profit association that provides training, on-site technical assistance, advocacy, and other services to all utilities, including over 375 member public drinking water and wastewater utilities, in Kentucky. With offices in Bowling Green and Frankfort, KRWA has been fulfilling its mission of helping water and wastewater utilities help themselves since 1979.








