We’ve covered stories on a lot of big cities in my 13 years as editor of MSW - Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Miami and many more. But sometimes the stories of small towns and rural communities speak equally as well to what this magazine strives to represent: innovative, proactive utilities operating above the status quo to better their systems and communities.
That’s in no way to say those big-city utilities I mentioned aren’t doing extremely impressive things. They are. But it’s sometimes easier to identify with little utilities where just a few people are doing everything.
When it comes to small towns and small utilities, we haven’t covered one smaller than LeRoy, Saskatchewan. Our profile of the town of LeRoy in this issue represents a remarkably forward-thinking approach from a tiny utility with a relatively small budget.
The town is building its future around water. Town foreman Kirt Holowachuk is a fixture at town council meetings, advocating for improvements to sewer and water infrastructure that he believes will add value to the community and promote economic growth.
With the current assistance of only one full-time employee, his department’s responsibilities include sewer and water infrastructure, road maintenance, urban forestry and operating the town’s ice rink in winter. But they’re not thinking small.
To support a gradual population increase, Holowachuk first prioritized improvements to the wastewater system, focusing on upgrades to handle greater capacity. He next turned his attention to water supply and a slate of improvement projects that included developing a second 475-foot well with its own distribution pump. The well systems can run independently of each other and serve the town during emergencies and routine maintenance.
Now, the town is poised to accommodate economic and population growth expected with the nearby construction of a large potash mine.
The successes of this tiny utility are impressive, but so is the approach St. Paul (Minnesota) Regional Water Services has taken in upgrading its water distribution infrastructure. Like the crew in LeRoy, St. Paul has a do-it-yourself ethos and has developed a successful in-house pipe bursting crew to repair and replace aging water lines.
Four years ago, the utility weighed the cost of contracting out pipe bursting work against the option of doing the work with in-house crews. Since then, the Minnesota utility has found that going it alone indeed is cost-effective in many cases and a better utilization of agency manpower.
Crews are now methodically pulling in new water main to replace old. Three replacement crews work through each summer construction season, with one of them specifically assigned to bursting work. Bringing the work in-house has helped the utility get the most out of its construction budget and the crews.
These utilities couldn’t be farther apart in terms of size and scope, but they’re both great examples of how to make the most of available resources while promoting system and community integrity.
Big or small, your utilities all serve the same mission. And you all have lessons to share.
Enjoy this month’s issue.
