Municipal Water Plant Superintendent Award | Bookkeeper of the Year | City Administrator of the Year | Manager of the Year | Conger Award | Municipal Wastewater Operator of the Year | Operator of the Year | City Clerk of the Year | Friend of Rural Water | Most Improved System | Silver Faucet Award

Janice Kern, Franklin RWD # 6, Rantoul, Kansas, receives the Rural Water Bookkeeper of the Year Award

In keeping with the Association’s award criteria of sustaining the community, Janice Kern, bookkeeper of Franklin RWD # 6 has achieved this goal many times over. Involvement in the business of helping operate and manage an RWD began something as an accident for Janice, she explained, “I only volunteered to help straighten out the books for the district my father and other local farmers had started in 1969.” She has since been a dedicated employee of the District for the last 19 years. Today the RWD, which operates its own water treatment facility, serves more than 900 users.

“Janice Kern is a very dedicated employee very deserving of this award,” says RWD Board Secretary Robert W. Wilson, a retired welder and mechanic from Richmond, Kan. “When a customer has a problem she does everything she can do to help them. She will personally call all customers on the disconnect list to keep them from having to pay a disconnect fee! That’s service,” he added. Kern progressed from keeping records manually in two different sets of books to using a computer billing system. Recently the District switched to newest technology automated meter reading system. Such changeovers always present additional challenges on the administrative end, but Kern manages such change in her typical efficient style.