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

Larry Wray of Douglas Rural Water District 5 Named KRWA Rural Water Manager of the Year

In keeping with the Association’s award criteria of sustaining the community, Larry Wray has achieved this goal many times over. Involvement in the business of ensuring quality water being delivered to customers in a quickly growing RWD in an equally fast growing county has been intense. “Our largest challenge is continuing to meet customer needs in a rapidly growing community adjacent to a major metropolitan area.” Wray said.

As a teenager, Wray helped his father lay service lines and complete meter hookups for many of the original 325 customers—after the original operator retired, Wray was appointed manager in 1986. Today the district serves in excess of 1000 customers and continues to grow.

Since taking the position, Wray has been instrumental in a variety of improvement projects including construction of two new elevated storage tanks; four above ground pumping stations; many miles of new pipeline; construction of new main office and maintenance shop; work on developing GIS mapping of the water system. Wray also works with hundreds of landowners to obtain easements that are becoming more of a challenge requiring patience and understanding of landowner requests. Work is also currently underway with neighboring RWDs to form a Public Wholesale Water Supply District.

Larry Wray expects quality work to be done in both field and office. He places very high emphasis on maintaining a quality system that delivers quality water. With two water sources eventually mixing, maintaining chlorine levels becomes a challenge. A system benchmark that any certified operator can be proud of is the District’s history of low water loss which was less than 5% in 2005. Derek Welsh, past RWD 5 board chairman said, “Larry is a hard working, dedicated individual that takes pride in everything he does. This award is well deserved.”