60

THE KANSAS LIFELINE

July 2018

Carolyn Lamborn, 

Crawford County RWD 5

R

URAL

W

ATER

B

OOKKEEPER

Carolyn Lamborn, Bookkeeper for

Crawford County Rural Water District

No. 5 near Pittsburg, was recognized as

Rural Water Bookkeeper of the Year.

Carolyn grew up in southeast Kansas

and attended Pittsburg State University.

After working for KG & E (now

Westar) in Wichita, she accepted the

bookkeeper’s position with the rural

water district in 1991. During her years

with the district, she has seen major

improvements including the

construction of new wells and water

lines. These improvements were

financed through the Kansas Public

Water Supply Loan Fund which

requires quarterly reporting of financial

and operating data, known as FIAC

reports. Since completion of the project

in 2002, she has consistently complied

with the reporting requirements,

always submitting the reports

completed and on time.

Customer billing was done manually

when she began employment. She

converted all accounts to digital format

and moved the district from a manual

billing system to a computerized

billing system. She is currently

working to set-up customers to pay

bills online.

Carolyn is very active in her sorority,

having held all offices multiple times

for her local chapter as well as national

offices including national president.

She is a founding member of the local

“Community Thanksgiving” through

her church. For 32 years, this

organization has provided meals and

fellowship for local people who do not

have family or can’t afford a traditional

meal. She also helps serving meals to

the homeless and poor in the

community. For enjoyment, she enjoys

landscaping and gardening as well as

traveling, having been to Alaska and

Hawaii

Martha Tasker, City of Salina

U

TILITIES

D

IRECTOR

Martha Tasker, Utilities Director at

the city of Salina, was named “Utilities

Director of the Year” by KRWA at the

2018 conference.

Martha has been a long-time resident

of north-central Kansas; she has

worked on water and wastewater

projects across the state. While

attending college, she worked as a part-

time intern with an engineering firm.

After graduation, the job with the

engineering firm became full-time. As

a member of the firm’s environmental

department, she did concept and design

work on water and wastewater projects

for many municipalities. Her attention

to detail and her ability to manage

projects while with the engineering

firm earned her a reputation as one of

the best unlicensed engineering

managers in the state from the Kansas

Department of Health and

Environment.

In 2003, after 28 years with the

engineering firm, she made a career

move and joined the city of Salina to

manage the Utilities Department. As

Utilities Director, she manages 57

employees responsible for the water

and wastewater treatment plants, and

the distribution and collection systems.

She oversees an operating budget of

more than $12 million, along with

multi-million-dollar capital projects.

The city uses both surface water and

groundwater and delivers 15 MGD to

more than 20,000 customers.

Infrastructure includes five booster

pump stations, eight elevated storage

tanks, about 330 miles of pipeline

ranging from 2-inch to 30-inch

consisting of cast iron, ductile iron,

PVC, and HDPE pipe materials.

Planning for the future is an area

where she has been very involved,

including working to add a second

water source to provide water service

to customers if a natural disaster would

disable the current treatment plant. A

new well field and treatment plant will

be built to serve as an emergency

supply and to support growth in the

community. Also, as a result of a

drought several years ago, she pushed

to develop a 50-year raw water supply

study which resulted in a change in

how water rates are charged. The

results of this change where higher