Kingsland: KWSC board welcomes new general manager

By Raymond V. Whelan • Daily Tribune Staff

KINGSLAND - Although Earl Foster has another week to go before he begins his new duties as general manager, Kingsland Water Supply Corp. members have already welcomed him into their midst.

“We are looking forward to working with him,” KWSC president Linda Raschke said as she introduced Foster to KWSC board members and staff during the board meeting Tuesday night. “He is ready for it, and I’m really excited.”

Foster will succeed interim KWSC general manager Bill Fry Oct. 17.

“I’m excited about this opportunity,” Foster told the board.

Also during the meeting, board members tried to find solutions to the plight of a rural neighborhood that has no running water. Residents in the area have to tote water to their homes.

Meanwhile, Foster received warm applause from the board members and staff as they greeted him. The former Kingsland Municipal Utilities District assistant general manager and plant operator has worked in the water and wastewater field for 19 years, including a four-year stint as a supervisor and operator with the Lakeway MUD from 2000 to 2004.

Recently, he worked as an operator for Aqua Texas, an Austin-based firm that supplies and installs water purification and filtration systems for homes and businesses.

Raschke thanked Fry for his service “during a very tumultuous period.”

Fry served as the KWSC interim general manager since late 2006, after a previous board demoted and later dismissed Tommy Collier.

“I’ve enjoyed working here,” the Kingsland resident said. “It was an opportunity to make some positive changes for the community.”

Fry will continue to work for Severn Trent Services as its regional business development manager, a job he held while also general manager of KWSC. And he plans to help the Kingsland Chamber of Commerce investigate important topics, such as the possibility of incorporation.

“I’m looking for ways to improve Kingsland, and I want to continue to support the (KWSC) board and Earl (Foster) any way I can, personally, as well as through Severn Trent,” Fry said.

When Foster assumes his new duties Oct. 17, he will take over a nonprofit that is financially sound, one that added 44 new accounts and sold more than 33 million gallons of water during the past two months. The corporation also earned interest income on certificates of deposit totaling $70,000 during Fiscal Year 2006-2007, which ended last month.

Foster will also manage a corporation that seeks more water, especially for several Kingsland residents who live on Indian Trail near RR 3404, nicknamed “Slab Road” because it skims over the Llano River.

During the Tuesday meeting, Kingsland resident Maribeth Luebke told the board she and her family have lived on Indian Trail for four years and yet, they often have no choice but to physically “tote” water to their home from a windmill at the KWSC headquarters on West Drive.

“I have inquired about receiving city water, and I have been told time and time again, the water company does not have the money, and they have not been approved for a grant,” Luebke told The Daily Tribune.

“Many residents in my area have to tote water in, because either the wells are bad, less than 20 gallons per minute, or the wells have not produced any water.”

Some residents near Slab Road have been waiting more than 10 years to get city water, Luebke said.

“I have to share a well with five other families,” Luebke added.

After the June flood, the well became contaminated, and families went without well water for more than a month and a half, Luebke recalled.

“Currently, because of how many families are on this well, I lose water completely around 7 p.m. every night. It is difficult to bathe three kids and wash dishes with no water,” Luebke said.

KWSC Vice President Bob Bender told Luebke the board went to the “state level” last May for a community assistance grant to fund the installation of a water line to Indian Trail.

However, the state turned the grant down, and the KWSC application is now under review, Bender said.

Fry said the Capital Area Council of Governments received the grant application. Even if CAPCOG approves the water grant after review, the state agency would not release funding until May 2008, he added.

“If the grant money isn’t there, we need to look at what we can do in-house,” Bender said. “People are hauling water to their homes, and here it is 2007. We need to look at our options, maybe even a temporary line to get water out to them.”

Board members indicated they would talk to the Llano County Commissioners Court and other groups for assistance on water to Indian Trail.

“Our hands may be tied, but I want to do everything we can to get those people some water,” Bender said.

Also during the meeting, Fry said Alan Wyatt from Meridian Communications in Marble Falls has submitted a $28,720 bid to repair to storm-damaged water lines near the Dairy Queen along RR 1431.

“If we can do it for less than that, we’ll do that,” the outgoing general manager added.

Two other bids are coming for the project, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency would pay 75 percent of the cost, Fry said.

raymond@thepicayune.com

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Kingsland: KWSC board welcomes
new general manager