Tekoa wins water award

Tekoa’s extensive water project has been named “Best Drinking Water Project” in the state of Washington by the Infrastructure Assistance Coordinating Council (IACC).

“For good use of a variety of funding sources to solve a variety of problems,” said Jim Wilson, Regional Manager of the Rural Communities Assistance Corporation, and one of two main reviewers for the award. “For a town of their size, it’s a darn big project.”

The award was given Oct. 3 in Wenatchee at the IACC annual conference. Tekoa Mayor John Jaeger and City Clerk Kynda Browning were there to accept it.

“We were fortunate to get money from different places; it’s nice and we appreciate it. I sure didn’t think they had such an award,” said Jaeger.

Before the Tekoa water project began, the town was losing nearly 40 percent of its water because of leaking pipes, according to the IACC.