Willie Doherty of Joyce recently received from Rusty Reeves, deputy director of Louisiana Rural Water Association, the prestigious 2024 H.M. “Skeeter” Vickers Award for “Outstanding Dedication to the Water Industry.”

Doherty, a representative of the Pleasant Hill-Crossroads Water System Inc. of East Central Winn Parish, has a long record of service to the LRWA and the water industry.  Having served as a Police Juror and on the Sparta Groundwater Commission, he is aware of the need of good, clean potable water.

Reeves, one of the founders of LRWA, had dedicated a large part of his life to the water industry through that organization.

The award was presented at LRWA’s annual Training Conference in Lake Charles in July 2024.  Doherty was unable to attend and Reeves traveled here to make the presentation.  The awards program was established to recognize rural water and wastewater systems and their personnel.  Of the systems statewide, Doherty of the Pleasant Hill-Crossroads system was selected as the year’s winner for dedication to providing safe drinking water.

The organization is a non-profit established in 1978 to aid small water and wastewater systems through training an on-site assistant.  Through those years, LRWA has assisted small towns and rural areas in all 64 parishes, providing the training and help to promote public health and environmental protection.