Mayor Demarais was Voted President of the Montana Rural Water Systems Inc. Executive Board

At the latest Montana Rural Water Systems Inc. meeting at the end of March which was attended by 930-950 people, Malta Mayor John Demarais was voted in as President of the Executive Board.

"It is a great honor and opportunity," said Demarais. "I'm very proud to be elected."

The Montana Rural Water Systems Inc. (MRW) mission is to provide quality training and technical assistance to drinking water, wastewater, and tribal systems - To enable them to produce the best product with their available resources.

The board has nine members. Four on the Executive Board and five on the regular board.

MRW is based in Great Falls, and Mayor Demarais told the PCN, "The next goal for MRW is to purchase a piece of land to turn into the HQ and training facility."

The group has found a piece of land and is looking for the funding to purchase it.

After the latest meeting, the board members loaded up and headed for Washington D.C. to ask for support for the funding from the powers that be there.

In D.C., the group met with all of the Montana representatives there. Daines, Tester, and Rosendale, and told them of the plan that MRW has for the property. The group received a signed letter of support from all three.

"This was my first trip to D.C.," said Demarais. "I'm a huge architecture buff, and it was amazing to see all of the huge buildings made of white marble."

Mayor Demarais also said that two things stood out to him. "Everyone there walks with a purpose. Like they were supposed to be somewhere ten minutes ago. The other thing is that it is very pricey. We went to a place close to the capital. Beers were $12 and mixed drinks were $16. We decided that place wasn't for us. We found a little Irish Pub that had really good food and was priced much better."

Demarais also added that there were groups of school kids everywhere doing field trips.

Happy to be back home, Demarais said that along with the new training facility, MRW has started an apprenticeship program.

"A lot of the water and sewer operators are starting to age out," said Demarais. We need to start getting the next wave of younger water managers in."