Bass named 2018 System Board Member of the year

The Iowa Rural Water Association is pleased to announce that Duane Bass of Wapello Rural Water Association has ben named the 2018 System Board Member of the Year. Bass was presented this honor during the Iowa Rural Water Association's 44th Annual Conference held at the Veteran's Memorial Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center run Feb. 18 - 20 in Des Moines.

The award is presented to an outstanding Rural Water System Board Member who has gone above and beyond the normal requirements of their duties. Bass has been an active member of the Wapello Rural Water Association Board for 40 years as of January 2019. For more than 30 of those years he has served as the Board Secretary. He was one of the first Wapello members to finish his Water User's Agreement in June 1974. The same year he volunteered and went knocking on doors to get sign-ups for the system. IN 1976 the first water started flowing through the system.

Bass has a master's degree in Agricultural Engineering from Iowa State University and worked for 36 years at John Deere Ottumwa Works as a product design engineer, quality manager and division engineering manager, and has 14 U.S. Patents and over 50 foreign patents.

Bass and his wife have one daughter, Kelly, and along with their son-in-law Will, they have a farming operation with a herd of red Angus cattle and approximately 300 acres of hay.

For his dedication and commitment to serving the rural water community, the Iowa Rural Water Association was proud to present Bass with the 2018 System Board Member of the Year Award.