Dell Cornell Award

National Rural Water Association is pleased to announce that Matt Routsala, Michican Rural Water Association Circuit Rider and Larry Bell, Technical Assistance Director for Texas Rural Water Association are the 2004 Dell Cornell Award winners. 

This award is presented to individuals who, under difficult personal circumstances, continued to contribute to Rural Water and their association’s goals.

Routsala serves as Circuit Rider in the Upper Peninsula for Michigan Rural Water Association.  He is well liked and respected by his peers and by the people in the communities he helps.  This past December Matt had open-heart surgery returning to work in February.  His dedication to rural water sets an example to other industry professionals.

Bell stated as a Circuit Rider in 1988 for TRWA.  He also worked as the EPA Program Specialist and as an Asset Management Field Representative.  Currently, he manages 11 federal contract employees for Texas Rural Water Association’s Technical Assistance Program.  He’s served on numerous state and national water advisory committees.  Bell underwent open-heart surgery. He continued answering member inquiries even while he was in his hospital bed and during his recovery.  He is considered one of the most loyal and hard working members of TRWA’s team of professionals.

The NRWA Awards in Excellence program was established to recognize the outstanding efforts of the Member State Affiliates, their staff, and special members of the rural water industry. 

The National Rural Water Association is a non-profit federation of State Rural Water Associations.  Its mission: to provide state associations with support services to meet the needs of their membership.  NRWA is America’s largest utility association with over 24,550 members.

Historically, NRWA’s state associations have trained over 55,000 water and wastewater system personnel each year for two decades.  They also provide over 90,000 on-site technical assistance visits a year.

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