Boston wastewater operator of the year

James Boston and the awards he received in Hot Springs, with his wife Jaymey Boston and mayor Charles Linam,.
James Boston and the awards he received in Hot Springs, with his wife Jaymey Boston and mayor Charles Linam,.

— James Boston, Decatur’s public works director, was named the Arkansas wastewater operator of the year for towns with a population of less than 5,000.

Boston received the award from the Arkansas Water Works & Water Environment Association in Hot Springs on May 2.

The City of Decatur also received a Special Systems Recognition Award from AWWEA.

City council members and community members celebrated the awards with a surprise reception for Boston after the May 9 city council meeting.

“It was a good feeling to see the hard work by myself and the guys at the plant paid off and got noticed,” Boston said.

Boston was named wastewater operator of the year by the Northwest District of the AWWEA in December and competed with eight other districts for the state award.

The wastewater treatment plant has come full circle from being the object of a lawsuit centered on pollution in 1996 to being an award-winning facility. Boston has seen the wastewater treatment plant through its financing, planning and construction phases and has worked to get the plant online and into compliance.

“It was fun, it really was, even as hard as it was,” he said.

News, Pages 8 on 05/18/2011