On January 10th, at the 74th Annual USDA Secretary’s Honor Awards, Secretary Tom Vilsack honored nine Missouri Rural Development employees and others from the Rural Utilities Services Water and Environmental Programs. These outstanding public servants were part of a team that moved bureaucratic mountains when a rural Missouri community faced significant public health threats during a catastrophic sewer failure
The USDA’s Secretary’s Honor Awards are the highest awards granted by the Secretary to individuals or groups for their contribution or achievement to support the Department’s mission. The team recognized at last week’s ceremony worked exhaustively in pursuit of immediate solutions to an issue that seemed to be “everyone else’s problem.” In the scheme of things, a small Missouri community with an inoperable sewage system hardly seems much of a story…unless you’re one of those several hundred residents in Dunklin County facing an unfixable nightmare of sewage standing in yards and the inability to flush toilets. Missouri USDA Rural Development is not an emergency response agency – but when the clock is ticking, passing the buck is not an option. We dug in, went to work, and got the job done.
Missouri USDA Rural Development staff work daily to make a difference for rural residents. With more than 40 different programs and 24 local offices throughout the Show-Me-State, we help to develop strong economies, infrastructure, and homeownership in countless communities. In the case of last week’s award recipients, that includes stepping outside of their comfort zones and burning the midnight oil to accomplish that mission…