Passing of the Pipe Wrench of Fayette Water Supply Leadership

Fayette Water Supply Corporation (FWSC) held an open house on Wednesday, Nov. 15, to celebrate the rural water utility’s 50th anniversary. FWSC used the occasion to introduce its new general manager, Ronnie Wick.

Wick grew up in the water business. His grandfather started Wick Water Well Service decades ago, a business still in operation today. He worked for the City of Schulenburg through high school and later came to work for FWSC. He left FWSC for a brief period to work for the Texas Department of Transportation but came back to the utility about a year ago.

“He’s a good man and knows the business,” said FWSC board member Steve Galland. “You always want to try and grow from within. He has the qualification. It was time for him to step up, and that’s what he’s done.”

Outgoing general manager Jim Rebecek announced his retirement about a month ago. He will stay with FWSC in an advisory role until the end of this year.

“I’ve really enjoyed my stay here,” Rebecek said. “I’ve seen the worst of it and the best of it. The worst was Hurricane Harvey and the big freeze in 2021. That really taught us a lot.”

The 2017 hurricane caused a complete outage of the City of La Grange’s water system. FWSC supplied water to La Grange while the City repaired its system. The 2021 winter storm froze pipes and pumps across the FWSC system.

Rebecek said local leaders, businesses and organizations came together to get the water flowing again.

“It was a story of neighbors helping neighbors,” said local engineer Bradley Loehr, who works closely with FWSC. “That’s what this organization was founded for.”

FWSC got started 50 years ago under the vision of Gene Kruppa. At the time, TxDOT was building the Hwy. 71 bypass around La Grange, which led to commercial development west of the Colorado River in La Grange. But the City of La Grange did not supply water to that side of the river. Kruppa founded FWSC to supply water to the new businesses, and it has expanded across the County ever since.

“Trying to keep up with the population growth is a challenge,” Rebecek said. “Water is getting scarce.”

“The population is booming right now,” Wick said. “We used to get four new customers a month and now we’re seeing 15 new customers a month.”

“The challenges are going to be to try and keep rates low for the customers and serve them the best we can,” Wick added.