The Rural Water Department, public water supplier of Nodaway County, has seven towers dotting the county.
The tower at the junction of FF and JJ highways in northwest Nodaway County ––  which was completed in 2006 –– has been dedicated to Don Blackford, who passed away May 4, 2007.
 Superintendent of the Rural Water Department Wes Parker and Nacaela Greeley were on hand Wednesday to put signs up at the location.
“Don Blackford was such a big help to us as we worked on the rural water lines,” Parker said. “He sold us the land where this tower was erected. We ran water lines across a lot of his land and he was very good to work with. A lot of people in Nodaway County have been good to work with.”
Greeley is one of Blackford's 14 grandchildren. This is the second summer she has spent working with the water district.
“Nacaela has run a lot of water lines between here and Sheridan,” Parker said. “She's going to be laying a lot more this summer.”
Greeley said their family was happy the tower was going to be dedicated to her grandfather.
“I think it's great,” said Greeley, a student at Northwest Missouri State University. “Grandpa would really appreciate it. He enjoyed these guys being around. He watched everything that was going on a lot.
“Oh behalf of the family, I'd like to thank the water department for being as good to Grandpa as they have been.”
Parker said the water lines should be complete to Sheridan –– the county line –– by the end of the summer, bringing the number of miles of water lines in Nodaway County to 800.
Currently there have been 116 miles of water lines laid in Nodaway County, serving 2,000 customers. The Rural Water Department is now in phase five of the plan, completing a phase of construction each year.
“We made an oath to try to get rural water to everyone in Nodaway County who needs it,” Parker said. “When I started working for the Rural Water Department, there were 1,200 customers –– now there are 2,000. We probably have the biggest water district in the State of Missouri.”
The water district has two underground clear wells, each with 50,000 gallon storage capacity that pumps water into the towers. There are six underground booster pump stations.
The whole system works on a telemetry system –– meaning that an antenna on each tower sends signals to a centrally-located computer brain which turns on the pumps, filling the wells.