by Chris Cox
The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative (ARUC) program is welcoming its newest member-community. The community of Hooper Bay, Alaska, has decided to join the team! ANTHC staff traveled to the community to meet with Hooper Bay City Council members earlier this month to discuss the ARUC partnership, roles, and responsibilities of maintaining a successful water and wastewater facility through ARUC.
ARUC is a statewide program that partners with communities to manage, operate, and maintain water/sewer systems in rural Alaska. Led by the 26, and now 27, member-communities that comprise it, ARUC works with community partners to create solutions for utility billing and collection, system operations and management, and hiring local water plant operators throughout rural Alaska.
This is an incredible milestone accomplished by the leadership from Hooper Bay after four years of participating in ARUC’s Assisted Billing Program, which is the third and final tier before fully onboarding.
Dennis Hunter, Utility Manager for the City of Hooper Bay, and Victor Seton, Hooper Bay Water Plant Operator, gave visiting staff from ANTHC a memorable tour of the water plant, vacuum pump station, and several other utility buildings following the meeting. This transition was possible through the impeccable collaboration between officials from the City of Hooper Bay and ARUC leaders.
If you would like more information on ARUC, please visit www.anthc.org/what-we-do/tribal-utility-support/alaska-rural-utility-collaborative-aruc/.
Chris Cox is the Senior Program Manager for ARUC for ANTHC.
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