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The new general manager at North Prairie Rural Water District is making customer service her top priority.

Teresa Sundsbak started Jan. 1 in the position vacated with the departure of former manager Ralph Packulak. She's hardly new to the organization, though. She served six years on the North Prairie board of directors. She has previous experience in business with RCC Western Store, Cattlemen's Cafe and for the past nine years in sales at Fisher Motors.

"I like a challenge and I thought this would be a challenge," she said of her new job with North Prairie. "And I believe in rural water and I believe in North Prairie's system."

Because she feels strongly about the benefits of rural water, she wants the public to have a positive impression of the organization. She wants to rebuild the confidence of customers, who saw their water provider experience a large turnover in employees and a water sampling error last year. North Prairie followed State Health Department rules in sending warning letters about copper and lead to customers after staff erred in determining a boundary line and took two of 10 water samples from a wrong segment within the district. Sundsbak said no samples were high in the metals.

"We are trying to change our image," Sundsbak said. "We want to make sure that the customer is number one. We want to concentrate a lot more on customer service."

That change starts with North Prairie's relationship with its employees.

"I want to make sure employees know it takes everyone to make it work," Sundsbak said. "It takes a lot of teamwork and good communication. I think they were lacking a little bit of communication here. I want to make sure we go forward with good communication. We want to keep the communication open with customers. I do want to hear from them. I want to know if there's a problem out there."

North Prairie has hired three full-time operations employees to fill vacancies and is looking to replace a fourth who recently left. Sundsbak said that will leave the water district fully staffed, although a couple of part-time people might be hired for the summer.

The board also plans to hire a full-time operations manager. In hiring Sundsbak, the board split the former manager position into two jobs, creating the job of operations manager. North Prairie contracted with Central Plains Water District in Fessenden to employ its manager, Rick Anderson, as part-time operations manager in the interim. Anderson, who is certified in water system operations, continues to manage Central Plains and is chairman of the North Central Rural Water Consortium. Sundsbak is vice chairwoman of the consortium.

Among Sundbak's first tasks in her new job has been some remodeling in the North Prairie office on East Burdick Expressway in Minot.

In the future, Sundsbak wants to involve North Prairie in water education. In the coming school year, she hopes to go into classrooms and also to offer teachers a curriculum that can be incorporated into classes during Safe Drinking Water Week each spring. She hopes to work with other agencies to sponsor a water expo for high school students. The goal is to raise awareness about the importance of water and the impact of rural water systems.

"North Prairie operates on about a $2 million budget a year so we are not a small business," Sundsbak said. "We bring a lot more to the community than what people really realize. That's a lot of dollars being spent in Ward County."

Established in 1973, North Prairie has grown from an initial 500 customers to 2,200 customers. It serves the rural area around Minot, including the cities of Max and Surrey. One of the district's projects this year will be to construct a new water line to Surrey to address problems with water pressure. The $600,000 project, largely funded through the Corps of Engineers, will be done this summer.

North Prairie added more than 50 customers last year and will add nearly 20 this spring because of population growth. In addition, the water district expects to add between 700 and 800 new customers with projects scheduled this year.

The Radar Hill project, to be completed this fall, will bring water to Rice Lake cabin owners and the surrounding area. A Rural Development loan of $3.1 million is funding the construction.

A federal grant is covering much of the cost of a $5.6 million Ryder Service Area or Mountrail I project. The Ryder project won't be completed until next year, although work has begun.

In addition to expanding to new areas, North Prairie has spent $8.4 million in recent years on system improvements, including a new water treatment plant at Voltaire. Seven of the 15 pump stations have been updated as part of ongoing water projects, and two more are scheduled for updates with current projects.

North Prairie also is seeking funds to construct a rural water system in the Berthold-Carpio area.

"We would love to absolutely give everybody in the rural communities water and that is our goal. But without funding and some grant dollars, it's not economically feasible for some of those projects," Sundsbak said. "We have been very fortunate the past few years to get the money we have gotten."

She credited Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., for assisting the district in obtaining grants that have allowed the kind of expansion that North Prairie and the consortium have seen in recent years.

The consortium is a partnership between North Prairie and Central Plains that formed to bring water to unserved areas in their regions.

"It was basically started to get funding," Sundsbak said, noting that funds are more available to larger entities.

Among projects of the consortium is a water system to serve the Anamoose-Benedict area, scheduled to be bid this year. Another future project is Mountrail II, which covers a large area west of the Radar Hill project. The consortium has brought water to areas east of Minot, including Granville. Closer to Central Plains, the consortium has worked with Esmond, Maddock and Minnewaukan.

"We worry about rural North Dakota and the smaller towns surviving. Part of that is water is a huge player. People aren't willing to live where they don't have good quality water," Sundsbak said. "We have done a really good job of actually covering the bases, but there's a lot more to be done."