A Day in the Life of a Circuit Rider: Joe Anstine by Angela Godwin
Joe searches for a lost valve along a creek. Originally published in NRWA’s Rural Water, Vol. 43, No. 1, March 2022. Reprinted with permission from NRWA and Rogue Monkey Media. Angela Godwin is a writer and editor specializing in water and wastewater topics. She is currently the director of editorial services for Rogue Monkey Media. Raised on a dairy farm in rural Missouri, Joe Anstine has had a job almost since the day he was born. In those early days, Joe never imagined he’d end up in the water business. “After high school, I got into construction and worked in Kansas City for several years. Then I got a job down closer to home and worked there for five years,” he recalled. “I thought I was going to drive nails all my life,” he said. “That’s what my father did, and so that’s the path I was taking — building houses and doing odd jobs on the side.” Everything changed when his father-in-law, who was a long-time custodian of the local school, mentioned an opening at the City of Leeton. “He said, ‘Hey, the water guy quit. You need a job?’” Joe chuckled. “I wasn’t really 12
looking for a job, but I took it. It’s been cherries and blossoms ever since.” Joe excelled at being a water guy. He started out as the water and wastewater maintenance specialist, but before long, he was chief operator and then superintendent for the City of Leeton. His accomplishments did not go unnoticed: in 1997, while Joe was chief operator for the City of Leeton, the system was recognized by Missouri Rural Water Association (MRWA) as Water System of the Year; in 2000, he was named Wastewater Operator of the Year by MRWA; and in 2001, he was named Water Operator of the Year for the Northwest section of the Missouri Water and Wastewater Conference. In 2002, motivated by his passion for helping others in the water sector, Joe joined the MRWA as a Circuit Rider. Since 1980, when the Circuit Rider program was institutionalized into law with the passage of the Rural Development Policy Act, this team of more than 130 fulltime professionals has provided small and rural utilities with technical assistance and support as needed —
