69: Bill Murray

Executive Director, Reading Water Authority

Bill Murray is the Executive Director of the Reading Area Water Authority and worked there every day throughout the shutdown. The pandemic gave rise to many issues for the Water authority, and they had to make some significant changes to their operation. Bill explains that at the beginning of the pandemic, the water authority had to decide if they were going to let the difficulties of the pandemic trip them up and cause them to stagnate or if they would try to take this opportunity to improve their services and discover new ways to work. He thinks that they adapted very well to the challenges they faced and are coming out of the pandemic even stronger and well-equipped than they entered it. 

During the bottled water shortages at the very start of the pandemic, Bill made a commitment to provide the community with free water. They set up a distribution point at their main office and ended up donating over 20,000 gallons of water to people who needed it, eventually needing to expand to a second location. Much of the water was given to the homeless population in the area, not only form drinking, but to help them take proper sanitation measures to stay safe from the virus. Bill says that the focus was not on the financial implications, but on what they should be doing as a good, socially responsible water authority.