General Manager

A Note From you General Manager

2025 saw some changes at Southeast Water.  After 41 years of dedicated service, long-time employee and General Manager, Steve Hansen, retired October 1st.  A retirement well deserved and congratulations to Steve.  With Steve’s retirement, there were some staff changes at Southeast Water.  Chad Lingen was promoted to Lead Operator, Leslie Reiland was promoted to Office Manager, and Megan Roob was hired as our new Administrative Assistant. 

Just a bit about myself, as your General Manager.  My name is Don Lingen, I have been the Comptroller at Southeast Water for the past 12 years.  I called Mantador my home for the first 25 years of my life and have lived in Wahpeton for the past 32 years.  The Southeast Water Board entrusted me to carry on a long and proud tradition at Southeast Water.  A tradition that started in the 1970’s with Ray Heitkamp followed by Joel Heitkamp and then Steve Hansen, all great General Managers.  No doubt, I have big shoes to fill.

In 2024, Southeast Water was approved to construct a new Water Treatment Plant (WTP) in our West District just South of LaMoure.  We kicked off the project in 2025 by installing 3 new wells at our current wellfield and constructing a 500,000-gallon Ground Storage Reservoir.  Both projects were completed in 2025 and are fully operational.  Ground breaking for the WTP will take place in the Spring of 2026 with an estimated completion in the Fall of 2027.

We are still working on installing auto-read meters.  Currently, we have installed 1,700 auto-read meters with approximately 2,200 to go.  As you can imagine, this is a tedious and time-consuming project that will take some time to complete. 

As our system gets older, the aging infrastructure keeps our staff busy.  I believe Southeast Water’s staff is top notch and look forward to working with them for years to come.

I hope to see many of you at the upcoming annual meeting on March 11th in Mantador.

Don Lingen