Casey County restaurant changes daily routine to conserve water during ongoing drought
CASEY COUNTY, Ky. — As water levels remain low in Casey County, one longtime Liberty restaurant is changing the way it operates to help conserve water.
For 62 years, The Village Restaurant has been a gathering place in downtown Liberty. Owner Donna Rigney said the restaurant is known for making its food from scratch.
“Nothing’s frozen. We cook it all ourselves just like your grandma would do,” Rigney said.
But with the county dealing with drought conditions and Lake Liberty, its main water supplier, still at concerning levels, Rigney has made changes inside the restaurant to reduce water use.
“One of the main things that we do is we try to limit the water that goes out,” Rigney said. “If somebody wants water, then we give it to them. We don’t deny them, but we don’t just offer it either.”
The conservation efforts extend into the kitchen. Instead of continuously spraying dishes before they are washed, employees use a bus tub.
“We have a bus tub back there that we put the dishes in, wash them, put them in the rack, then run them through so you’re not using no sprayer to spray all of the food off the dishes and things like that,” Rigney said.
Rigney is also finding ways to conserve water at home. When she replaces the water bowls for her dogs, she said she uses the leftover water on her plants instead of pouring it out.
The water shortage continues to be a concern across the community. Liberty Mayor Dr. Sam Haddad said conditions are getting tougher.
A new pump capable of moving 2.5 million gallons of water per day has been approved, but Lake Liberty remains 18 feet down.
Rigney said she has never seen drought conditions like these during her more than three decades in the area.
“I’ve been here 33 years, and I don’t know of ever being a drought, you know, like it is now,” she said.
For Rigney, conserving water comes down to helping the community she and her restaurant have called home for decades.
“You have to do it because it’s your community, you know, you have to care,” she said.
