Local engineer is named best in the United States

Amy Horst Ruggeri, senior engineer for water systems at City Utilities of Springfield, got a surprise March 15. That's when colleagues, friends and family threw a surprise party to celebrate her being named National Young Engineer of the Year by the National Society of Professional Engineers.

Ruggeri is the second engineer with CU to have received the national honor, joining Roddy Rogers, who received the award in 1991, according to Fred Palmerton, of Palmerton & Parrish. The honor says a lot about these engineers, he said, and about City Utilities. "I think it says a lot for the professional qualifications and attitude of a company that they'd have two (national honorees) in a 10-year period," he said.