Vacuum Truck Innovator LaVerne Charlet Passes Away

Wastewater industry pioneer LaVerne Charlet passed away Dec. 20 in Paducah, Kentucky. He was 83. Charlet was a manufacturer, marketer, and innovator in the vacuum truck industry and a recipient of the prestigious Ralph Macchio Lifetime Achievement Award presented by COLE Publishing founder Bob Kendall at the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo. In 2004, Charlet was honored by Pumper as an influential in vacuum truck technology. He was instrumental in septic service companies moving away from rudimentary diaphragm pumps or creating suction off a truck’s intake manifold and utilizing modern pumps and vacuum tanks. “We’d buy a truck and build a body. I’d jump