Western Illinois University — in conjunction with the cities of Moline and Silvis — was recently presented with a Management Innovation Project of the Year Award by the Illinois Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA).
The award recognized the Silvis Lead Service Line Material Inventory Collaboration Project, according to a news release.
In 2021, WIU-QC Vice President of Campus Operations Kristi Mindrup and Hutchison Engineering Inc. Director JD Schulte combined forces after learning about the challenges local agencies face while developing the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency-required Lead Service Line Material Inventory, the release states.
The two then collaborated with WIU GIS Center Director Chad Sperry and Geography Department Chair Samuel Thompson to work with then Silvis City Administrator Nevada Lemke to build a regional partnership and inventory development model for communities.
“Collaborations like these are what the WIU Quad Cities campus is all about,” Ms. Mindrup said in the release. “This project coupled the expertise of WIU faculty with the City of Silvis team to develop a plan, and then WIU student interns implemented a plan that provided them with real-world, hands-on experiences that built on their education and added to their resumes.”
Once the partnership formed, WIU and Hutchison decided to build an intuitive geographic information system model. Silvis collected the necessary data and WIU faculty and students built the GIS model, complete with a service line material inventory and a predictive tool to highlight unknown locations that could be presumed to be lead, according to the release.
“Facilitating the connection between WIU and Silvis has matched the public need with the best resource possible,” Mr. Schulte said in the release. “The outcome has truly created a textbook model that other agencies facing the same challenge could emulate.”
The APWA awards program was established to recognize outstanding individuals, groups and organizations while promoting an atmosphere of mutual respect and providing a way to grow and achieve, the release states.
