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WIU & City of Silvis Receive a Project of the Year Award

April 27, 2023

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MACOMB/MOLINE, IL - - Western Illinois University, in conjunction with the city of Moline and the city of Silvis, was recently awarded a Project of the Year Award, "Management Innovation," from the Illinois Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA) for the Silvis Lead Service Line Material Inventory Collaboration Project.

In 2021, WIU-QC Vice President of Campus Operations Kristi Mindrup and Hutchison Engineering Director JD Schulte facilitated a connection between WIU and Silvis after hearing of the challenge for local agencies to develop the IL EPA-required Lead Service Line Material Inventory. Mindrup and Schulte, in collaboration with WIU GIS Center Director Chad Sperry, and Geography Department Chair Samuel Thompson, worked with Nevada Lemke, the city administrator of Silvis, on a plan identifying maps and survey work, building a regional partnership and an inventory development model to be used amongst communities.

"Collaborations like these are what the WIU Quad Cities campus is all about," said Mindrup. "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."

A partnership was formed between WIU and Hutchison Engineering after the need was proposed. After deliberation on how to assist Silvis, WIU and Hutchison quickly came up with a solution to build a GIS intuitive model using WIU students almost entirely to assist.

"After reading the Public Act requiring the lead service line inventory, we at Hutchison Engineering made it our focus to guide our local agency partners to the most effective solution to create their inventory," said Schulte. "Facilitating the connection between WIU and Silvis has matched the public need with the best resource possible. The outcome has truly created a textbook model that other agencies facing the same challenge could emulate.

The city of Silvis collected data to arm WIU faculty and students with the information needed to build a GIS intuitive model to create the Silvis service line material inventory and a predictive tool to highlight unknown locations that could be presumed lead. The project concluded with the GIS Center at WIU partnering with the Rock Island County community of Silvis to evaluate water pipes that run from the city's streets into its more than 1,500 homes.

The project paid University students participating in internships or senior projects to go door-to-door, asking residents to examine the pipe coming into their home from the streets. Students photographed the pipes, and collected data for the project database to keep track of the existence of lead pipes that need to be replaced with copper piping.

The model established can further be used by other communities partnering with education centers around the country to efficiently and cost-effectively complete the same unfunded mandate with minimal cost to taxpayers.

"The basic foundation of Q2030 is to foster stronger regional collaboration in our community's response to challenges and opportunities," said Q2030 Executive Director Kate Jennings. "Sparking this connection between WIU-QC and Hutchison Engineering helped us to fulfill our fundamental role as a convener for positive change in the Quad Cities."

The APWA Awards program was established to recognize outstanding individuals, groups, and organizations. By recognizing professional contributions, public works professionals promote an atmosphere of mutual respect and provide a way to grow and achieve.

For more information on the GIS Center, visit wiu.edu/GIS.

Posted By: Lexi Yoggerst (AJ-Yoggerst@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing