Dear Fellow APWA Chapter Members:
Welcome, my name is Bill Gray;
I was recently elected president of the Illinois Chapter of APWA. It is
an honor and pleasure to serve all of you. As I look ahead the next two
years I would like to build upon the strengths of the Illinois Chapter.
This includes supporting the annual May conference in Peoria, continued
publishing of the membership directory, retain and reach out to expand
our membership, promote the best personal development training of
public works officials available anywhere - the Illinois Public Service
Institute held in Effingham in October. Lastly, I will continue to
foster relations with the Chicago Metro Chapter and seek opportunities
to partner with them especially as they prepare to host the 2013
Congress in Chicago.
There are two areas of interest that I
encourage this Chapter stepping up to support. The first is becoming
part of the Illinois Public Works, Water, and Wastewater Response
Network (ILWARN). ILWARN is planned to become a resource where
communities that suffer from a natural or man made disaster can seek
help from fellow public works, water, and wastewater agencies to
mitigate an incident. ILWARN will have an agreement that will stipulate
the procedures and responsibilities of the receiving and providing
agencies. Membership is completely voluntary. There is strength in
numbers and when an agency is overwhelmed due to a catastrophe and we
all have seen or experienced them, such aid is invaluable. Look for
more details about ILWARN at the Annual Conference May 1st and 2nd.
The
second area of interest is promoting sustainability. Sustainability is
an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural
environments both now and into the indefinite future. In many ways we
as stewards of community’s infrastructure abide by this principle.
However, it is more important than ever that we learn from each other
and seek out ways to incorporate sustainable practices in all areas of
our duties and responsibilities. I would encourage branches to consider
topics that talk about where good sustainable programs are practiced.
Perhaps the 2009 Annual Conference could support an entire track on
sustainable practices in public works.
We all thank our
advertisers who have provided financial support for this directory and
other Chapter activities. Please review our advertisers and feel free
to contact them for goods and services your community may need. Also we
give thanks to R & B Productions for putting this directory
together.
In closing, I look forward to seeing and meeting all
of you. If you have any ideas that can make this chapter stronger and
serve your needs better, please let me know.
Sincerely,
William R. Gray, P.E.