Kendall County Times

The village of Montgomery honored engineering advisory and consultant Peter Wallers during its April 24 board meeting. He is among seven recipients of the 2023 Regional Excellence Awards.

During the April 24 village board meeting, which was streamed on YouTube, Erin Aleman, executive director, and Jane Grover, outreach and engagement director of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), were on hand to present the award. CMAP serves as the regional planning oversight entity for 284 communities in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties in northeastern Illinois, according to the CMAP website.

"Thank you so much for having us here tonight,” Alderman said during the meeting. “I'm pleased to be here because we're talking about our State of the Region program and we're presenting an award. We started the State of the Region program two years ago to really highlight the good work that is going on across our region and recognize really excellent people who are visionary leaders, who have projects that exemplify, you know, what we want the Chicagoland region to really look like.”

Alderman also touched upon Wallers’ career and accomplishments during the meeting.

“Throughout his more than 45 years in engineering, Peter has remained passionate about one critical asset to a strong quality of life, and that's water conservation,“ Aleman said during the meeting. “Pete's many lists of accomplishments and reinforced collaboration, expert insights and care. And these are so important, and I think really exemplify the leadership qualities that we're recognizing here tonight.”

During the meeting, Aleman also highlighted the results of a recent CMAP public opinion survey that outlined the vison many residents have for development, with many respondents hoping for more involvement from local government to address the impact of the changing climate.

“So, we're excited to use this input and feedback for us to strengthen and hone our work and make sure that it's locally relevant to you all here,” Aleman said.

Wallers offered his thanks and appreciation to CMAP for the award during the meeting.

“I'll cherish this for sure,” he said during the board meeting. “I also want to thank Village Montgomery for putting the nomination together. It was a bit of a surprise, so I was happy to, thrilled to get the award.”

Waller noted he’s spent a number of years working for municipalities, and he hopes people will appreciate the work and ideas of consultants.

“Consultants and engineers can have all the ideas they want, but unless a local government is willing to implement the solution to the problem, nothing gets done,” he said during the meeting. “So it's so important that the elected officials get that credit because we can have all the good ideas as engineers, but unless somebody is willing to step up and take the hit for maybe having to raise water rates or raise taxes to get a project done, That's really where kind of the rubber hits the road.”

According to the CMAP website, the awards program honors seven projects and leaders who have focused their efforts on making northeastern Illinois a better place to play, live and work as well as conduct business.

“Whether they’ve strengthened access to resources, redeveloped long-vacant properties, or built on careers devoted to public service, the 2023 winners have shaped our region in outstanding ways,” it was noted on the CMAP website.