Kane County Reporter

Peter Wallers was the center of attention at a recent Village of Montgomery meeting.

Officials awarded the longtime engineering advisor and consultant with a Regional Excellence Award presented by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP).

With CMAP officials long branding the award as a way to help municipalities and communities give back and recognize exceptional work done by members of the northeast Illinois community.

“Thank you so much for having us here tonight,” CMAP Executive Director Erin Aleman said in presenting Wallers with the award in a video posted to YouTube. “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.”

Joined in presenting the award by Outreach and Engagement Director Jane Grover, Aleman highlighted results from a public opinion survey which showed a general positive consensus from residents, even as many of them added that they would like to see an increase of involvement from their local government in aiding with changes from the evolving 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 added.

During her presentation, Aleman marveled at the way Wallers has remained so focused about his job after more than 45-years in the industry.

“Throughout his more than 45 years in engineering, [Wallers] has remained passionate about one critical asset to a strong quality of life, and that's water conservation," she said. "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.”

At one point, organizers presented a highlight video of Wallers hard at work, prompting the veteran worker to thank the officials for the recognition.

 “I [want] to thank the village of Montgomery for putting the nomination together,” he said.” It was a bit of a surprise, so I was happy too, thrilled to get the award. I've spent a long time working for municipalities, but what people need to appreciate is that 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.”

With that, Wallers made it a point of celebrating those in charge over the course of his career.

“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,” he added.