Montgomery’s longtime engineering consultant honored as a regional, visionary leader

The village of Montgomery’s long-time engineering consultant, Peter Wallers, was presented with a Regional Visionary Leader Award from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning during a Village Board meeting April 24.

Erin Aleman, CMAP executive director, told the board and a large Village Hall audience that included several of Wallers’ friends and colleagues the agency gives the award to local leaders as part of its “State of the Region” program.

Aleman said those chosen for the award exemplify vision, ingenuity and the dedication it takes to make the northern Illinois region a quality place to live, work and call home.

Wallers is chairman of the board for Engineering Enterprises Inc., of Sugar Grove.

“I think local government is the best government that we have because you can get things done and people are very willing to work together and there is not all this fighting that we see sometimes at the federal level.”

—  Peter Wallers, Engineering Enterprises, Inc., chairman of the board

“Throughout his more than 45 year career as an engineer, Pete [Wallers] has remained passionate about one critical asset to a strong quality of life, and that is water conservation,” Aleman said.

Aleman said Wallers demonstrates his leadership qualities through his collaborative work with local officials.

As an example, Aleman said Wallers has been a leader in the Northwest Water Planning Alliance, an intergovernmental organization established in 2010 that represents more than 70 communities and county governments that works to plan for the shared use of groundwater.

“At CMAP we have been heavily involved in the Northwest Water Planning Alliance, as well, and this alliance would not exist without Pete’s leadership,” Aleman said.

Aleman said Wallers’ work as an engineer for the village of Montgomery over the years “speaks for itself” and noted he recently helped develop a long-term water sustainability plan for the village.

Wallers thanked Aleman and said he was thrilled to receive the award.

“It has been an honor to work with Montgomery and the other communities that EEI serves.”

Wallers said he has been blessed to work with a “lot of great boards” over the years.

“I think local government is the best government that we have because you can get things done and people are very willing to work together and there is not all this fighting that we see sometimes at the federal level.”

Wallers said he believes people need to appreciate that engineers can have all the ideas they want, “but unless a local government is willing to implement the solution to a problem, nothing gets done. It is so important that the elected officials get that credit, because we can have all the good ideas as engineers. But it won’t get done unless somebody is willing to step up and take the hit for maybe having to raise the water rates or taxes. That’s really where the rubber hits the road.”