Illinois River Group Holds First Meeting

The Illinois River Cities and Towns Initiative—a grouping of 15 ports and local governments along the Illinois River joining together for collective action and mutual support—held its inaugural meeting in Peoria Ill., November 6.

The IRCTI was organized in 2024 to bring Illinois River ports together “to form a stronger, more influential voice for the river and its communities.” It advocates for the region’s economic development, infrastructure improvements and environmental sustainability at both the state and national levels.

Its goal is not just to promise benefits, but to show in detail how joining together opens up new opportunities for member ports and river communities. Its presentations amounted to a detailed “speed dating” session on how to get maximum advantage out of collaboration with public and private partners to maximize development and sustainability opportunities.

The IRCTI’s executive director is Dr. Anshu Singh, who also serves as director of sustainability at the Corn Belt Ports. Robert Sinkler, former commander of the Rock Island Engineer District and executive director of the Corn Belt Ports, who has spent years encouraging and organizing greater cooperation among terminals and ports in the region, was also instrumental in helping set up the IRCTI.

Rita Ali, mayor of Peoria, welcomed the attendees and speakers at the Gateway Building, located directly on the Peoria riverfront almost underneath the Murray Baker Bridge. “In 2021, river-related and dependent industries supported nearly 262,000 jobs in Illinois,” said Ali, who co-chairs the group. “In a very bipartisan way, we’re working together to protect, to enhance our Illinois River, our precious asset.” Ali made a point that green development means shipping more cargoes by water. It was echoed by several other mayors.

Singh said the top three goals of the IRCTI were to “unify our voices, at state and federal levels,” revitalize waterfronts and form mutually beneficial partnerships. She thanked the 15 mayors who came together for an effort that “takes trust, patience and vision.” Too many Illinois River ports, she said, were formerly left off federal port maps.

Mayors Speak

Many local officials and mayors from river towns spoke at the event, including John Kahl, mayor of East Peoria; Chris Brown, mayor of the city of Morris, Ill.; Jim Lamer, director of Illinois River Biological Station; Robert Hasty, mayor of the city of Ottawa; Missey Schumacher, mayor of the village of Channahon, Ill.; and Travis McGlasson, chair of the Illinois Waterway Ports Commission, which held its own meeting the day after the IRCTI kickoff.

Issues the group wants to address include plastic pollution, water quality, invasive silver carp, workforce development and riverfront development. The mayors share a desire to make their river a centerpiece of economic growth as well as conservation and sustainability. To this end, the group announced partnerships with several other groups, including the Illinois River Biological Station.

On hand to welcome IRCTI’s formal kickoff was Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative—an organization founded in 2012 that includes the mayors of Mississippi River towns and cities from New Orleans to the Twin Cities. It was a direct inspiration for the IRCTI. Another speaker was Jack Knizhnik, development coordinator for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, another mayor-led organization from the Great Lakes region.

At a news conference, Singh noted that fresh water is an increasingly scarce commodity and will drive future development. “The Illinois River was the missing link” in the constellation of port fresh water communities and organizations, she said.

Benefits Of Collective Action

Sinkler said the increased visibility afforded by the initiative goes some way toward correcting “discrepancies in how Mississippi River vs. Illinois River communities were formerly supported.” Small boat harbors were not dredged on the Illinois River, for example.

“We are too close together to be competitors,” he said of the distance between the Illinois and Upper Mississippi rivers. “We must cooperate. We don’t want one to overshadow the other,” he said, noting that millions of years ago, the Illinois River was the Upper Mississippi River until the riverbed shifted. The goal of the organization, he said, is to help communities “shamelessly steal ideas and best practices from one another.”

Speakers stressed the benefits of collective action and partnerships. Bob Gallagher, mayor of Bettendorf, Iowa for 14 years, said he worked on the platform of the MRCTI as a congressional aide. He said that cities and towns belonging to the MRCTI have benefitted from $20 billion in investments, and that 100,000 acres of disaster mitigation projects have been deployed. “There’s too much at stake not to act at scale,” he said.

Biological Station Partnership

Jim Lamer, director of the Illinois River Biological Station, with which IRCTI has signed a memorandum of understanding, spoke on the station’s work. It’s part of a larger collaborative system that is connected with the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana. The station’s work embraces many scientific disciplines, he said, but is focused on “flowing water.” Its mission is to investigate and analyze data needed for long-term decisions on the health and sustainability of the waterway. It has been monitoring the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois River for more than 30 years and has developed standardized data-collection methods allowing consistent data analysis across decades.

Among its other tasks, the station takes part in a multi-agency effort to monitor invasive carp at 1,900 sites. It measures not just carp, but native fish species to determine their health. “We use native fish as ‘success metrics’,” he said. Its findings are used to “increase the speed of science” and to deploy contract fishermen to harvest carp. Lamer noted a 79 percent decline in carp at the Starved Rock reach due to Illinois Department of Natural Resources efforts. The station is involved in creating new dashboards to make all this data more accessible to everyone.

Always Be Applying

Mary Burress, mayor of Pekin, Ill., introduced Bob Brettell, a managing partner of The Prosody Group, a public affairs and media group that helps municipal clients get grants. He spoke on the need for municipalities to regularly apply for competitive local and regional economic development grants.

Brettell’s message to towns and port districts was, “Always Be Applying.” “Your political status and eligibility for federal and state grants is a precious asset that should not be wasted,” he said. “We have to ask you guys [public authorities] to sponsor projects. You should have multiple projects in every application round.” Bretell’s experience includes working with the energy industry and ag clients. He expanded into full-time grant development and management at the request of clients, he said.

Economic development is all about telling stories, he said. He gave a quick guided tour through various federal and state grants opportunities. Illinois has a dedicated Marine Division, but no independent programs to incentivize or fund projects. REBUILD was a one-time program. The U.S. Department of Transportation BUILD program mostly goes to road and rail projects.

Bretell advocates the use of “stacking” or stair-stepping grants by applying for a small grant that can produce a study or document results, then using those results to apply for larger grants. He cautioned that “social and environmental justice” justification for grants are going away.

Bretell highlighted the Maritime Administration’s Port Infrastructure Development Program as a good source of grants for waterfront communities, along with its Marine Highway and Small Shipyard grant programs. There are also “carve-outs” for smaller ports in programs like the Department of Transportation’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) and Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement and Financing (RRIF), although larger seaports are better positioned for them.

Some of these grant sources depend on appropriations from state legislatures and/or Congress, so “Call your representative!” Brettell urged attendees. The focus he would like to see, he said, is on economic development zones, state block-grant-funded maritime programs and port operations in rural areas.

Workforce Development

Pam Maxwell, director of programs and operations at We Work the Waterways, spoke on the necessity of workforce development. She noted that, until recently, there has been little or no structured outreach to students on behalf of maritime careers, whether on the water or shore-based, yet one in five jobs in Louisiana is maritime-related. Back in 2015, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry was already documenting that 50 percent of the maritime workforce was expected to retire within 10 years. That figure is closer to 70 percent now, she said, and some of those retirement-aged workers are staying on the job.

Maritime careers offer high pay and have a low barrier to entry—except the lack of outreach. “All you have to do is be dependable and have a good work ethic” to get your feet in the door, she said. “Industry-led career programs work!” She detailed all of WWW’s outreach efforts supported by industry partners.

Maxwell’s presentation was referred to by many subsequent speakers, who reiterated that without new young workers interested in the jobs that they hope will be generated on and near the water, none of the economic development programs they are developing are going to bear fruit.

The very next speaker, Chris Setti of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council (GPEDC), echoed that point, saying, “Workforce development is key!” He was part of a panel that included Kyla Karten, vice president of site readiness at the Illinois Economic Development Corporation; Andrew Cunningham, executive director of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce’s Infrastructure Council; and Aly Grady, deputy director of regional economic development at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. They spoke on economic development in the Illinois River Corridor. With Setti acting as moderator, the panel laid out all of the state offices that assist cities and towns with economic opportunity zones and targeted grants.

It’s not just the maritime industry that’s facing a workforce “cliff.” One speaker was David Heinzmann of Veolia, a global wastewater treatment company that originated in France, operates in every climate zone around the world and has 10,000 employees. No issue is more important to cities and towns than water supply and wastewater management, yet licensed water operators are also aging, with few young workers to replace them, he said. He detailed several projects his company worked on, such as the one at Spruce Pine N.C., where a wastewater plant was wiped out by a heavy storm and needed to be replaced. These aging plants are getting overwhelmed by weather events, he said.

WEDG Guidelines

Joseph Sutkowi, chief waterfront design officer at the Waterfront Alliance, spoke on how using Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines (WEDG) can give waterfront and river-related projects a competitive leg up in the competition for grants. Those guidelines meet or exceed requirements built into many grant programs and ensure high scores across various metrics, including sustainability, use of natural resources and innovation. There are about 1,300 certified WEDG professional in the United States, he said. Some waterfront districts require WEDG certification for projects.

Success Stories

Kahl, the East Peoria mayor, detailed some of that town’s success stories. “We made a huge investment in cleaning up the levee district,” he said. After Hurricane Katrina, East Peoria’s levees, built in the 1940s and 50s, were turned over by the Corps of Engineers to the city. A former junkyard was turned into a first-class marina, the only one with certain amenities between Chicago and St. Louis. Kahl said his city is especially proud of its barge-launched July 4 fireworks display, the third-largest in the country.

Unlocking Value In Energy Savings

Katy Glynn, senior business development manager at Opterra Energy Services, spoke about boosting projects with an energy-saving component. Certifeemergencyfying future energy savings can be used to unlock value and financing for projects today, she said. Energy service companies can complete detailed energy audits on projects. Replacing street lighting in Washington, D.C., for example, resulted in reducing energy use by more than 50 percent.

Besides reducing energy use, well-designed projects can ensure rapid recovery of systems when outages do occur and limit their scope, she said.