As part of its effort to highlight its 2011-12 class, the Society of Innovators of Northwest Indiana has selected Tim Morgan and Deborah A. Owen as its December Innovators of the Month.
The LaPorte County Parks and Recreation Department became the first to be awarded a $1.8 million grant using Great Lakes Fisheries and Ecosystem Restoration Project Funds to restore Red Mill County Park, said Morgan, who recently marked his 20th anniversary as park superintendent.
This creative financing made possible the removal of a hazardous dam and the rescue of hundreds of acres of wetlands of the Little Calumet River headwaters. Moreover, this project resulted in a refund of $35,285 from the Army Corps of Engineers to be used for trail construction as part of the new Lincoln Trail System just north of Westville.
NIPSCO is the first utility in Indiana to offer online reporting of streetlight outages, said Owen, executive director of customer service and part of the Streetlight Outage Reporting Team.
The online tool allows customers, emergency personnel and other community members to report streetlight outages. Customers noticing a streetlight that is broken or burned out can visit www.NIPSCO.com/StreetlightOut and submit a request to have it fixed. An interactive map identifies all the streetlights NIPSCO owns or maintains.
The society is part of the Gerald I. Lamkin Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center of Ivy Tech Community College Northwest.
For more information, call O'Merrial Butchee, director of the Lamkin Center at (219) 981-4942, or John Davies, assistant director, at (219) 981-1111, ext. 2292.
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