ILGARD: Campus institute lends a helping hand to the region

Monday Creek rises in Perry County and winds through 27 miles across Hocking arid Athens counties on its way toward the Hocking River, draining water from 116 square miles of scenic Appalachia. It could be a lovely little steam - if only Monday Creek wasn't orange from add mine drainage, filled with trash and debris and so polluted that some of it is devoid of life.

The Monday Creek Watershed is a fixture on the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s priority list for restoration, a cleanup job estimated to require several million dollars and a few decades. It also is a fixture and high on the priority list for Ohio University’s Institute for Local Government Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD), a major player in the environmental effort and one of 20 federal, state and local groups working in collaboration.

Monday Creek has become a showcase for ILGARD's resources. The institute surveyed partners in the project and established a priority list of 23 problems affecting the watershed that reflects concerns of both residents and agencies involved.

ILGARD also is conducting community outreach programs to bridge a communication gap between residents and representatives of the EPA and Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Part of that effort includes coordinating in-depth volunteer projects for 15 university students who work in communities In the Monday Creek watershed. Students have designed a survey to gauge the health of the creek by analyzing the water insects living in it. Other students are helping the village of Shawnee in Perry County do research for a book celebrating the town’s 150th anniversary.

Perhaps most important, though, ILGARD has used its Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities to create interactive maps of the watershed. click computer mouse on a point along the map tells users anything they want to know about Monday Creek, from the creek’s pH level to demographic information on residents.

ILGARD’s maps have been a boon to project partners when it comes to discussing environmental problems of the watershed with local officials and residents. "It's something we can show to local people that they can relate to," says Dan Imhoff environmental specialist with the Ohio EPA.

Since 1981, ILGARD has turned the university’s technical expertise into real-world assistance for Southern Ohio.

Making lift easier in Southeastern Ohio could be ILGARD's informal mission statement. Since 1981, the institute has turned the university’s expertise into real-world assistance for the region, offering data reports and survey research, GIS mapping services, computer training and strategic planning to help nonprofit groups and local governments solve problems and operate more efficiently. IIX3ARD is a part of the College of Arts and Sciences and the state-funded Rural Universities Program.

"We have essentially two missions: to provide applied research and technical support to local governments and nonprofit agencies, and education," says Mark Weinberg, director of ILGARD.

No project is too big — as the agency’s involvement in Monday Creek demonstrates — or too small. ILGARD seems to have touched every corner of Ohio’s 29-county Appalachian region. In St. Clairsville, the institute is helping a variety of government and social service agencies collaborate on a family literacy project called Even Start, ILGARD worked with College of Business students last year to create a marketing plan to help the village Wellston in Jackson County overcome the loss of industry.

The institute has sponsored a series of computer training workshops for township clerks and mayors in Southern Ohio. And a number of villages and towns throughout the region now have computers and Internet service through MAGICnet, a collaborative project of ILGARD and the university’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.

"ILGARD has been very important to our area," said, state Rep. Tom Johnson, a member of institute’s advisory committee. "I have been supportive of ILGARD dining my years in the Legislature because it has had such a positive impact?"

The point isn’t to swoop down into rural areas to solve problems, but to help local governments and other entities help themselves, Weinberg says. "We try to build capacity for entities to do things," he says. "ILGARD just can do certain things that others don’t have the capacity to do. And we fly to work with existing partnerships, such as The Mayors’ Partnership for Progress, to help them achieve their goals?’

Officials in 25 cities and villages and 12 healthcare facilities that are part of MAGICnet received free computer equipment and training and one year of free Internet service. Some towns computerized their water billing for the first time, saving clerks hours of time processing bills by hand. The village of Zaleski — population 300— has its own Web page featured on Connect Ohio (the home page of the Ohio Department of Development) along with larger cities such as Canton and Toledo.

Others communicate with state agencies and vendors by e-mail, often saving enough in long-distance charges to pick up the Internet connection fee when the one-year MAGICnet grant expires. The project, known as the Medical and Government Internet Coalition Network, is funded by a $77,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

"Our village simply could not have the funds within our meager budget for this type of equipment," says Russ Day, mayor of Coolville in Athens County.

ILGARD also is a resource for state government. Last year, it completed a i3-month survey project for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife on the recreational use and economic impact of Ohio’s state-owned wildlife areas, the first such study in more than two decades.

ILGARD’s staff works on 30 to 35 projects at any one time during the academic year, a fete accomplished only with the assistance of more than 30 students annually. Student employees represent nearly every college within the university.

One of ILGARD’s students, Michelle Kaczor, a master’s degree student in environmental studies who worked on the Monday Creek project, won the university’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award in May.

"We get a lot of exceptional students, but Michelle exemplifies what we and the university are trying to do," Weinberg says. "Here you have someone who is learning at the university and is involved in applied research for a community service project. She’s the ideal?’

Corinne Colbert 853 87, MA ‘93. is a free-lance writer and desktop publisher based in Amesville in Athens County