City of Edwardsville recognizes Tim Harr and Eric Williams for their commitment to city

EDWARDSVILLE - City Council gave special recognition to City Administrator Tim Harr and Director of Public Works Eric Williams during a recent council meeting as Mayor Hal Patton presented each of them with the "Knock it out of Park" Award.

"We have had a fantastic year," Mayor Patton said before thanking Harr and Williams. "A lot of success in the community not only with private investments but with the hard work of our employees, our staff and our alderman. Just a collective effort, and I thought it'd be great to reflect at the end of the year and look back on those accomplishments."

One of the major projects that Harr and Williams played a vital role in was the development of the new Public Safety Building.

"Tim has been in public service for his entire lifetime," Mayor Patton said. "He started as a teenager in his home town's public works department as a laborer. After that he went on to the Air Force for 20 years, for over 20 years he's been with the city of Edwardsville. In January of 2001 he became the Director of Public Works, and that lasted until 2014 and I made the recommendation that he became City Administrator and it was support by this council with a few other members."

"Eric Williams also has a lifetime of public service, he just happens to be a lot younger than Tim," Mayor Patton joked. "He was hired in 1997 as a city engineer technician, became full time as a project engineer in 1998. He became the assistant engineer in 2001 and finally became the City Engineer in 2008. Those were all full time positions so from there we moved him up to something more than full time, we gave him the Director of Public Works."

Mayor Patton said there is an endless number of people who have dedicated their time to the Public Safety Building project but Harr and William were crucial to its completion.

"It was the two of you that made the weekly stakeholder meetings,worked with the contractor, worked with the architech, the engineers," Mayor Patton said. "To not only deliver such a beautiful building in such a fantastic location but to build on time, you did it below the estimated budget, you did it in a safe and clean work environment and you did it with significantly less than one percent of change orders, which I think is just phenomenal for the vision that you showed on that project."

Mayor Patton also commended the two for the amount of respect and appreciation within Public Works Department.

"You respect all the work that your street department does, your water department, your sewer group it's truly impressive and it's motivational to those of us who are trying to lead the whole city to watch how you manage that department."

In honor of the year's achievements and all of Harr's and William's hard work Mayor Patton presented them each with a baseball bat for the "Knock it out of Park" Award.

Harr thanked the council and everyone who helped contribute to all of his and the city's success not only over the last year but over his entire career. "I like to say I've been lucky, but really I've been blessed," he said.

Williams also thanked the council for the recognition saying it's the great cooperation between all the departments, council members and elected officials that make all the city's goals achievable. "That's what makes it easy for everyone to do what they're doing," he added.

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