The Southwest Missouri Council of Governments (SMCOG) recently won an award.

The National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) gave SMCOG a 2019 Excellence in Regional Transportation Award.

In 2018, they won the Innovation Award.

About their project

SMCOG’s project, Low water crossing inventories for Dade, Dallas and Polk counties, collected data for more than 900 low water crossings.

SMCOG performed on-site inspections, measurements, photographs and notations of other characteristics like aquatic life barriers.

“This data was then presented to the county commissioners to help prioritize the replacement of low water crossings for disaster mitigation, public safety and conservation efforts,” said Jason Ray, director of the Center for Resource Planning and Management (CRPM) and SMCOG executive director.

SMCOG will accept the award June 17-19 at the National Regional Transportation Conference in Columbus, Ohio.

Getting the project flowing

Two grants funded this project: The Disaster Resiliency Community Development Block Grant and a Misosuri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) Transportation Planning Grant.

TREKK Design Group created an online data collection form. MoDOT and the Missouri Department of Conservation also helped with technical assistance and GIS base map layers.

Several Missouri State interns also assisted in the process:

• Justin Butkovich, history major
• Adam Olinger, planning major
• Zeke Hall, planning alumnus, 2018
• Bailey DeJonge, planning alumnae, 2018

Ray and Megan Clark, senior planner at SMCOG, also worked on the project.

About SMCOG

SMCOG operates under CRPM. CRPM is an applied research and academic support unit under geology, geography and planning at Missouri State University.

Working together, they impact a 10-county service area.  It is the only planning commission in the nation that operates under a university.