ESI delightedly celebrated the company’s 10 year anniversary. The festivities be-gan with an incredible dinner at Chicago’s Harry Caray’s, during which the employ-ees took a stroll down memory lane with a slideshow presentation of company pho-tos of events throughout the years and an ESI trivia game. But the night wasn’t over yet. Everyone hopped over to Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano bar, to enjoy some live entertainment and a weekend in Chi-cago. The anniversary was a decade in the making, and a night to remember.

A Message from Joe. ............... 1Company 10 Year .................. . . 1Happy Holidays..........................1Stormwater Management. . . . . . . .2Stormwater Employees...........2ESI Flood Volunteer....................3Emergency Relief.......................3Structural Assessments..............3Water Cooler Gossip...................4In the Community .......................4Christmas for Kids Program........4

Office Locations and Contact Information

Naperville1979 North Mill Street

Suite 100Naperville, Illinois 60563

Phone: 630.420.1700

Chicago208 South LaSalle Street

Suite 1705Chicago, Illinois 60604Phone: 312.277.1700

Charleston753 Windsor Road

Charleston, Illinois 61920Phone: 217.348.1900

www.esi l td .com

Celebrating 10 Years of Excellence, Service, Integrity

Winter 2013 IssueESI Consultants, Ltd. News

Winter 2013 Issue

ESI’s 10 Year Anniversary Celebration

It’s been a busy year and I think, for the most part, that is a good thing. To celebrate the founding of our company 10 years ago, we kicked off the new year by hosting a dinner party and weekend in downtown Chicago with our em-ployees and families. In the span of a decade we’ve grown our team, moved, re-organized, and enlarged our offices more than a few times. On top of that, we’ve done more engineering and consulting work than we imagined.

All work aside, the best part of our business is getting to work with incredibly talented people. People like Jim Yuratovac, who is celebrating his 10 year anni-versary with our company (not bad for a company that has only been around 10 years). Jim’s career has grown from Project Engineer, with a few promotions, to becoming a shareholder in ESI. At the end of the day, being surrounded by wonderful people is really the best part of ESI.

This newsletter includes more employee anniversaries and major milestones too. I pray I am still able to write about similar anniversaries and celebrations 10 years from now.

Yours Truly,

A Message From Joe

1 1

Happy Holidays

www.esiltd.com1979 N. Mill Street, Suite 100

Naperville, Illinois 60563

Services ESI ProvidesConstruction Engineering

Civil/Site Engineering

Stormwater Management

Natural Resources

Transportation Engineering

Municipal Engineering

Water/Wastewater Engineering

Structural Engineering

View our past newsletters at:

From all of us at ESI, we wish you a season of joy and happiness, as we welcome in the new year

Stormwater Projects

ESI Consultants, Ltd. News 2

Stormwater ManagementWInter 2013 Issue 2

DuPage County On-Call Stormwater Management ESI Consultants was called upon for the responsibility of various small drainage projects throughout DuPage County. We have been fortunate to have worked with DuPage County on multiple such project selections over the years. Our main effort was to take the assorted projects and create construction plans with cost effective solu-tions. The solutions involved helped to address localized flooding issues including backyard drainage problems, storm sewers with no discernible outlets, ponds with no known outlets, and the creation of plats for the newly ac-quired County property. Our engineers provided a survey of the existing conditions before analysis and drawing preparations began. We also initiated community relations by meeting with the homeowners in the affected areas.

Downtown Long Grove Drainage StudyESI Consultants was called upon to assist with the comprehensive evaluation of the historic downtown Long Grove. The evaluation consisted of a drainage study done to address localized flooding and future storm-water improvement needs. ESI helped collect existing concerns from local businesses and residents to aid in a solution that best meet the needs of the Village. The initial phase of work included the Award Win-ning reconstruction of the Archer Lot and Road with native plantings, bio-swales and other best manage-ment practices water quality improvements. Wetland protection, as well as the integration of the proposed drainage solution, fit with the existing paths, parking, and streets were key elements to the overall design.

South Arsenal Road and Wilmington Stormwater AdditionsESI was selected to plan and design the widening and reconstruction of South Arsenal Road from Route 53 to Old Chicago Road. The expansion began with a drainage study to understand the stormwater needs. The proj-ect addressed sensitive outlets and nearby wetlands. It consisted of the construction of storm sewers and the introduction of a closed drainage system.

ESI Consultants, Ltd. provides comprehensive stormwater management services. Due to the ever-changing en-vironmental impacts of urbanization, effective stormwater management is essential to the success of a project. ESI’s stormwater management approach provides innovative solutions by addressing stormwater quantity and quality in a cohesive manner. Our approach yields better and greater results with less impact to the environment.

Lee Gong, P.E., PhD.

Lee Gong joins ESI as a Senior Consultant, spe-cializing in water resources engineering. Lee has over 25 years of experience working in both public and private sectors, and extensive experience in using advanced computer programs for analyzing complex hydrologic and hydraulic problems. Lee has managed numerous drainage projects, includ-ing bridge hydraulics, stormwater management de-sign, steady and unsteady river hydraulics, flood-plain and floodway studies, erosion and sediment control, stormwater permit submittal and wetland hydrology. Lee holds a PhD. from Washington State University and taught engineering courses at Port-land State University. Lee is a licensed professional engineer in Illinois, Washington, and Oregon.

Celebrating 10 Years of Excellence, Service, Integrity

Stormwater Employee SpotlightTony Malone, P.E.

Tony has over 30 years of experience with a spe-cialty in Hydraulics and Hydrology including storm-water design and construction. As a Certified Spe-cialist in Kane County and Enforcement Officer in Lake County, Tony’s experience in stormwater spans major improvements from Florida to Illinois. One of his more recent projects was the Village Hall Detention Facility for South Barrington. The Village wanted to expand the Village Hall, and in doing so, the Metropolitan Water Reclama-tion District of Greater Chicago required a deten-tion facility that addressed all existing, proposed and future detention requirements for the Vil-lage’s property. With the assistance of ESI, plans were prepared that incorporated the necessary elements and a permit from MWRDGC was is-sued. This project is currently under construction.

3 ESI Consultants, Ltd. News 3WInter 2013 Issue

ESI Volunteers for Flood AssistanceOn April 19th of this year, a strong spring storm caused a levee to breach in Marseilles, Illinois causing severe flooding in the neighborhoods adjacent to the river. When the flood waters re-ceded, the Illinois Emergency Management Agen-cy (IEMA) activated volunteers from their newly formed Post Disaster Safety Inspection pool for the very first time. The volunteers assisted in evaluat-ing the structural safety of the damaged homes.

ESI’s mission statement is to provide excel-lence in our people, service of the highest quality, and integrity. The integrity of our com-pany includes providing community support when needed. That is why ESI’s Kevin Hayes, P.E., AIA was assigned to the second inspection team ever deployed with Jeffrey Button, AIA of HEAI.

After meeting with the IEMA flood coordina-tion response team in Marseilles, Kevin and Jef-frey inspected 24 homes in one day to determine if they were safe to return to and begin cleanup and repairs. They observed washed out founda-tions, collapsed walls and supports, damage to electric and HVAC systems and water damage to some homes as high as 6 feet on the first floor.

Many of the homes had to be “Red Carded”, meaning structural repairs or shoring would be required before residents could even go back into the home. Overall, the teams inspected over 200 homes in Marseilles from this storm event.IEMA began training and certifying of volunteers in 2012 to begin building a pool of engineers and architects throughout the state that could be de-ployed quickly after natural disasters such as earth-quakes, floods and tornadoes. These volunteers can be called upon to evaluate buildings or infra-structure, depending on the location and the need.

Kevin was a member of the first class that re-ceived their certification and is a registered first responder with both the State of Illinois and the National Emergency Management Agency. With the recent tornadoes in Illinois, IEMA volunteers are being deployed to various parts of Illinois to as-sist with disaster response. Kevin’s “Mobilization Kit” is ready should he get the call to assist again.

Celebrating 10 Years of Excellence, Service, Integrity

Structural Assessments

Emergency Relief Program

ESI provides a wide range of structural assessment services to assist our clients in determining the existing condition, remaining service life, required maintenance and structural capacity of existing structures. Examples of our experience include: commercial buildings, residential buildings, indus-trial structures and bridges. The stagnant economic recovery puts increasing pressure on both the public and private sector to make the most of all dollars used in maintaining, rehabilitating and replac-ing an aging infrastructure. An assessment of the existing condition of an existing structure coupled with expected future deterioration and maintenance costs can be a powerful tool when setting bud-gets. We can also perform a structural analysis of an existing structure to determine its capacity for a change in use, such as heavier loads, and to determine what type of strengthening may be required.

After ESI helped review approximately 100 sites, Detailed Damage Inspection Reports (FHWA form 1547) were prepared for 72 eligible sites found to be eligible for reimbursment for damages that were estimated at a total of $2,800,000. The repair work had to be completed by Oct. 11, 2013 (180 days after the flood event) to be eligible for 100% reimbursement. All work completed after that date is eligible for 80% fed-eral funding reimbursement. Seventeen Local Agency Agreements for Federal Participation were pre-pared for the local agencies to receive federal funds, based on the actual costs for completing the repairs.

Due to the flood event that occurred in April of this year, IDOT Region 3 and District 4 were declared eligible for ER disaster assistance in the gubernatorial proclamation. The preliminary damage assessment totaled $3,328,000.

The Emergency Relief program, who generally provides funding to repair and restore highway facilities to pre-di-saster condition, was extensively involved with the coordi-nation of IDOT, the FHWA, and ten local agencies within the IDOT Region 3 and District 4 areas to assist with the disaster. ESI provided technical assistance to determine the eligibility of the damaged facilities, data was gathered for federal and state forms, and local agencies were as-sisted on the disaster relief policies and procedures.

ESI Consultants, Ltd. News 4

For the past several years our Charleston Of-fice has participated in the local east central Illi-nois Christmas for Kids Program. The program is organized by a local radio station who works with community groups, schools and churches to identify families and especially children who without this program will most likely not have gifts for Christmas. This year they sponsored a record 18 kids from all over east central Il-linois. The participants this year were all in the 14 to 17 year old range and mostly boys.

Each child fills out a “Need and Wants List” with their age, sex, favorite color, interests on it. Then they are given a code that each gift and bag is tagged with. This year each child was able to receive all the items they had requested on their needs list and some items from their wants list. Each was also given their own stock-ing full of things like tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, puzzle books, gum, candy, etc.

Shopping began just after the Thanksgiving Holiday and then the wrapping and packag-ing process got under way. Bags for each child were delivered to the radio station and their distribution system took over deliver-ing Christmas to each of the participants.

A huge thank you to Jeanette Clark for her ex-traordinary efforts with the shopping and or-ganzing of packages for the kids. Also, thank you to each and every Charleston office em-ployee who donated items to make this Christ-mas so much better for these kids. We are al-ready planning for next year and look forward to helping even more children in the coming year.

Christmas for Kids Program

WInter 2013 Issue 4

Celebrating 10 Years of Excellence, Service, Integrity

Water Cooler Gossip

Employees’ Anniversaries

The 5 Years ClubDan White • Ben Russo

Joe Hickox

The Big 10 ClubJim Yuratovac

Newly Licensed Within the last year,

Ben Russo and Adam Groves have become licensed Professional Engineers in the state

of Illinois

In the Community8th Annual Kane County Cougars Game

10th Anniversary Golf Outing at Rich Harvest

Special Olympics Fundraising Success

ESI celebrated its 8th Annual Kane County Cougars Game outing and Spe-cial Olympics Fundraiser. Employees, clients, business partners, families and friends all came out to watch a great game of baseball and to eat a ton of food. The night ended with a Cougar win and an incredible firework display to celebrate.

As part of the on-going ESI’s 10 Year Anniversary celebration, we host-ed a small golf outing and Special Olympics Fundraiser at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The beautiful course was the perfect setting to honor our company’s accomplishments and milestone. The day included lunch and drinks on the patio and of course, golf. As if the perfect weather and top 75 Course in America didn’t make the day grand enough, the tour of the Jerry Rich Auto Collection was simply spectacular. A big thanks to Jay Ferguson and the Rich Harvest Family for being such gracious hosts.

Within ESI’s mission statement it includes the importance of community ser-vice. Our primary business is building better communities and we do this, not

only with our engineering and consulting ser-vices, but with our personal voluntary efforts. This year through our Cougars event and Golf Outing we once again raised money for Spe-cial Olympics (see their website to learn more of this wonderful organization with begin-nings right here in Chicago at http://www.soill.org/ and http://www.specialolympics.org/). With the contribution of employees, family, friends and our ESI Company match, we were able to raise and donate over $6,000.