Award honors the advocacy of an Ameren Illinois employee
In 1989, Gina Meehan-Taylor began working in the Peoria, Illinois, storeroom of CILCO, a legacy company of Ameren Illinois, likely never dreaming her work would impact the safety of underground utilities for generations.
“Gina was always thinking outside the box on ways to reach a wider audience and increase Ameren Illinois’ engagement for public awareness,” John Bozarth, Ameren Illinois director of pipeline safety compliance and quality management, told American Gas. “She was passionate about people and keeping them safe through awareness, training and volunteering.”
Meehan-Taylor would later become Ameren Illinois’ public awareness supervisor, and her efforts spanned multiple causes nd organizations, including JULIE, or Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators, the Illinois one-call system and information hub. Ameren Illinois works with JULIE for data acquisition to improve one-call locate response and efficiency.
“Gina served on the JULIE board and was a staple in the damage prevention community across the state of Illinois,” Bozarth said. She worked for Ameren Illinois until she passed away on Dec. 1, 2020, from pancreatic cancer.
To honor her legacy of safety, JULIE created the Damage Prevention Advocacy Award in Meehan-Taylor’s name. The recipient must meet several criteria, including championing
the importance of protecting underground utilities in Illinois, actively promoting the importance and need to contact JULIE/811 prior to digging, and embodying “the qualities that made Gina a true champion for damage prevention: selfless, courageous, devoted, loving, positive, joyful and strong.”
The award recipient receives a certificate of recognition and a $250 gift card. In addition, an honorary donation is made in the award winner’s name to the Jim Meehan & Gina Meehan-Taylor Charity Golf Outing, which benefits the Alzheimer’s Association and Lustgarten Foundation, the largest private funder of pancreatic cancer research.
“This award was created to recognize Gina’s efforts to protect underground utilities, the people who work around them and the entire state of Illinois,” Bozarth said. “Gina was such an ambassador for natural gas public awareness and damage prevention.”