SUNY Fredonia professor Matt Lanning speaks to the Fredonia Board of Trustees this month about projects he and his classes are planning to help the village. Submitted photo

Plans are in place for SUNY Fredonia students to assist the village government, as an initiative to boost “town and gown” relations moves forward.

Matt Lanning, an environmental sciences and geology professor, described the plans at the Board of Trustees meeting this month. They stem from an effort by Trustee Jon Espersen and a group of professors at the college to get students more involved in the community.

“A lot of our students are super engaged, super interested in the village and solving real world problems with some of their cultivated skills over their time at the university,” Lanning said. “I think that kind of exploration for them is super important.”

One project will digitize Department of Public Works water main maps. “It’s remarkable what they’ve been able to do over their time with completely paper maps, with no means of navigation to where water main is,” he said.

A couple of Lanning’s classes next semester will locate each water main shutoff valve with GPS, map them and collect flow rates and other information in a database. When it’s done, “Scott (Marsh, DPW director) can sit at his desk, get a phone call if there’s a flood, click a button to where the address is and see the valves and the system that supplies it, and know which ones need to be turned off,” he said.

Another project will track the quality of water in supply lines to individual services. “In another class of mine… we’re hoping to sample businesses and houses water supplies across the village,” Lanning said. “We might be able to situate which districts of the village are really in need of maintenance or (are at a) higher risk or something like that.”

Lanning said the work will be “all open source, all free, we don’t want to add costs to the village for any of this sort of thing…(it will) be able to be adjusted in the future.”

He pointed out “it will take a lot of time, it’s resource intensive too.”

Espersen said of the overall initiative, “I have to say, the feedback I’ve gotten from the professors of the college, it’s really been overwhelming. So many professors understand the importance of getting their students out in the village, and not only is it good for us and for the students and for the college, but I think it shows a collaboration… that’s something parents would look at is, they’re sending kids to Fredonia, well, depending on what field they are, they’ll be put out to do real world experiences and get involved in the community.

“It can only help the reputation and our relationship with the college, which could use a little repair,” he concluded.