In October, the Board of Larimer County Commissioners honored several employees who have shown ingenuity, creativity, and improved processes at Larimer County with the 2020 Innovation Awards. One Grand Prize Winner and two Runner-Up Winners were awarded in the ninth year of the Innovation Awards program. The awards were chosen based on resourceful, groundbreaking, or novel approaches to providing Larimer County services to residents. Larimer County budgets $5,000 for the awards and can be given to one project or split among projects.
This year, the Grand Prize was $3,000 awarded to Joe Schreurs, Susan Hays, Katie Evans, Linette Schweizer, Hilery Mesloh, Angela Priest, Ingrid Schroeder, Leslie Waterhouse-Reavis, Brant Gluth, Rupali Gagvani, and Derik Stalls This team developed a mobile phone app that allows many pre-trial program functions to be handled remotely and recorded to a database directly. Pre-Trial Services is a busy unit within the Criminal Justice Department and the new app allows staff to better manage large caseloads. The app resulted in a 64% reduction in staff time in pre-trial interactions.
Runner-Up winners included Nicole Aguilar, Tracy Hines, and Shawn May with a $1,000 prize for their food truck roundup app. Larimer County Health and Environment partnered with Larimer County Finance to assist food truck owners with understanding and complying with sales tax requirements to operate their businesses. The partnership increases tax revenues which support voter-approved projects.
Additional winners included Amanda Repella and Liz Young Winne for their Multi-modal Index: Data-driven Transportation Access Tool for decision-making with a $1,000 prize. Larimer County Department of Health and Environment’s Built Environment program led a collaborative team to create a new mapping tool that easily communicates neighborhood access to transportation options in Fort Collins or Loveland. This tool helps identify challenges and opportunities associated with being able to safely and efficiently walk, bike, or ride the bus in these communities. Congratulations to this year’s winners!