CLINTON-signStudents from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois will help the city of Clinton, Iowa next fall with a variety of environmental, economic, and social projects. The school and the city announced a partnership Monday to promote “sustainability.”

The director of the college’s Upper Mississippi Center, Michael Reisner, says Clinton chose 12 projects for the students, including one with the fire department. He says city has found a disproportionate number of fires involving elderly residents and a communications class is going to help create a public relations campaign. “To try to reduce those types of fires, which tend to have high fatality rates,” Reisner says.

The city will work with the students to develop a higher profile. “The city of Clinton has a manufacturing base, and one of the projects they propose is to work with their local economic development corporation, and some of the businesses, to develop a brand and marketing campaign around ‘made in Clinton,’ which they lack right now,” Reisner explains. Students will also develop a plan to manage trees and parks in the city that are at risk from the emerald ash borer now, and possibly other threats in the future.

Reisner estimates up to 300 students will participate in the Clinton partnership next year, through classes in local history, accounting, business and marketing, environmental studies, and communications. This is the first sustainability project undertaken by the Upper Mississippi Center, and while the work in Clinton goes on, the center will prepare for its second project with another nearby city or county to start in the fall of next year.