CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

Week ending November 3, 2006

 

 

Fire & Medical Department Receives Building Dedication Gift

Roger and Rhonda Brown have donated a firefighter statue as a building dedication gift at the new fire station and administration offices at 1911 Stewart Ave. The statue is located in the lobby of the administration offices. Expressing appreciation for the Brown Family’s gift, Chief Mark Bradford said, “It is always comforting to have members of our community think of our profession and our service.” 

 

Technology Award

The City of Lawrence was named a grand prize winner in the public sector of the Cisco Growing with Technology Awards 2006. The award was created to recognize small and medium-sized organizations that demonstrate how networking technology solutions can effectively address business challenges. Network Administrator John Williams prepared the winning application, for which the City of Lawrence will receive $25,000 in Cisco products. Please see the attached memo for more information.

 

3rd Quarter Financial Report

The attached report summarizes the financial activities of the City of Lawrence for the first nine months of 2006 and advises the City Commission as to current budgetary conditions.

 

Building Permits Report

The total number of building permits issued through October 31st this year is 2,304 as compared to 2,288 for the same period in 2005. Single-family building permits issued to date are 214; during the same period in 2005, 178 building permits were issued. The overall valuation for building permits remains strong at $126,750,718. Last year the same period showed a valuation of $94,271,977. Building permit fees collected to-date are approximately 10% above last year at $751,641.05. The attached memo contains a more detailed report of the permit data.       

 

Parks & Recreation Activities and Improvements

The Parks & Recreation Department has undertaken many recent activities in the community, including:

  1. “Tea and Me” participants had a tea party at Maceli’s after making their own elegant hats (see photo).
  2. Two plastic tree grates have been installed between 10th & 11th on Massachusetts Street (see photo). These are being tried as an experiment to see if they will hold up as well as the more expensive metal grates.   
  3. Automated irrigation systems are being added to the mid-block planters along Massachusetts Street (see photos). Each planter will operate as a stand-alone system using battery operated controllers and valves to run the system. This upgrade will eliminate the need to hand-water the flowers and landscape areas in the planters.  
  4. Staff recently completed a landscape upgrade at 6th & New Hampshire across from City Hall (see photos). Irrigation was installed in the raised beds and new turf replaces the woodchip beds that were unsightly and difficult to maintain. This improvement continues the landscape theme that exists in the 6th street corridor west of Massachusetts.

 

Public Works hosts NIMS and ICS training for disaster response

National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS) training is required for all first responders, including Public Works and Utilities personnel.  The training is required in order to be eligible for future Homeland Security grant funding and FEMA disaster reimbursement.   Over three days -- October 25th, 27th, and 30th – over 90 personnel from both City and County Public Works Departments and the City Utilities Department successfully completed the NIMS and ICS classes.  City of Lawrence Public Works extends their thanks to the trainers – Paula Phillips, Director of Emergency Management for Douglas County, and Shaun Coffey, Training Chief for Fire-Medical Department.