CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Website visits steadily increasing
Website visits to the City of Lawrence’s website, lawrenceks.org, have received a steady increase from January. The number of pages visited also has increased significantly from the first of the year. Job description information and job searches drove traffic to the website in August, with 6,149 visits to the City Jobs home page and 8,086 to the job opportunities search page.
2008 Visits to lawrenceks.org by month through August
|
|
Aug. |
July |
June |
May |
April |
March |
Feb. |
Jan. |
|
|
|
38,667 |
35,484 |
30,529 |
31,986 |
29,228 |
28,350 |
28,459 |
|
Number of |
96,473 |
92,321 |
76,524 |
64,769 |
65,672 |
62,417 |
59,086 |
59,272 |
The top 10 pages and their visits in August were:
1. Job Opportunities (14,235 visits) *
2. City Commission Agendas page (3,686)
3. Planning and Development Services home (3,482)
4. Departments page (3,023)
5. City Service Directory (2,283)
6. Utilities Department home page (1,854)
7. City Maps page (1,621)
8. Residents page (1,524)
9. Interactive GIS Map page (1,279)
10. City Code (1,161)
* Number of viewed pages includes combined totals from Job Opportunities home page and Job Opportunities search page.
Staff and board member attend Sister Cities 2008 International Conference
Michael Tubbs, management analyst in the City Manager’s Office and three members of the Lawrence Sister Cities Advisory Board recently attended the Sister Cities International Conference held in Kansas City, Missouri July 16-19, 2008. Michael visited a number of exhibits and received information that will be useful as the Sister Cities Advisory Board plans future events and activities. Notable conference sessions focused on Economic Development, Economic Ties with U.S. Sister Cities, SOS: Sustaining Our Sisters, Ramping Up Your Fundraising Program, Sister Schools: Connecting Classrooms, Sister Cities in the Headlines: How to work with the Media, The Craft of Storytelling: Putting Narrative into Newsletters, Blogs and Web Sites, and the Mayor’s Forum: Engaging your Elected Officials. The Mayor’s Forum provided 1st person accounts from mayors on their views of sister cities and local volunteer leadership.
Parks and Recreation hosts National Gymnastics Day event
The second annual National Gymnastics Day was offered on Saturday, September 13, 2008 from 2-5 p.m. at the East Lawrence Recreation Center. This event showcased the City gymnastics program and was free to the public. Participants were able to utilize the equipment in the gymnastics room as well as the big gym with the preschool equipment. A moonwalk, face painting, temporary tattoos, door prizes and hot dogs were available throughout the event. McGruff the dog also made an appearance. Level III gymnastic and G-Force Jets did an expedition for the crowd towards the end of the event. Around 250 children and adults attended throughout the day. Wal-Mart sponsored the event by providing the hot dog and buns. See attached photos of the event.