CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Parks & Recreation Energy Conservation Projects
The Parks & Recreation Department recently
completed two energy conservation projects.
Mid-year update on street maintenance program
This year the City’s annual pavement maintenance
program was reviewed and approved by the City Commission on January 27, 2009
for a total contracted street maintenance program budget of $4.4 million. The
program included 183 lane miles of various types of maintenance projects, 40
lane miles of microsurfacing, 22 lane miles of mill and overlay, 10 miles of
curb and gutter replacement, and 121 lane miles of crack sealing. See the
attached memo
for a mid-year update on the street maintenance projects.
City Attorney recognized for 50 years of service in legal profession
Gerald Cooley, City
Attorney, was recognized by the Kansas Bar Association at the KBA Annual
Meeting and Joint Judicial Conference, held in
Mechanic achieves World Class Technician recognition
Tim
Hays, mechanic II (see photo) for
the Public Works Central Maintenance Garage, has been recognized as a World
Class Technician by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry
Association. To achieve this designation a mechanic must pass all the tests
offered by the National Institute of Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) in
paint and collision repair, automobile and heavy truck repair. These tests are
offered twice a year at
It takes years of dedication to pass all
the tests to be Master Certified in these three areas and become a World Class
Technician. There are over 850,000 ASE certified technicians in the world today
but only 1746 have achieved World Class status. Tim was among the seventeen
technicians that received this award this year. He is the third City of
Community
Wireless Communications video service provider agreement
On Monday June 29, 2009, City staff
received a notice from Joshua Montgomery that Community Wireless Communications
intends to provide video services in the City of Lawrence, Kansas. The
request is pursuant to the Video Competition Act, K.S.A 12-2021 et seq.
The act creates statewide franchising for cable operators and other video
services providers. The act requires the Kansas Corporation Commission to
approve the application. Without the Corporation Commission’s approval,
Community Wireless could not provide video services in Lawrence.
Community Wireless Communications has not yet received their
required approval from the Kansas Corporation Commission. The Corporation
Commission staff has recommended approval of their application and the
Corporation Commission will make a decision on their application no later than
July 20, 2009. The act also requires the City to execute an
agreement with the video service provider within 30 days of the time notice is
delivered to the City.
The letter from Mr. Montgomery indicates
that he would like to have an agreement approved and signed by the City once
the State grants authorization. In previous discussions, staff and Mr.
Montgomery had agreed that the 30 days to negotiate an agreement did not begin
until after the Corporation Commission’s approval. Staff memorialized the
conversation in a June 5, 2009 letter. Mr. Montgomery’s most recent
request indicates that he would like to negotiate prior to state
approval. Staff has had preliminary discussions with Mr. Montgomery about
the agreement but further discussion is needed and staff intends to meet with
Mr. Montgomery in the near future to have a better understanding of what is
being requested.
Staff wanted to make the City Commission
aware of the request and that a video service provider agreement may be on a
future agenda for consideration.
Continued
community support for flower beds
The Parks
and Recreation Department continues to receive tremendous support from the
community in its efforts to beautify
The
Website receives security and usability enhancements
Visitors to the city’s website now have
increased protections for data submitted through the web. eGov
Coordinator Eric Gruber facilitated the installation of a security
certificate on every section of www.lawrenceks.org, ensuring
visitors connect at the highest level of encryption
their system is capable of. The 128 bit encryption was previously used for
payment collection sections of the website, but now all areas use the increased level
of security allowing web content developers to publish secure forms. A 128-bit
or better encryption is needed to process payments, share confidential data, or
collect personally identifiable information.
To compliment the new security certificate,
the Utility Billing division of the Finance Department redesigned the forms
used to establish, transfer or stop services to be easier to use. Forms were
rewritten to be user friendly and graphic elements were introduced to replace
large blocks of text, and a confirmation e-mail was added to the backend to
help reduce phone calls after the forms were submitted. Eric Gruber, eGov
Coordinator, and Roxanne Williams, Administrative Support II, worked
on the project.
The redesigned Utility Billing home page
and service signup forms can be viewed at http://www.lawrenceks.org/utility_billing.
Flood information
brochure distributed
During the month of July, Lawrence
residents will receive a Flood
Information Brochure inserted with their utility bill. The brochure
provides information on obtaining flood insurance, flood safety, obtaining a
floodplain development permit, and historical information on floods in the
Duck stamp competition entries on display at
The top 36 Kansas Junior Duck
Stamp entries are on display at
A new roof for the
Department of Utilities to publish
revised standards and details
The
Department of Utilities has recently completed an update to the material
specifications, design criteria, and standard details for watermains and
sanitary sewers. This update formalizes material, design, and submittal
requirements. The Department of Utilities will be distributing the revised
standards to the engineering, construction and development community for a
thirty day comment period. Following the comment period additional revisions
may be made and finalized documents will be posted to the Department of
Utilities website for general public access.
City Hall Server Room Air-conditioner
The server room air conditioning project has been completed, on budget
and on time. P1 Group inc. designed and installed a new primary cooling
system for $64,773. The previous air conditioning had a combined capacity
of 7 tons of cooling, with the existing Liebert being the primary A/C and a
back up unit of the same capacity. P1 designed and installed a new primary
air conditioning system that is set from the ceiling in a storage room and is
ducted into the server room. This unit has a capacity of eight tons of
cooling and is capable of running at 30%, 60% or 100% depending on demand and
has a greater total capacity than the existing units. This allows
the unit to provide just the amount of cooling needed, reducing the total
amount of energy that it will take to keep the server room cool. The
existing units will still be kept in service to serve as back-up cooling. See
attached photos.