CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

Week ending December 4, 2009

 

 

Westar tree trimming activities

Westar Energy will soon begin a clearing project along power lines in the right-of-way along Kentucky Street, 7th Street and Watson Park (see attached map). Westar will be trimming trees back from the power lines in this area. Many of these trees have grown to the point that to obtain proper line clearance a significant amount of the tree canopy will need to be removed. As with all line clearance projects on city right-of-way, the city must decide whether to have the trees trimmed or removed. Unfortunately, on this project, there are going to have to be a number of removals in the park (7 or 8 trees) and along 7th street (6 or 7 trees). We do not want to leave trees standing that will look bad after being reduced or will be a safety issue in the future. Westar will be contacting property owners along the right–of-way to discuss the work, but the city must decide how to handle trees in the right-of-way. After the work has been completed, Parks & Recreation will come up with a plan to plant a different variety of trees in these areas so that even at mature height they will not be in the lines.       

 

Notifications regarding 4300 W 24th Street rezoning reconsideration

On or about November 2nd, the applicant submitted a letter to the Mayor requesting that the City Commission reconsider their October 6 vote to deny a rezoning request for property located at Inverness Drive and W. 24th Place and vote to rescind the Commission’s prior motion to deny the rezoning request. On November 30th Planning staff mailed out notice to property owners as shown on the map indicating that the City Commission will be considering the applicant’s letter at their December 15th regular commission meeting.

 

2nd and Locust status update

City and KDOT staff, in collaboration with RD Johnson, Inc. (the general contractor) is currently working on significant design revisions involving pavement structure, foundation treatment and underground drainage concerns. Design revisions include modifications to the concrete pavement design, selection of new foundation materials, and installation of under-drain systems. The design revisions are warranted due to differing and unforeseen site conditions consisting of buried concrete structure built in the 1930’s, presence of ground water and poor soil condition, especially when in contact with ground water.

 

Revised engineering plans will be delivered to the contractor on December 4, 2009. Following the completion of the revised plans, city and KDOT staff, in consultation with the contractor, will work out an updated schedule for the project. It is anticipated that Phase One (consisting of approximately 70% of the total project) will likely be completed by mid January of 2010, pending weather conditions. After completion of Phase One, there will be two lanes open (on North 2nd Street through the construction site), one for northbound and one for southbound traffic, and northbound traffic will no longer be detoured through North Lawrence. Please see the attached report and photos for more information.

 

Update on 617 W 4th St rehabilitation

Code Enforcement staff is pleased to report that the owners of 617 W 4th Street have successfully complied with the city’s directive of depositing $55,000 into an escrow account and have hired a contractor to complete the rehabilitation of the structure. A building permit was approved and released on December 1st and work began immediately. The attached photos were taken on the morning of December 3rd and show that the contractor has made significant progress in two days of work.  

 

Areas that have been addressed are the following:

·         Remaining deteriorated siding on the east and south sides has been removed and those areas have been sheathed.  The next step will be installing windows which have been ordered and applying new siding.

·         Insulation has been installed in the remaining first floor exterior walls that were lacking insulation.

·         Footings for the front porch have been poured and the framing of the floor is in progress.  It is anticipated the porch will be completed within a few days.

·         Footings for the side (east) porch have been poured.

·         Additional general clean up has occurred in the kitchen to prepare for installation of fixtures, cabinets, etc.

 

Mild fall weather allows for extra round of street sweeping

The Street Division operates the city’s three street sweepers on 815 lane miles of streets. Normally each street is swept three times per year. The Street Division tries to have sweepers out every day it is above freezing (the sweepers have to use water to control dust and thus cannot be used during freezing conditions), but with the mild fall weather they have been able to sweep most streets four times this year.

 

City provides assistance to Health Department’s H1N1 Clinics

City staff provided assistance associated with the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department’s public H1N1 vaccination clinics held in October. Assistance consisted of stand-by medical assistance for two clinics provided by the Fire Medical Department, law enforcement assistance provided for one clinic by the Police Department, and approximately twenty five hours of clerical data entry assistance.