CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Week ending August 19, 2011
City website statistics for 2nd quarter 2011
Website visits were up by 14 percent in the second quarter of 2011, over the same time period last year. The city website received 281,962 visits and 820,174 pages viewed; up from 246,752 visits and 730,448 pages viewed, respectively. Not unusual for summer months, top visits to the website were for Lawrence Parks and Recreation Activities.
The top 10 visited pages for this time period were:
1. LPRD Home
2. Jobs
4. Adult Sports
5. Youth Sports
7. Aquatics
Hearing impaired can now request interpreter for city meetings online
Hearing-impaired persons who need an interpreter for one of the city’s public meetings can now request one through an online form. eGov Coordinator Eric Gruber created an online form on the City Commission’s Agendas and Minutes page, where there is a link titled “Need an interpreter?”. Once filled out, the request is stored in an online database and sent to Tammy Bennett, Assistant Public Works Director, who helps put the requestor with an interpreter.
Street crews report 42-percent reduction in potholes in 2011
The City of Lawrence street maintenance crews recently completed a mid-year review of division operations for 2011. The Street Maintenance Division is tasked with maintaining 810 lane miles in Lawrence and has approximately 40 employees. The division is responsible for pothole patching, curb and gutter repair, repair of city-owned sidewalks and wheel chair ramps, crack sealing, street sweeping and maintenance of over 250 miles of open drainage and the Kansas River levee.
After two consecutive difficult winters with numerous snow events, the division has implemented new technology and tactics to tackle Lawrence’s roadways. Last year, funds were diverted from the 2010 Street Maintenance program to provide for repair on some of Lawrence’s most travelled streets. The added attention to major roadways decreased the number of calls from citizens regarding potholes and repairs on major streets. Additionally, the city purchased a spray injection patch truck that has been in use since fall 2010. The spray injection patch truck has proven beneficial because of its ability to create ‘hot mix’ asphalt on location and allows for patches that last longer than ‘cold mix’ patching. The city’s pothole repair line (832-3456) has received 72% fewer calls for pothole repair in 2011 than it did for the same period in 2010. Similarly, crews patched 30,472 potholes in 2010. In 2011, for the first six months, crews have patched 8,870 potholes. The division projects that approximately 17,740 potholes will be repaired in 2011 – which is a 42% reduction in repairs in 2011 versus 2010.
The division is already thinking ahead to colder weather – specifically snow season. For the 2011/2012 snow season, crews will be testing a salt brine generation system that will be incorporated into the pre-treatment system to enhance snow removal operations. A GPS tracking system is currently in testing mode that will provide real-time tracking information about crews’ progress during snow events.
The division’s work over the past several years, along with millions of dollars in funding provided by general fund revenue, sales tax revenue and grants received from KDOT and the federal government, has started to make progress in improving Lawrence’s roadway system. The 2012 budget, recently approved by the City Commission, provides funding for street maintenance along with funding for major road reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.