CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

Week ending November 4, 2011

KDOT announces measures to address K-10 safety concerns

As a result of a request from the Governor following a tragic accident, in June of this year KDOT formed a committee of stakeholders, highway safety experts, local officials and KDOT personnel to review the safety of K-10 in Douglas and Johnson counties. The committee made several recommendations to KDOT and on November 2, Deputy Secretary Jerry Younger made the announcement that cable median barriers would be installed along 2 sections of K-10 (see map). One recommendation that will require legislative action is to designate K-10 as a highway safety corridor. This would allow for additional law enforcement and higher fines. Support of that legislation will be included in the city’s draft legislative policy statement.

K-10/Bob Billings interchange TIGER grant application submitted

The TIGER application for the interchange project at K-10 and Bob Billings Parkway (see attached concept sketch) was submitted electronically to the Federal Highway Administration on October 31, 2011. The application was prepared by city staff with economic modeling assistance from KDOT. This was a joint application with KDOT as the lead applicant, the City and the County as the second and third applicant respectively. The city funding commitment listed in the grant application was $100,000. It is anticipated that the Grant Award will be made public by the end of 2011. If awarded, construction of this project will begin in late 2013/early 2014 with anticipated completion by the end of 2014. See attached memo for more information.

Electrical improvements at Kaw Well Field and Electrical Building completed

The Department of Utilities and general contractor Shelley Electric have completed the construction of electrical improvements to the Kaw Well Field and the North Final Electrical Building as shown on the attached map.

The project involved installation of underground electrical service to wells 5 and 7 in the Kaw Well Field, the replacement of Motor Control Center (MCC) #7, see attached photos, and the installation of a 480 volt Power Panel in the North Final Building. Electrical service to wells 5 and 7 had failed and Westar would not provide a new service connection or electrical meter until new service connections were provided from the well head to the electrical meter. MCC #7 housed equipment critical to the secondary treatment process for the north basin train and, with the existing equipment dating back to 1975, had outlived its useful life.

Installation of underground electrical service to wells 5 and 7 have brought the Kaw Well Field back to its full production capacity and provided a reduction in future liability with the elimination of privately maintained overhead electrical lines. Through the engineering design of the replacement of MCC #7, operational efficiency and redundancy were achieved through the installation of a separate 480 volt power panel and through the use of a kirk-key interlock within the MCC.

Once electrical service had been restored to wells 5 and 7, City staff requested that underground service be provided to wells 3 and 6, map attached, to fully eliminate the liability of privately maintained overhead electrical lines and eliminate the duplication of advertising, design, and bidding costs that would accompany a future failure of the existing overhead electrical service lines. City staff requested a proposal from Shelley Electric and the work was completed as part of change order #1.

Shelley Electric was given notice to proceed on March 14, 2011. A total of 300 working days were permitted to attain final completion per the executed contract. Construction activities were completed within 217 working days and the contractor was fully demobilized as of October 17, 2011.

The project was awarded to Shelley Electric in the amount of $114,000.00 and executed change orders comprised an increase to the project in the amount of $28,300.00, for a total constructed cost of $142,300.00. Total project expenditures including design and construction phase engineering services costs totaled $196,323.18 or approximately 23% below the allocated budget of $250,000.00.

Fire Medical Energy Smackdown competition results in significant savings

For the past four months, the firefighters and staff of the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Department have been locked in a station-to-station competition to save energy.  Dubbed the “Energy Smackdown,” (see poster) this lighthearted energy-saving contest yielded serious savings and a close competition.

Over the four months of the contest (June-September), the stations reduced their energy use by an average of 10% across all stations – saving 41,720 kWh of energy and over $1500.  The energy saved is equivalent to:

· 28.8 metric tons of avoided CO2 emissions.

· The CO2 emissions from burning 3225 gallons of gasoline.

· The equivalent carbon sequestered by planting 738 trees in one year.

· Enough electricity to run 3.6 homes for a full year.

Station #2 was declared the winner by reducing their energy use by 20% over the four months.  The winning station was determined based on a % improvement over 2010. Here are the station-by-station results:

Smackdown Rankings:
1st place	Station #2	20+% reduction
2nd place	Station #3	18.84% reduction
3rd place	Station #5	5.24% reduction
4th place	Station #1	3.98% reduction
5th place	Station #4	2.75% reduction

How did they do it?  Firefighters and staff focused on simple changes like turning off lights when they leave the room, turning TVs off when they’re not in use, and setting summer thermostats up two degrees from their previous settings (they went up from 72 to 74 degrees).

2011/2012 Snow Removal & Ice Control Preparedness Plan

The Public Works Department has prepared the attached presentation regarding the city’s snow removal and ice control plans.