CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

Week ending October 9, 2015

Annual Public Works Snow Day Activities Planned

The Public Works Department will hold its annual snow day training and activities event on Tuesday, November 3, 2015, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The event will be held at the Street Division Facility (1120 Haskell Avenue).

This annual event is an opportunity for us to get our snow plan tuned up. We spend the morning reviewing routes, preparing snow operation equipment, and discussing our plan for the upcoming season. Over the lunch hour we have presentations about the forecast, changes to our plan, and general question and answer from crews. In the afternoon the two man operator crews head out to actually drive all of their assigned routes.

The field portion of this training has a twofold purpose. It gives experienced operators an opportunity to refresh themselves with the routes and new operators an opportunity to become familiar with the routes. It also serves as an opportunity, without snow, to evaluate the routes. During this time operators look for hazards and obstacles that may otherwise not be noticeable with snow on the ground or at night.

The event includes all of our snow team; which includes facilities, engineering, traffic operations, and street division staff. The Utility and Parks & Recreations Departments also participate.

Public Meeting to Discuss Traffic Around Cordley Elementary School

The City of Lawrence and USD 497 staff will host a public meeting on Thursday, October 29, 2015, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Cordley Elementary School to discuss and receive input about the traffic flow around the school during school hours.

Recently city staff have received requests to evaluate the current traffic flow and parking around the school during school hours, especially in the morning and afternoon during student drop off and pick up. Discussions have been held internally and with USD 497 staff and the next step in determining any issues or possible changes would be to receive public input.

Based on the outcome of this public meeting staff will evaluate input along with USD 497 staff and report our findings.

Parks & Recreation Programming Highlights

The highlights in programming of the Recreation Instruction Division of Parks and Recreation include a class teaching youth the history of early settlers and how they lived.  The class included building a mud fort, which were used by settlers to protect early-Lawrence.  Katie Armitage led a graveyard tour in which actors portrayed survivors of Quantrill’s Raid and provided attendees a look into their lives. The department also held National Gymnastics Day to bring awareness to the sport. It was held at East Lawrence Center where the gymnastics room that recently received a makeover.   See attached for more information.

Parks & Recreation Special Populations Highlights:

Special Populations highlights the new Wheelchair Basketball League, which has been developed for youth and adults.  Participants travel from as far as Ft. Riley to participate.  The Special Populations Division also took a trip to the State Fair and met up with Governor Sam Brownback, as well as took in the other fair activities.  A joint program of  Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence Public Library and LPRD’s Lifelong Recreation Division was recently highlighted in a national healthcare business magazine in the community outreach section of the magazine.  See attached for more information.

Planning & Development Services Monthly Project Report – August 2015

The attached report provides an update on several city of Lawrence projects in process in the Planning and Development Services Department.