CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Week ending January 13, 2012
Kasold Drive improvements, Trail Road to Peterson Road
Kasold Drive from Trail Road to Peterson Road received major street maintenance as part of the 2011 Pavement Maintenance Program. Public Works and Parks and Recreation worked together to produce a much improved road surface while creating aesthetically pleasing medians. Please see attached report for photos and more information.
1,000,000+ visits to city website in 2011; 4th quarter web statistics
The City of Lawrence website, lawrenceks.org, had 1,011,870 visitors last year, with 2,743,667 pages viewed. This number does not include LawrenceTransit.org, which also had 137,560 visits and 435,829 viewed pages in 2011. Please see attached memo for more information on annual web statistics, new features added in 2011, and the 1 million visitor milestone.
The city website received 216,944 visits from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2011 and had 534,852 pages viewed during that time period. By comparison, the city’s website received 180,362 visits and 500,812 pages viewed during the same time period last year.
Parks and Recreation had several entries in top 10 most viewed pages. The top 10 most viewed pages on the City of Lawrence website from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2011 were:
2. Jobs
6. Planning & Development Services home page
7. Departments
8. Agendas
10. Winter/Spring Activities Guide
The city’s database of frequently asked questions top five viewed answers during the same period were:
2. What are the hours that meters are enforced in downtown Lawrence?
3. Where do I pay my water bill?
4. I think I may have a warrant, what do I do now?
5. Do I need a permit for a fire pit, chimnea, or outdoor fireplace?
Content for the FAQ database comes from the city department pages, as most departments have a FAQ section.
Department of Utilities to Publish Annual Update to Standards and Details
The Department of Utilities has recently completed its annual review of its construction material specifications, design criteria, and standard details for watermains and sanitary sewers. Notable changes include the following:
· Acceptance of PVC pipe for waterline sizes 12” and larger. The allowance of PVC pipe for waterline sizes 12” and larger provides an alternative material to ductile iron pipe, previously the exclusive material permitted for 12” and larger waterlines.
· Acceptance of copper clad steel tracer wire for directional drill installation of waterlines and sanitary sewer force mains. Acceptance of copper clad steel tracer wire for use in directional drilling installations provides a product with greater tensile strength to withstand installation stresses with limited potential for failure compared to solid copper tracer wire.
· Substitution of 3M tracer wire splice kit with Copperhead Industries LLC Locking Snakebite wire connector. Substitution of the 3M tracer wire splice kit with Copperhead Industries LLC locking snakebite wire connector is anticipated to increase the reliability of tracer wire and provide a more efficient method of installation as no wire stripping or tools are required when using this product.
Several other minor modifications have been made to various sections in order to correct identified omissions and errors noted in the original publication. The corrections made do not alter the existing material requirements nor do they pose an impact to material or development costs.
A complete list of modifications and updated documents has been posted to the Department of Utilities website at http://www.lawrenceks.org/utilities/technical_resources, and is available for general public access. Consulting engineers and contractors have been notified of the update via direct mailing announcement.
Final Fridays Impact Analysis and Economic Development Recommendations Report
The Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission recently commissioned a
study of the economic impact of Final Fridays. The report report
(updated 01/17/12) also provides some general recommendations regarding city
investment in staffing for culture economic development and a cultural plan for
Lawrence. The Cultural Arts Commission will be discussing the report and its
recommendations at its upcoming meetings.