CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

Week ending October 19, 2012

Purchase of streetlight system analyzed

The city provides street lighting throughout Lawrence with lights installed, owned, operated, and maintained by Westar Energy. Westar owns 3,545 streetlights and bills the city for their use at over $500,000 a year to provide this service. In response to the recommendation by City Auditor Michael Eglinski that the City Manager should evaluate the feasibility of acquiring the streetlights from the utility company, staff has prepared an analysis to determine the cost benefit for purchasing Westar Energy Leased Streetlights. Staff does not recommend purchase of the street lights at this time.

Report on Color Run and lessons learned

The Color Run was successfully held in Lawrence on Saturday, October 6, with help from numerous city departments. Around 7,000 runners ran through downtown and East Lawrence, by far the biggest race to come to Lawrence to date. Race organizers, who travel around the country putting on this event, were pleased with Lawrence as a venue and hope to come back to Lawrence with future events. City staff met last week to discuss lessons learned from the Color Run that could be make future events even better. Please see the attached memo for a report, including photos from the Color Run.

Lawrence recycles 18.43 tons of electronic equipment at city-sponsored event

On Saturday, October 13, 2012, the city’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Division hosted an Electronic Recycling Event.  The event was held from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Free State High School parking lot.  A total of 504 participants dropped off 36,851 pounds (equivalent to 18.43 tons) of electronic equipment for recycling.  Electronic recycling was provided by Extreme Recycling, a permitted e-waste recycling and reclamation facility in the State of Kansas.  See the attached event report and participant survey results for more details.

City staff person awarded first HEAT EVT of the Year award

The Heartland Emergency Apparatus Technicians (HEAT) Association announced the winner of the first annual Graham Frazier Leadership Award at their fall training conference in Overland Park. The first recipient of this award is Terry Eaton, Field Supervisor for the Central Maintenance Garage (see attached photo). Terry holds sixteen Emergency Vehicle Technician (EVT) Certifications and National Institute of Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Master Certifications in Automobile, Heavy Truck, Truck Equipment Installation and Automotive Service Consultant. The criteria for this award are based on similar awards from other state and regional EVT organizations around the country.