CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

Week ending December 2, 2013

Special Guests Visit Nature Center

Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department’s Prairie Park Nature Center preschool program had some special guests Thanksgiving week.  Dara Wilson, a naturalist at Prairie Park, brought in the turkeys to show the children for a seasonal program of the weekly Wild Adventures for Preschoolers and Parents class.  The children learned about the turkey and their natural habitat, as well as meeting them up close and personal.

Safe Winter Walkways Program Information for 2013-2014 Winter Season

The City of Lawrence and Douglas County Senior Services has worked for the past three months to enlist the help of volunteers to participate in the Safe Winter Walkways program.  This program pairs residents who need assistance shoveling their sidewalks with volunteers in the community.  Every year, the program struggles to find enough volunteers to cover the need.  The city did extra outreach this year with radio and television public service announcements and used avenues such as the Roger Hill Volunteer Center to seek out volunteers.  This year, 40% of the requests for assistance have been met.  This is higher than previous years’ percentages.  A deadline was set of 11/29/2013 for volunteers and requests for assistance.  The deadline was set so that volunteers and participants would be paired ahead of the snow season and those who requested assistance would know if they had a volunteer lined up.  We received 87 requests for assistance, 26 volunteers and those volunteers are covering 35 residents (some took more than one household).  Whenever possible, the volunteers are paired up with residences in their neighborhood to eliminate the need to travel long distances to assist with the sidewalk clearing.