CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Week ending December 13, 2013
Solid Waste Staff Collects Toys And Food This Holiday Season
The City of Lawrence Solid Waste Division collected new unwrapped toys and nonperishable food items on Monday, December 2nd and Monday, December 9th along the regularly scheduled yard waste collection routes. The project was envisioned and planned by solid waste employees Duane LaFrenz, Shaun Elston and Cassandra Ford and implemented by all of the solid waste crews. A total of 351 toys and 2,100 pounds of food were collected. All toys collected were donated to the Lawrence Police Department’s Blue Santa Program and all food collected was donated to Just Food, the Douglas County food bank. Staff Memo
November 2013 Monthly Permit Reports
The Building Safety Division issued 161 building permits in November, with total construction for the month valued at $6,757,219. Total permit fees assessed for the month were $56,792.20. Permits were issued for 20 new residential projects, all of which were new single-family dwellings. Please see the attached memo, report, and summary report for more information.
2013 Grass And Weed Abatement Summary
Each spring, the Code Enforcement Division recommences the annual enforcement of the city’s Weed Code. The enforcement of this seasonal violation typically begins in early April and continues through the late October/early November. The attached memo provides a summary of the 2013 effort to enforce the Weed Code and provides comparisons to recent years. If a property owner is unresponsive to violation notices the city may notify a contractor to mow the property and then assess the costs to the property. The city budgets around $25,000 per year for these abatements.
Downtown Railroad Tracks Removed
The Public Works Department partnering with Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad and their contractor, RJ Corman successfully removed the railroad tracks at three critical locations downtown (6th St., Vermont St., and Massachusetts St.). Staff Memo and Attachments
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:
· Change in products for use in the water distribution system for compliance with the no-lead revision to the safe water drinking act.
· Addition of material specifications for fusible PVC for both water and sanitary sewer applications.
· Change in sanitary sewer service connections to permit use of wye’s.
· Initial publishing of meter and backflow vault details for meters and backflow assemblies 3” and larger.
· Correction of references within the design criteria and material specifications.
Several other minor modifications have been made to various sections in order to correct identified omissions and errors noted in the previous publication as well as to update materials identified to reflect current manufacturers. 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 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.
Douglas County Senior Services Third Quarter Report
One item stemming from the recommendations of the Retiree Attraction and Retention Task Force Final report was the reorganization of the Douglas County Senior Services Board. With that re-organization, that group agreed to quarterly provide an update to the City and County governing boards on the activities and operations of the agency. Highlights of the report include appointment of a new Executive Director, Kristin Scheurer, who began work with the agency October 23 and publication of the 2013 Senior Resource Guide. With the appointment of an Executive Director, the Marketing Committee is making progress on a marketing plan and campaign for the retiree attraction recommendations of the task force report.
Special Assessments Available On Website
The City of Lawrence recently redesigned the city website and are continuously working to upgrade features on the site and use new technology to provide information to residents. Our web developer, Chris Stringer, is working to integrate the GIS mapping information with existing databases. We will continue to integrate internal systems and web applications in the future as a better way to communicate with residents. The city recently updated the Special Assessments information online at http://www.lawrenceks.org/city_clerk/specialassessment/search with this technology. The site now offers an address search and features a map of special assessments in Lawrence. We provided this information to the Lawrence Board of Realtors and Lawrence Homebuilders Association for their members use.