Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Utilities Department

TO:	Cynthia Boecker, Assistant City Manager Casey Toomay, Budget Manager
FROM:	Mike Lawless, Interim Asst. Director of Utilities
CC:	Dave Wagner, Director of Utilities Beth Frailey Krishtalka, Management Analyst Philip Ciesielski, Assistant Director of Utilities
DATE:	June 23, 2008
RE:	Investments Made to Reduce Costs

The following items outline investments made by the Utilities Department which result in reduced operational costs.

· Sewer Cleaning, Maintenance & Rehabilitation – Sanitary sewer overflows have been reduced by 50% during the first 4 months of this year compared to last year. This follows a steady downward trend for the last 5 years. See attached graphs on SSOs and Customer Service Calls on pages 3 and 4. This can be attributed to an aggressive line cleaning and maintenance program and the sewer lining and manhole rehabilitation projects. By reducing overflows and service calls, equipment, overtime, material costs and claims for basement backups are also reduced.

· Automation of the Treatment Plants and Pump Stations – Automation of the treatment plants and pump stations has many benefits for the city. These include remote operation of pump stations, better chemical feed control and dosing at the treatment plants to respond to changing conditions and automatic controls to shut equipment down before complete failure occurs. As an example, high-level alarms in pump stations allow operators to recognize and respond to equipment failures, which can prevent sewage backups into basements. The use of in-house staff for the development of the automation systems saves the Department about 30% compared to outside contractors and automation on the pump stations has decreased overtime costs by about $35,000 per year.

· Safety Committee –The Safety Committee meets monthly to review all aspects of safety for the Department. This includes the seven safety-training programs, department risk analysis and review of corrective actions plans for accidents and emergency incidents. Worker’s Compensation claims for 2007 were only $3,175.

· Creation of Engineering Division – The Engineering Division consolidated water and sewer utility services for master plan and development projects to a central group. The Engineering Division reviews water and sewer infrastructure to ensure they are designed and constructed in accordance with the department standards and specifications not only for reliability but also for consistency of maintenance of the assets once the construction is complete. The Division also incorporated GIS where there has been a tremendous effort undertaken to accurately locate and identify water and sewer assets for Department. The benefit will be seen in the quality of data available for the upcoming master plan project.

· Kansas One-Call - The Department is now handling all utility locates for the City through the Kansas One-Call system. This helped to reduce general fund expenditures. The One-Call system also allows callers to contact all City utilities as well as other private utilities with just one phone call to locate underground infrastructure.