Mayor’s Weekly update June 6, 2009
1. The Laclede County American Red Cross. The good news is that the Laclede
County Office of the American Red Cross held their official opening and Open
House this past Tuesday. It was a very well attended event. I am very proud of
the fact that our City was able to provide the Laclede County Chapter of the Red
Cross with a facility. I want to thank the crew from Public Works that rehabbed
that side of the Wallace Building. The workmanship is outstanding. If you get
the chance, drop by and look. The Red Cross volunteers would love to show you
their new home.
2. Strategic Planning Committee. The Strategic Planning Sub-committee’s have
been continuing to meet over the last several months on a regular basis. The good
idea phase is ending and the hard part is putting down their thoughts on paper.
We will be having an In Process Review next month to allow the sub-committee’s
to brief the public on what they have been exploring and how they are attempting
to address the issues that they have discovered in an effort to plan for the future of
our City. The IPR’s are open to the public and you are invited to attend. As a
recap, there are four sub-committees: 1) infrastructure, 2) governance, 3)
economic development, and 4) quality of life. The intent is to examine each area
to determine the needs and desires of our City over the next twenty years and to
develop a working plan to achieve those needs and goals in five year increments.
From the meetings that I have attended, I can tell you that the sub-committees
have discovered a lot of things that we as a City will need to be working on to
ensure the public’s safety, provide for the economic growth of our City, and
provide the quality of life that our citizen’s deserve. Of course there are questions
that arise. Are the proposed solutions perfect? No they will not be, nothing is
ever perfect. Are they the best that can be developed given the time, information,
and resources available? I, and I am sure the sub-committee members, feel that
the answers are the best that can be achieved under the limitations that prevail.
Has every problem and challenge been addressed? No they have not; there are
always new unforeseen problems that arise. I am confident that this will be a
good plan and that we can only move forward by having a plan to work with. I
wish to thank each member of the Strategic Planning Committee for his or her
participation and dedication to this effort. It has taken a lot of their personal time
to make the meetings, pour over the information from those meetings, do
research, and work with their fellow members to develop the plan. They are
working to help our City.
3. Storm Water Runoff and Flood Control. As the rains continue on the City of
Lebanon, so does local flooding. As some of you may or may not know, the City
has recently adopted an EPA and DNR man-dated and unfunded storm water
runoff program. This program has five distinct elements: 1) Public Participation
and Involvement 2) Public Education, 3) Illicit discharge detection and
elimination, 4) Pollution prevention/good housekeeping, and 5) Water Quality
ordinances. All of these elements are continuous and on-going by a number of
means to include me posting here and public hearings at Council meetings.
Because of these mandates, the City is forming a Stormwater Committee. This is
an advisory committee whose members are appointed by the Mayor and
approved/confirmed by Council. If you are interested in serving please submit a
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Mayor’s Weekly update June 6, 2009
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brief resume to my office. You may mail to City Hall or simply drop it off in
either my office or Planning and Zoning. Some information that you may be
interested in what the City has been doing to address this issue. Since 2001, the
City has expended $2,169,351 on new construction of storm water piping and
boxes. That is an average annual expenditure of $241,039. The City Street
Maintenance Department budget pays for continuing maintenance of piping,
boxes, and ditches, detention structures, and street sweeping. The annual average
cost has been $114,755. Which means between improvements and maintenance,
our City spends on average $355,794 annually to control storm water. As the City
has more housing and commercial developments built our storm water issues
continue to rise. Why? Because there is less land available for water to be
absorbed. The water has to go somewhere. Here is an issue for all to be aware of.
A number of our subdivisions are built on or near streams. These streams carry
the storm water runoff. The City does not own easement on these stream beds.
We can not legally enter into or on to private property to maintain these stream
beds or run off ditches. When you or your neighbor fill those drainage areas with
debris or fill them in with dirt, dams are created. That is where the problem
begins because the water backs up into your or your neighbor’s houses. Since
1990 there have been federal and state laws requiring storm water run off controls
and measures required of both residential and commercial developments. The
City has complied with those requirements, which are designed for a 50-year level
of runoff. The storms this year have well exceeded the 50-year mark. This is an
issue that will require all of our efforts to resolve. This was a topic of discussion
by both the Infrastructure and Governance Sub-committees recently.
City Administrator Search Committee. The Committee met on Monday the 1st of
June for its first meeting. Forty-one applications were received. This will be a
difficult job. The Committee hopes to have a nomination to Council within the
next several months.
The newly created Airport Board will be meeting shortly to organize and begin
their work. The meeting date, time, and location will be published in the LDR
and here on the City’s website.
Junior Police Academy. In a continuing effort to improve our community
policing activities and provide our youth with good activities during the summer
months, the Lebanon Police Department has held a Junior Police Academy this
week. The public participation was much higher than we expected. There were
25 participants for this inaugural class. The kids had a great time and learned a
lot about how the police do their job protecting our City. We hope to have more
of this next year. If you had a child in this year’s class, please let us know your
thoughts on how it went. We want to improve it every year. Our Fire Department
is considering a similar program as well. Again, your thoughts on this are
appreciated. The LPD will be holding a Senior Academy designed for our Senior
Citizens this fall at the Hughes Center.
YMCA. The YMCA feasibility study will be starting up shortly. The committee
to lead this has been formed by the Parks Board and the Greater Ozarks YMCA.
We are looking for survey participants. If you are interested please let the Parks
Director know (532.4642). This is an important survey, as it will help the Y to
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Mayor’s Weekly update June 6, 2009
gage public support for their presence in Lebanon and help them understand the
types of programs that you want in our City. If the Y chooses not to become a
part of our City, the information in the survey will help the Parks Department
develop programs that meet the public’s desires. We are working on backup
plans.
8. Boswell Aquatic Park. The park is open and the crowd’s have been great. Thank
you for your continuing support here.
9. Summer electric usage. Summer is on us and the air conditioners have started.
Help control your electric rates. Those rates are impacted by peak usage charges
from our whole-sale supplier. If we can keep the peaks down, our rates will be
lower. Do not run everything at the height of demand. Run the dishwasher,
clothes washer, and driers latter in the evening. When you are not home, set the
air conditioner thermostats at a higher setting. We still have some energy rebate
funds available. Take advantage of them by installing an energy star efficient
digital thermostat and having an energy survey completed. Those forms are
available at City Hall.
10. Kid’s Fishing Day. We are still working to make this event happen. I think it is
an important activity for our community and judging by the number of supporters
and volunteers that are now coming forward to assist the City Parks Department
in trying to make this event come to fruition, so do a lot of other people in
Lebanon.
11. D-Day Remembrance. Today is the 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion of
Northern Europe and the push to Berlin that led to Victory in Europe (VE Day).
Please observe a moment of silence for those that fell and thank the very few that
remain today. If not for their actions the world would be a very different place
today.
If you have comments, questions, or concerns please contact me by e-mail at
mayor@llion.org, by telephone 417.532.2156, or make an appointment to see me by
contacting Betty at the above telephone number.
Respectfully,
CP Craig
Mayor
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