Mayor’s Weekly Update August 29, 2009
It has been a busy week at City Hall. Monday evening the City Administrator Search
Committee completed its tasks of recommending a City Administrator. The next step is
to brief the City Council and receive guidance on negotiations. Pending the results of
that, we shall hopefully fill the position shortly.
The Airport Advisory Board met on Thursday afternoon. After a considerable amount of
discussion (and no, I would not call it a “squabble”) the Board approved the development
of a report with recommendations to the Council as to how to address safety and
expansion issues at the airport. This report should be completed by the end of September
with an out briefing to Council shortly thereafter. The airport is a complicated issue.
Primary concerns center around safety factors that impact not only the airport but also the
businesses and citizens that underlie the approach corridor. There are issues that
surround the economic viability and future growth needs and requirements. All of which
need to be addressed and with the Council determining the proper and desired course of
action for our City. Hopefully, the Board’s report will provide clarity to each of these
issues and provide an appropriate recommendation for the Council to proceed on. If you
have an opinion on the matter, please be sure to contact your Councilmen and let them
know where you stand.
Last night’s Laclede Electric Cooperative Membership Conference was very well
attended. We wish the new board of LEC good luck in their endeavors. The City and
LEC have enjoyed a very solid and professional working relationship for a long time.
This relationship helps both entities’ customers enjoy stable electric service even when
the weather conspires to interrupt that service. City electric crews and LEC crews know
and work well with each other.
Long time Lebanon Police Officer, Lieutenant Scotty Ruble is retiring from the LPD.
We wish him well in his retirement and thank him for his honest and faithful service to
the citizens of Lebanon. Due to his retirement, several vacancies have been created and
must be filled. The Police Chief has recommended those promotions to the Police Board.
The recommendations were based upon previously held promotion boards and applicants
seeding by those promotion boards. The promotion boards were chaired and filled by
senior police commanders from outside agencies to ensure that each LPD applicant had
an equal opportunity for promotion. The Police Board has forwarded those names and
recommendations to the Mayor. I have concurred with those recommendations and have
forwarded to Council for Council approval. Pending approval by Council, the names of
those promoted are withheld. The Council has the action for Monday night’s Council
meeting.
The Ozark Regional YMCA is scheduled to brief Council on Monday evening to address
the results of the Y’s feasibility study. I am sure we are all looking forward to hearing
those results.
Reviewing the numbers to date with the Civic Center staff this past week, we have seen a
marked increase in our Civic Center activities this past year. The staff is doing a good
job of brining activities to the Civic Center. The growth of business is a slow and tedious
Mayor’s Weekly Update August 29, 2009
process but will result in an increase in venues and revenues to help support our Civic
Center. The Brumley Gospel Sing certainly helps us and the quality press that goes with
that event went a very long way towards making the Civic Center and Lebanon an even
better place to hold events.
The new Lebanon Police Department is moving along and our PD should be in their new
home by the end of next month baring any unforeseen issues. The project is on-time and
on budget. Our City Project Manager, Mr. Joe Berkich, has had his hands full keeping
things straight, on-time, and on-budget but he is doing a great job for the taxpayer here.
If you have comments, questions, or concerns please contact me at City Hall (417-5322156) or by e-mail at mayor@llion.org.
Respectfully,
CP Craig
Mayor, Lebanon, MO