Weekly Update to City Council

from the City Manager

June 20, 2008

• Please be reminded of the joint meeting we have with the Butler County Commissioners on Monday night at the Manchester in the Library Room for dinner, 6:30 p.m.
• Sherrod Brown’s office has offered to assist with the deplorable conditions of the RR crossings and RR related facilities in town. John Boehner’s office has been working on this as well.  Hopefully we will get some attention with two offices helping.  The railroads need to take care of their facilities in the City.
• The sun shade for Governor’s Square has been ordered.  It should be installed within the next 2-4 weeks.
• Senior Center Re-use of Building – at some point in the near future, we will need to discuss with Council your thoughts for re-use of the facility.  The utilities for just the senior center are about $2,000-3,000 per month.
• We will be forming an internal committee on fuel usage and a combination city/private sector committee on event liability insurance.
• If we have time on Monday night after the meeting with the Commissioners, we have included discussion of the street levy on the agenda.
• The Fire Dept did a great job on Sat. with the chemical reaction at United Waste Water Services.  Sadly, one fatality was involved – an employee of the plant.   Thankfully our personnel, and those from other depts. who also responded, worked through the incident safely, though two of our firefighters were treated and released from Atrium.  We implemented a Code Red within a block and a half of the scene asking neighbors to stay inside their homes to avoid fumes.

Departmental Reports

Police Division

Randy Stanaford was bound over to the Butler County Grand Jury for Abduction F-3 after attempting to abduct a 9-year old from the rear of her residence on Linden Ave.  Had a meeting with the Fire Dept, Info Systems, Building Maintenance and Police to discuss the recent five hour power outage we experienced.  Some problems were identified which are being compiled and a report on these will be forthcoming. 

Environmental/Engineering Department

Engineering has been working closely with Wausau Paper in locating and field verifying the public utilities within the property in conjunction with the proposed facility upgrades.

Fire Division

We successfully responded to a hazardous materials incident involving a rolled over semi tractor trailer, fully loaded with 7200 gallons of diesel. The same day we battled a second alarm fire, receiving mutual aid from Monroe. and resulting in rescue of an injured firefighter, treated and released from Atrium.

Health Department

Three members of the High Hopes Team traveled to Albuquerque, NM for some much needed training at the annual National Community Health Care Workers Conference. There was no cost to the City because they are making use of grant money for all their expenses.  We are inspecting nearly three times as many temporary food booths (40 versus 14) this year as compared to this time last year in the same number of special events. That’s definitely good news for upcoming events this year.

Planning Department

Due to the large number of zoning applications in July, Planning Commission will be holding two business meetings on July 9 and 16.  Planning staff is continuing to discuss coordination and transfer of job duties for the City reorganization.

Public Works

The Street crews assisted with the overturned tanker at I-75 & 122.  Sewer and Storm Water crews formed and finished several concrete restorations, assisted with sewer repair on Ohio & Tytus, cleaned and televised sewer for engineering at River Chase and assisted the Water Treatment Plant with a tank cleanup

Finance Department

This week we instituted a new message to answer our phones both during and after business hours. This is a great customer service tool which will assist our water customers.  We worked closely with the Purchasing and IT depts. on this project.

Economic Development

The City’s Renaissance District continues to be the focus of a lot of development activity. Construction on six projects continues in the district: 1) the Atrium YMCA opens in August; 2) Avalon, an assisted care facility by Otterbein, should be completed late this year; 3) the CVS Pharmacy at 122 and Union, should be open later this year; 4) the Inn at Renaissance Village on north Union Road is an assisted care facility and should open early next year; 5) the Renaissance Professional Village on South Union Road will add another 12,000 sq. ft. building later this year; and, 6) the 50,000 sq. ft. East Pointe 200 Building (Paychex) is slated to open in March of 2009. All told, the projects should generate between 350-400 full-time equivalent jobs.

Meetings/Events/Functions attended this week:

Meeting on the former Senior Center

Warren County Municipal League

Keep Middletown Beautiful Fundraiser

Hope House meeting with Board

AK Steel Sons and Daughters Banquet

Upcoming Events

June 21^st          Blues and Bikes, All day, Donham Plaza

                        Pickleball Court opening, Lefferson Park, 2:00 p.m.

June 23^rd          Dinner with the Butler County Commissioners and Middletown City Council , Manchester Inn - Library, 6:30 p.m.

June 25^th          56 Degrees Ribbon cutting, Central Ave. (former Quizno’s), 5:00 p.m.

June 27^th          Media Day at Airport for Airshow, 12 noon