Weekly Update to City Council from the City Manager October 10, 2011

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1 Weekly Update to City Council from the City Manager October 10, 2011 Budget Season We will have the following budget presentations by department heads at our meeting on Tuesday, October 18: Law, Public Works and Utilities, Capital Improvements, Community Revitalization, Health Fund, City Manager and City Council. Please plan on this taking an hour or two to get through. Feel free to either me or Russ your questions in advance. This will enable us to adequately prepare a response. The current schedule for the budget is as follows: October 18 - finalize review November 1- First Reading November 15- Second Reading/Council adopts budget **If Council so desires, we can set additional sessions to work through details of the budget. Transit Receives $41,691 Elderly and Disabled Fare Assistance Grant The Ohio Department of Transportation this week awarded the Middletown Transit System a $41,691 grant for Elderly & Disabled Transit Fare Assistance. These funds are provided to offset fare box loss incurred during CY 2010 as a result of offering a reduced fare to the elderly and people with disabilities. Middletown Police Emergency Vehicle Evasive Action Training The Middletown Division of Police recently completed Emergency Vehicle Evasive Action training at Butler Tech. This training occurred over a two week period and every sworn officer in the department was trained in maneuverability techniques as well as pursuit driving. This training is done every two years and is a part of mandatory training at the division of police. The course has 12 objectives, including backing, high speed evasive action and shuffle steering. Several Middletown police officers have been trained by the state to instruct this training and they served as instructors. This enabled the department to save money by completing training in house. Airport Project Appropriation City Council passed an ordinance at the end of 2009 authorizing a contract with Start Skydiving to

2 improve one of the airport hangars for their use. The contract authorized up to $350,000 toward this project. The contract called for the money to be repaid over time from Start Skydiving lease payment. Given that Council s instructions were to accomplish this project, we hired Greg Pratt (filling in for various development projects since the departure of Mike Robinette) to work with Start Skydiving to define the scope of the improvements to the hangar. They have reached agreement on this project and are ready to proceed with the appropriation legislation. Start Skydiving would like to begin work as soon as possible to accomplish as much construction as possible before winter sets in. We need two decisions from City Council: 1) an appropriation passed by City Council to spend the funds. Normally, if pushed for time, we would have a first reading on the 18 th of October and then the second reading, passed by emergency on November 1. Start Skydiving has requested that Council consider passing this as an emergency on the 18 th of October thereby adding 2 weeks to their construction season. The legislation will be prepared as an emergency, Council may either have the first reading on the 18 th or pass it on the 18 th. 2) From which fund do we want to borrow the money? Again, the contract calls for repayment of the funds through Start Skydiving lease payments over the next 5+ years. Staff s recommendation is to use the Downtown Fund. We could also borrow from the General Fund or issue a note. We will proceed with the Downtown Fund unless I hear otherwise before Friday. Middletown Fire Observes Breast Cancer Awareness Month the shirt is $ October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In 2010 The Middletown Division of Fire (MDF) showed support and raised money for the cause by wearing and selling a uniform shirt with a pink logo on the front and a large pink ribbon on the back. This year MDF will again show support and raise money to fight this terrible disease. If you would like to buy a uniform shirt and help MDF raise awareness and money please contact MDF Lieutenant Brett Rose at brettr@cityofmiddletown.org. The cost of

3 New Assistant Prosecutor This week the Criminal Division of the Law Department is welcoming our new Assistant Prosecutor, Ashley Bretland. Ashley s official start date is Monday, October 10th. Ashley has most recently been in private practice working as a criminal defense attorney. We look forward to having her as part of our prosecution team and welcome her to the City of Middletown! Airport Strives to do More for Less The picture below shows a runway threshold marking (8ft wide by 150ft long times 8 boxes on each end) being painted on the airport runway using Airport personnel. The project is being accomplished with only the cost of paint and reflective beads. Even though the picture shows a huge box, at 10,000 feet it appears to be the size of a postage stamp. The airport is constantly looking at ways to get more done for less and this is an excellent example of that effort. Cincinnati State Web Site Home Page Good to see that Cincinnati State Trustees Approve Middletown Agreement is the lead article on Cincinnati State s website home page. Please use the link below to read the entire article and to learn more about Cincinnati State Financial Audit Report Accepted Middletown s CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) audit for 2010 was accepted by the State of Ohio without any findings for recovery or material misstatements. There were three findings on the audit. The first two findings did not affect cash in any way and were corrected in the 2010 report after being identified. The final finding is also non-cash related and describes how we should report estimated resources to the County. We will now include all State of Ohio OPWC money as resources available. Also included in the report is a management letter that describes minor issues that the auditor feels would help with compliance or internal controls. If you would like to see the full report, you can go to the city s website at or the State of Ohio s website at State of Ohio Audit Report Documents. The City has submitted our CAFR for National recognition. The City has received the honor for the last 24 years. We ll find out in January if we get our Silver Anniversary report. Good job Finance Team!

4 Street Paving Our crews have been making repairs to small portions of streets and alleys with our new equipment. Once we become proficient, this equipment will allow us to do some of the smaller, less complicated paving jobs around town. We will still need to contract the larger paving jobs. In addition, our crews are crack sealing streets currently and filling potholes before winter sets in. The end of October marks the time that we switch equipment over from pothole patching and crack sealing to snow plowing. Health Department Middletown City Health Department attended the AK Retirees Health and Information Fair on Wednesday, October 5th and provided public health educational information to over 100 attendees. We are still seeing a large volume of children in need of immunizations at the Health Department Immunization Clinic (930 Ninth Ave) and will continue to hold clinics Wednesdays Oct 12th, November 2nd and November 16th from 9a-12pm for children 18 years and younger. Chili Cook-off The employee annual chili cook-off to celebrate the finale of our United Way campaign headed up by Finance Director Russ Carolus and staff will be in the employee lounge on the 3 rd floor Friday, October 28 th 11:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. In addition to this fun filled event; employees are invited to wear their Halloween costume. Rumor has it there will be a contest for the best costume! More to follow Upcoming Events Oct 11 Health Board meeting - City Bldg. 2C 2 nd Floor 7:30 a.m. Oct 12 Planning Commission meeting Council Chambers (LL) 6:30 p.m. Oct 18 City Council meeting - Council Chambers (LL) 5:30 p.m. Oct 19 Cemetery Board meeting Conf. Room 2C 5:00 p.m. Oct 27 Chamber Economic Forecast Lunch MASC 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Oct 29 Halloween Costume Party at Beau Verre Studios to benefit the Middletown Symphony, $50, 7 p.m.-midnight Oct 31 Trick or Treat City-wide 5:30 7:00 p.m. Nov 1 City Council meeting Council Chambers (LL) 5:30 p.m. Nov 5 Kiwanis Annual Pancake Breakfast VFW Social Center, Coles Road 6:30 a.m- 1:00 p.m.

5 Links for additional information: City Manager s Weekly Update: Middletown Community Calendar: (copy and paste in your web browser) Pothole Patrol: or call (Option 2) Requests for Service regarding Snow and Ice Removal Requests for recycling toters (free) or the brown waste toters (monthly fee): or call Have a great week! Judy