City Administrator’s Report for 9/2/2011

City Administrator’s Report
09-2-2011
FROM: Mahesh Sharma, City Administrator

Administration

City Hall will be closed on Monday, September 5th, in observance of the Labor Day holiday.

The Hope Network is conducting their annual “Give the Gift of Warmth” program starting Sunday, September 4th, and going through Friday, September 30th. Collections of new or gently used adult and children’s winter coats and new socks are being accepted during this drive. For a complete listing of drop-off locations and more information about this and other Hope Network programs and services, visit their website at: www.hopeforraytown.com.

Community Development

The following link is to an article on the efforts of Raytown, Lee’s Summit, Kansas City, Pleasant Hill, Greenwood, and Jackson County, as part of the Rock Island Corridor Coalition, regarding their efforts to preserve and maintain the Rock Island rail corridor for future trail and transit use: http://www.lsjournal.com/2011/09/01/72270/working-on-acquiring-th-railroad.html

Mayor Bower, John Benson and Vicki Turnbow (Chamber) attended the first meeting of the Jackson County Commuter Corridors Alternative Analysis Stakeholder Advisory Committee on Wednesday, August 31st. The Alternative Analysis is designed to identify potential transit options for residents and commuters in two corridors in Jackson County, one of which is the Rock Island Rail Corridor. As part of this study alternative transit options will be identified and analyzed to determine a Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA). A public meeting will be held on September 27th and staff will provide more information regarding the location and time for the public meeting as they are finalized: http://www.kcsmartmoves.org/projects/jacksoncounty.aspx

Information Technology

Completion of network security upgrades will take place over the Labor Day weekend and minimal network outages will occur as a new security system is integrated into existing network infrastructure. The enhanced network security system will include network intrusion detection and prevention, spyware and virus protection, internet content filtering and VPN secured access to network resources. Cell phone access to City email accounts will be temporarily effected, but will not be down for any prolonged periods of time during the conversion.

New data server for the renovated Public Works Maintenance Barn has been staged for deployment and is ready for production. The new data server will host live and archived video images of sanitary sewer infrastructure, GPS, fleet management and fuel usage reporting and monitoring applications, which has recently been upgraded and implemented by the Public Works Department.

Parks & Recreation

Raytown BMX is hosting the 2011 Redline Central Finals, on September 9th -11th and this event is open to the public. Admission is only five dollars ($5.00) per person. The Redline Central Final draws over 800 BMX racers from the Central U.S. region of Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The Raytown BMX Board would like to thank the City of Raytown, the Parks and Recreation Department and the track’s great volunteers for their support, dedication and hard work to make this event possible.

There will be a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony at Minor Smith Park, Saturday, September 10th, beginning at 11:30am. This event will celebrate the re-opening of the Minor Smith Park to the public after the construction of the new bridge giving access to the park. The speakers at this event will be Mayor David Bower, Park Board President Bob Smith and Park and Recreation Director Kevin Boji. Descendants of Minor Smith will be in attendance to assist with the ribbon cutting.

Public Works

The 350 Highway Bicycle and Pedestrian trail design project is underway. Utilities have been marked along the corridor and which allows the surveyors to document locations as they perform the survey work.

Staff is completing a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the Downtown Streetscape Improvements design and the RFQ will be posted next week on the city website for interested consultants to review. The scope of the project is to improve from the intersection of Raytown Road and 63rd Street East to Blue Ridge Boulevard and North on Blue Ridge Boulevard to 62nd Street. The project received a Transportation Enhancement Grant in the amount of $483,750.00 for the construction of improvements. The grant requires a 25% local match and will result in a minimum combined construction amount of $645,000.00.

Board, Committee and Commission Meetings, and Events

September 6 – Board of Aldermen Work Session; Council Chambers, 6:00pm
September 6 – Board of Aldermen Meeting; Council Chambers 7:00pm
September 7 – Police Pension Board of Trustees Meeting; Police Conference Room, 8:00am
September 8 – Board of Zoning Adjustment Meeting; Council Chambers, 7:00pm