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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWeekly Newsletter Date: November 12, 2010 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: FIRE DEPARTMENT RETAINS PRESTIGIOUS ISO RATING 1.: Please find enclosed a letter that we received from the Insurance Services Office (ISO) regarding our public fire protection review that was conducted this past May. As a result of this review, the city has retained its "2" public fire protection classification. Cities are ranked by the ISO from a high of 1 to a low of 10. The fact that the city has retained a Class 2 rating puts us in the top 1% of all cities. Only 0.1% of all cities obtain a Class 1 rating, and only 0.7% obtain a Class 2 rating. In the State of Wisconsin, there are only 22 communities with a Class 2 rating out of 1,709 possible communities, with no cities in Wisconsin having a Class 1 rating. One of the reasons that the city obtained such a high score is that our water system achieved a rating of 39.38 points out of a total 40, which is a testament to the great job our Water Utility has done with planning and maintaining our water distribution system. Congratulations to Utilities Superintendent Brand and Fire Chief Franz, and their staffs, for all of their efforts in helping the community maintain this prestigious fire protection rating. Please contact Fire Chief Franz if you have any questions regarding this rating. TRANSPORTATION ENHANCEMENT GRANT REQUEST FALLS SHORT 2.: Please find enclosed a letter to Community Development Director Davis regarding the city's unsuccessful request for a Transportation Enhancement Grant for the Riverwalk Trail Project. You may have read this week's Northwestern article regarding the city's pursuit of grants as part of our 2011- 2015 CIP. Specifically, we had identified potential revenues of $1.66 million to fund the Riverwalk Project from Jackson Street east to Main Street. This grant was intended to fund approximately one-half of the cost of this $3.2 million project, as identified in the CIP. Even though this grant funding is not available for 2011, I believe it is still appropriate to have discussions about pursuing this project, with or without the grants. We can certainly hold off on doing a project until grant funding becomes available, or the Council can decide to continue with pursuing this phase of the project without the grant, and seek grant funding in the future as the success of the Riverwalk Project continues with our own efforts. This is certainly an item worthy of Council discussion at Tuesday's Workshop, and I wanted you to have this information in advance so that you could have a worthwhile discussion about how we want to approach funding Riverwalk Projects in 2011 and beyond. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please do not hesitate to contact either Community Development Director Davis or me. Weekly Newsletter November 12, 2010 Page 2 USPS ISSUES FINDING ON AMP STUDY 3.: Please find enclosed a letter I received from the Postmaster of the Lakeland Postal District regarding the Area Mail Processing (AMP) feasibility study of consolidating the Oshkosh Postal Processing Plant with Green Bay. As expected, the results indicate that the Postal Service would save money by closing the Oshkosh facility. What the study fails to address is whether or not other options, such as Green Bay consolidating with Oshkosh, would be more cost effective. As I have mentioned previously, the Postal Service refused to do any sort of study that would have conducted a more comprehensive analysis, and would not explain why they would not conduct any such study. I have serious concerns about the validity of this analysis when it was not done as comprehensively as it should have been. Unfortunately, the Postal Service has scheduled the public meeting to discuss the results of this at rd the same time that the Council meets on Tuesday, November 23. While I do not want to sound cynical, I think that it's pretty common knowledge that the Council meets on a Tuesday night, and they certainly could have found a more convenient time to have this meeting two days before Thanksgiving, during deer hunting, and in conflict with a regularly scheduled Council Meeting. The upcoming Council Meeting will be too late for the Council to discuss it, and given the fact that Council has already made its concerns clear in a resolution, I'm not sure if there is anything else that the Council can do from a legislative standpoint. Having said that, I intend to make sure that a city representative is at this meeting even with the conflicts presented to us by the annual budget meeting. To date, the Postal Service has not responded to City Attorney Lorenson's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inquiry regarding USPS's decision to not do a similar analysis of the Green Bay facility. I suspect that they will not provide this information until after a decision is made so that it is rendered irrelevant to this discussion. If you have any questions or suggestions on how we want to proceed with this, please do not hesitate to contact me. UWO TO MEET WITH NEIGHBORS REGARDING MASTER PLAN & TRAFFIC 4.: On Tuesday, city staff met with the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh representatives regarding UW- O's proposal to vacate Elmwood and close it between Irving and Lincoln to create a pedestrian mall around the University. I asked staff to work with University officials because of concerns of traffic flow for purposes of public safety and emergency response. The University has a Master Plan that has been incorporated into the city's Comprehensive Plan, but the University has made adjustments to this plan in recent years, some of which have implications for traffic patterns well beyond the University's area of influence. One of the other options that the University proposes is to eventually close Algoma Boulevard through the University. Closing both Elmwood and Algoma would have serious traffic implications, and staff was concerned that response times in the University area and northward could increase by more than two minutes per call, resulting in response times well in excess of six minutes. These response times are unacceptable for this neighborhood, and both Chief Franz and Chief Greuel expressed concerns about doing so. We discussed some interim moves that may be able to take place, as well as how some of these short term decisions could be amended as long term conditions change. Weekly Newsletter November 12, 2010 Page 3 Before the University makes any formal request, they have indicated a willingness to meet with their neighbors regarding this subject. As a result, the University will be holding a meeting on nd Monday, November 22. I do not have the details of the meeting, but I will provide information to you as it becomes available, and will ask the City Clerk to notice it so that Council Members have an opportunity to attend if you so choose. Depending on the input received at this meeting, the University will decide if they want to make a request to close Elmwood, or if we want to pursue some of the other options that were discussed at the meeting to improve pedestrian flow nd across Elmwood Avenue. I will report back to Council following the November 22 meeting and advise you where the University will be going with this issue. PANHANDLING ORDINANCE 5.: Please find enclosed a memo from City Attorney Lorenson and Police Chief Greuel regarding an analysis I had asked them to conduct following a request from Mayor Esslinger to review the possibility of implementing a panhandling ordinance in the city. As indicated in the memo, there are many constitutional issues associated with a panhandling ordinance, many of which can be overcome through existing ordinances. One option is to pursue an aggressive panhandling ordinance, which addresses behaviors from panhandlers who are more intimidating. At this time, however, Chief Greuel believes that our current ordinances have adequate measures to address aggressive panhandling should it take place. I had indicated to Mayor Esslinger that I would provide this information to Council once staff had an opportunity to review. If any Council Member would like to discuss this issue at greater length, please let me know and I will place it on an upcoming Agenda. If you have any questions on this matter, please contact City Attorney Lorenson. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 6.: Other items I'm enclosing with today's Newsletter include the latest FOCUS newsletter, from the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which features an article on the recent election. Insofar as minutes are concerned, I'm enclosing the ndth minutes of the November 2 Plan Commission meeting; the minutes of the October 19 th Downtown BID Board meeting; and the minutes of the September 9 Storm Water Utility Committee meeting. The last items I'm enclosing are the reports from the Oshkosh Public Library and the Oshkosh Public Museum on the activities taking place at each of their respective facilities. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 7.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of November 15 include th the following: On Monday, November 15, I will be meeting with Administrative Services staff on staffing issues related to vacancies within the IT Division. At 1:30 p.m., I will be meeting with representatives from UW-Oshkosh and other community leaders regarding a community civility th initiative. On Wednesday, November 17, at 11:00 a.m., I will be making a presentation to this th year's Leadership Oshkosh class regarding local government. On Thursday, November 18, at 7:30 a.m., I will be attending the Chamco Board meeting at Fox Valley Technical College. If you have any questions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc