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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWeekly Newsletter Date: June 3, 2011 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: CITY STORM WATER PROGRAM REVIEWED BY EPA 1.This week, staff from the : Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office in Chicago visited the City of Oshkosh to review the city's policies and procedures for storm water management, as required of Phase II communities such as Oshkosh. The city was randomly selected as part of EPA's process to review Phase II communities to determine how well they comply with regulations for storm water management. The EPA staff primarily met with engineering staff responsible for storm water. Over the course of the day, they reviewed our efforts to provide public information and seek public input on storm water management issues. They also visited sites at random to determine how well the city enforces potential illicit discharges from private entities. Periodically, we get complaints from businesses that the city is overstepping its bounds in reviewing possible storm water quality violations. If anything, the EPA feels that the city should be doing more, not less, of these types of inspections. I'm not sure of the full intent of these random reviews of municipal storm water programs, but I wanted to make Council aware that we have effectively been audited for our storm water management practices, and we should be receiving a report within the next couple of months. If you have any questions, please contact Assistant Public Works Director Steve Gohde. CHARGES FOR SAFETY TRAINING 2.: Over the years, our Fire Department has provided certain types of training to Oshkosh businesses as part of its fire prevention and safety education programs. As more businesses have become aware of the advantages of training their employees in things such as CPR, fire extinguisher training, and other safety-related items, the demand for these services has increased. At the same time, private businesses and other non-profits also make these services available. As the demand for these services has increased, it does impact the availability of our crews to perform other necessary services. In order to stem some of the demand, and so as not to put ourselves unnecessarily in competition with private businesses, Chief Franz and I discussed the option to begin charging some basic fees to recover the costs of providing these services. We feel that by doing so, the businesses will look at other alternatives to get these safety training exercises done so that we are not competing with the private sector, and to do so before the demand out paces our ability to provide these services. The Fire Department will be notifying businesses that have been taking advantage of these programs so that they may plan accordingly for the future, as we will begin charging when these programs resume in the fall. If you have any questions regarding this change in procedures, please contact Fire Chief Tim Franz. Weekly Newsletter June 3, 2011 Page 2 SURVEY OF COUNCIL POLICIES 3.: Mayor Tower had previously requested that staff conduct a survey of policies for City Councils regarding the use of electronic communication devices by Council Members during Council Meetings, as well as a survey of policies enacted by other City Councils regarding citizen comments at Council Meetings. City Attorney Lynn Lorenson has compiled the enclosed summaries on each of these respective policies. As these are policy items for the Council only, staff is merely providing this as information for your consideration, with no th recommendation. Mayor Tower had asked that these items be put on the June 14 Council Agenda. If you have any questions regarding these policies, please do not hesitate to contact me or City Attorney Lorenson. If there are any other policies that Council would like staff to review th or bring forward for Council consideration at the June 14 meeting, please contact City Clerk Pam Ubrig. TREE PLANTING POLICY QUESTIONED 4.: Council Members may have noticed a letter to the editor in today's Oshkosh Northwestern, questioning why the city would have removed a new terrace tree that was planted in an area that was targeted as part of the Taking Root Program. The letter writer appropriately questioned why the city would allow a resident/property owner to effectively veto the planting of a tree in the terrace that is, in fact, owned by the city and not the property owner in question. City Forester Bill Sturm has struggled with this issue since the Taking Root Program was initiated. A goal of participating in the Taking Root Program is to plant as many trees as possible in the public right-of-way. In some cases, however, a resident is insistent, and in some cases belligerent, regarding the planting of a tree on the terrace in front of their property. Rather than generating negative criticism and potentially tarnishing this program, city staff has made these sorts of adjustments to remove trees from properties that are not interested. Most of the residents who prefer not to have trees planted have been proactive about calling the city ahead of the planting, but in this case, the person in question claimed that they had not received a notice. We do, in fact, provide each property owner a notice when we are planning to plant a tree on their terrace. While the city is well within its rights to plant trees on its terraces, we would rather not see trees planted in these types of locations for fear of neglect, or worse, sabotage to the trees. One of the successes of the program is making sure that property owners maintain these trees long after they've been planted. If an unwilling property owner does not want to assist in this effort, the chances of the tree's survival decrease dramatically. In spite of this one letter to the editor, I myself have personally had conversations with two people this week who are very pleased with the success of the program, and I think that the positive responses in these cases certainly outweigh the rare instances when someone does not want to have a tree planted. If you have any questions regarding the Taking Root Program, please do not hesitate to contact Parks Director Ray Maurer or City Forester Bill Sturm. THE LEACH GOES GREEN FOR WATERFEST 2011 5.: Please find enclosed a press release regarding a new program offered by Wisconsin Public Service. All of the electricity for the Leach thst Amphitheater on Thursday nights, from June 9 through August 31, will be supplied by renewable energy. This new program is possible through Wisconsin Public Services's NatureWise Program. Waterfest will be using clean, renewable, and sustainable energy for the concert series, which includes wind and biomass technologies. As Parks Director Ray Maurer states in the press release, "The renewable energy features of NatureWise help show the city's commitment to sustainable practices and our environmental principles". If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact Parks Director Maurer. Weekly Newsletter June 3, 2011 Page 3 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 6.: Other items I'm enclosing with today's Newsletter include materials that were handed out Wednesday evening at the neighborhood meeting regarding storm water management in the Westhaven Clubhouse Area Detention Basin. Storm Water Management Engineer James Rabe tells me the meeting was well-attended and well- received. If you have any questions about the meeting or these materials, please feel free to contact Mr. Rabe. The next item I'm enclosing is the latest FOCUS newsletter, published by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which features an article on Wisconsin's taxes. Insofar as minutes th are concerned, I'm enclosing the following: The minutes of the May 17 Plan Commission thth meeting; the minutes of the May 11 Board of Appeals meeting; the minutes of the May 11 th Landmarks Commission meeting; the minutes of the May 4 Long Range Finance Committee thnd meeting; the minutes of the April 28 Library Board meeting; the minutes of the May 2 Sustainability Advisory Board meeting; and the meeting notice, agenda and background material th for the June 14 Traffic Review Advisory Board meeting. th UPCOMING MEETINGS 7.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of June 6 include the following: At 6:15 a.m. on Monday and 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, I will be attending employee recognition events at the Police Department. At 10:30 a.m. on Monday, I will be meeting with Council Member Steve Cummings regarding his concerns with the lack of progress of the Pioneer Inn, and possible options for the future. At 4:00 p.m. Monday, I will be accompanying Engineering Division staff to meet with residents on Patriot Lane regarding drainage issues in this area. At 6:30 p.m. Monday, I've been invited to attend a meeting of the Citizens for Strong Oshkosh (CSO) at the Convention Center. The purpose of the meeting is to educate the public on state budget cuts that may be impacting the City of Oshkosh. Some of these charges are still influx, as the Joint Finance Committee has amended the budget bill in recent days. We will th continue to monitor. On Wednesday, June 8, I've been invited to attend and observe an air th refueling mission that will be conducted by the 128 Air Refueling Wing of the Wisconsin National Guard. The National Guard periodically puts on these demonstrations for local business and government officials to explain the Guard's mission, and is being coordinated locally by EAA. At 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, I will be joining a conference call with Urban Alliance members on th the latest state budget changes. On Thursday, June 9, at 8:00 a.m., I'll be attending a Chamco Strategic Planning meeting. If you have any questions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc