In this issue:
- 2012 Budget: Reflecting Community Priorities
- 2012 Priorities
- Watch What Goes Down Your Drains
- Sign Up Now for Safe Winter Walkways Program
2012 Budget: Reflecting Community Priorities
City continues to focus on public safety, infrastructure, quality of life & economic development during tough economic times
In 2011, the City of Lawrence completed a scientific Citizen Survey that asked residents to rate city services and provide feedback on priorities and where the city should focus efforts in the future. Respondents’ top priorities were to focus on infrastructure/street maintenance and traffic flow/congestion on east-west streets Lawrence. As part of the 2012 budget cycle, City Commissioners reaffirmed citizens’ priorities and provided funding for projects that addressed the community priorities of public safety, infrastructure, quality of life, and strengthening economic development in Lawrence.
The mill levy for the City of Lawrence will increase by 1.8 mills in 2012; 1.7 of those mills will be dedicated to the voter-approved expansion of the Lawrence Public Library.
Making budget decisions in a stagnate economy is difficult but the city has continued to address staffing levels, review available resources, and explore increased efficiencies where available. Find out more online at www.lawrenceks.org/budget.
2012 Priorities
Economic Development: Continued support for projects including Farmland redevelopment, BioScience and Business Technology Center and other projects throughout Lawrence
Street Maintenance: Nearly $5 million in funding for street maintenance projects including a mill/overlay of 6th Street, west of Iowa
Public Safety: Four additional patrol officers, retention of a detective position that was previously funded by a grant, and funding for public safety radio system
Infrastructure: Funding for improvements for the intake system for the Kansas River Water Treatment Plant.
Watch What Goes Down Your Drains
Cleaning products & grease can clog drains and cost homeowners
Cleaning cloths, baby wipes and sewer systems don’t mix. Recently, there has been an increase in the disposal of baby wipes, adult wipes, disposable dust clothes, and disposable floor sweeper cloths into the city’s sanitary sewer system. Although the packages of these items say “disposable” or “flushable”, they can create huge problems in homeowner’s privately owned sewer lines and the city sewer lines. When flushed down the toilet, these items do not dissolve like toilet paper but instead settle or snag in the lines.
When settled out or snagged in the lines, they create a dam or blockage, which restricts the flow of wastewater through the lines and may cause sewage backups in the lines and into people’s homes. If settled in private sewer lines, this may eventually cause enough of a blockage that the used water from that home cannot enter the city’s collection system and back-up into the homeowner’s basement or drains. If settled out or snagged in the city’s collection system, they may eventually result in a large enough blockage that they cause a sewage back-up. Even more damaging, the wipes can become wrapped around or entangled in the city’s lift station pumps, which requires Utilities employees to remove them. This costs the city, and ultimately the rate payer, more money but it could also cause a malfunction of the equipment and potentially a sanitary sewer back-up into neighboring homes or a sanitary sewer overflow into a nearby waterway. If you use any of the above listed products, please dispose of these items in the trash, not down the drain.
Prepping that holiday turkey? Get rid of the grease in the right way! Grease is another hazard to the sewer system that many people dispose of in garbage disposals and drains. Even when flushed with hot water, eventually grease will cool in the line and turn to a gel. The grease then coats the lines and causes restrictions to the wastewater flow.
Depending on how quickly it cools will determine where this restriction occurs. If it cools quickly, it can restrict flow in the homeowner’s line, causing the homeowner to call a plumber to remove the grease (at the homeowner’s expense). If it cools slowly, it can cause restrictions in the main lines, which can eventually lead to restrictions and sewer backups into people’s homes. It can also coat lift station and wastewater treatment plant equipment and pumps and can cause a great deal of maintenance issues.
Disposal options for grease:
- Never pour grease down the drain.
- Place small amounts (less than a quart) of oil and grease into sealed containers before disposing in the trash. If you have larger amounts of cooking oil and grease, please call (785) 832-3030 to schedule a drop-off appointment at the City of Lawrence/Douglas County Household Hazardous Waste Facility.
Please feel free to direct any questions that you have on this to the Lawrence Utilities Department at (785) 832-7800.
Sign Up Now for Safe Winter Walkways Program
The City of Lawrence and Douglas County Senior Services are again partnering this winter to provide the Safe Winter Walkways program. Volunteers are needed to assist elderly or disabled homeowners in Lawrence clear sidewalks once it begins to snow. This program is designed to create safer and more accessible pedestrian walkways and matches residents needing assistance with snow removal with volunteers who want to do a neighborly good deed.
Online registration for volunteers is available at www.lawrenceks.org. Volunteers will be asked to commit to the winter season and visit his or her matched home each time snow falls. Volunteers can also leave contact information on a voice mail at (785) 832-3338 to sign up.
For those wanting to sign up for help with their sidewalks, contact (785) 832-3338. This year, DCSS will institute a January 1, 2012 deadline for registering for assistance with Safe Winter Walkways. After January 1, 2012, no waiting list for help will be kept this year.
Committed to providing excellent city services that enhance the quality of life for the Lawrence community