After 16 years, 5 administrations and a few setbacks, the city finally dedicated Central Station Plaza, the Historic Train Depot. Initiated back in 1994 with a transportation grant, the renovated structures are now the new home for the LaPorte Chamber of Commerce, The Greater LaPorte Economic Development Corp. and Leadership LaPorte County. I want to thank the city planner, Mary Jane Thomas, for her dedication throughout this entire project. She kept the project on course and never gave up hope that we would accomplish our goal. The 1910 Historic Structure is a true piece of our history, a gem of our community. The renovation, which included the tedious work of replicating much of the interior, woodwork and décor, has brought both structures back to their original glory. And the hard work paid off. On Dec. 11, 2009, the City of LaPorte was awarded the first annual Governor’s Award for Preservation of Historic Places during the Statehood Day Ceremony at the State House in Indianapolis. This award is a true testament to our community’s commitment to preservation and has been recognized as the state’s top preservation project.
With the city’s budget constraints limiting road resurfacing projects, the Street Department has focused on preserving recently resurfaced roads with crack sealing. This procedure helps reduce the threat of moisture seeping into the roadway, thereby adding to its longevity. The greatest savings to the department in 2009 was the purchase of road salt under the state contract. Priced at $71.61 per ton, as compared to $106 in 2008, the city realized a savings of more than $34 per ton. With the purchase of 2,000 tons this season, that’s a savings of more than $69,000.
With the addition of 4 new salt spreaders last year, now in operation, the city has realized a tremendous savings by spreading just a quarter of the salt per lane as in the past, making our city’s salt supply go 4 times farther. I credit Mike Fraze, street superintendent, and his 30-plus years of expertise and knowledge of road maintenance for saving the city thousands of dollars.
The city continues to address its aging tree inventory. 80 dead and dangerous trees were removed, along with 51 stumps last year. The city’s forester, Keith O’Herrin, continues to assess LaPorte’s urban forest and create the long-term plan to deal with our aging tree population.
TransPorte continues to be a vital service in our community. More than 39,000 passengers boarded our buses last year, traveling 118,000 miles across our city. These numbers are consistent with similar transportations systems all across the county. The operation cost the city $117,000 in local share to leverage funds raised by passenger fares of nearly $99,000. Essentially, the city invested $117,000 locally and received a return of nearly $560,000 through state and federal funds.
Our TransPorte building will undergo many improvements this year; new windows, doors, roof and gutters, furnace, tuck pointing, and office area repairs. The work is financed through the Federal Transit Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation, authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The costs of these repairs are roughly $400,000 and long overdue. When complete, the energy costs savings to the department should be substantial.
The job of enforcing the provisions of the city’s Code is huge and includes: Building Codes, Unsafe Buildings, Unfit Dwellings, Fences, Planning, Zoning, Solid Waste, Pools, Environment, Sidewalks, Junk Vehicles, Weeds, Trees, and Shrubs. You can imagine with this list of violations there is no end to the calls. With one full-time employee and one part-time employee, Lynn Cains and the Code Enforcement Office tagged 2,885 code violations in 2009. Some of the top calls for violations were junk vehicles (448), always a problem, 387 trash calls, and 656 calls for yard or tree lawn rubbish. The department also felt the impact of the mortgage foreclosure crisis as it spent much of its time enforcing code compliance on vacant and abandon homes and properties.
The reconstruction of State Road 4 (Monroe Street) was finally completed. The final price tag was in excess of $12 million. With all new surface, new utility services, trees and sidewalks, Monroe Street is now a safer and more pedestrian-friendly roadway. This project has updated and beautified a major thoroughfare in our city.
The Darlington Street Sewer Separation project began in August. The $1.5 million project, when complete, will redirect storm water, currently connected to the combined sewer, away from area homeowners and businesses to a storm sewer and store it in a storm basin. This project will alleviate local flooding ultimately benefiting the Lawrence Street-East Jefferson Avenue intersection by lowering the severity and frequency of flooding at that intersection. The Wastewater Dept. will monitor that intersection with flow meters to gauge the improvement from the project and address any future improvements.
With the new Combined Sewer Overflow or CSO control facilities completed, Wastewater Superintendent Jerry Jackson is pleased to announce that the Wastewater Plant did not release any untreated wastewater in 2009.
The department began tracking blockages and customer complaints using a database in 2002. Using past blockage history and targeted cleaning activities, there has been a substantial decrease in blockages.
As the Wastewater Department maintains 29 lift stations, power failures remain a significant problem for pump station operation. Installation of generators is planned for Pine Lake Avenue, Lane Street, 5th Street and Oakwood Street lift stations. The generator for the Pine Lake Avenue lift station was purchased in 2009 and will be installed in 2010. This project is being funded by a state revolving fund loan.
Our Water Department met all water quality standards in 2009 with no violations and just a handful of complaints addressed. Less water was pumped in 2009 and operating receipts were down by nearly 3% but the department held the line on spending. Some 900-plus fire hydrants were serviced last year, which led to 13 hydrants being replaced. The maintenance staff performs nearly all repairs in house; including all of the 17 water main breaks the department experienced this past year. The staff performed routine maintenance for all 8 water department properties, including maintenance of the 39 North Conservancy District. The Water Department continues to move towards the creation of a new water supply well field in 2010 on land adjacent to the East Treatment Plant.
The practice of building account balances slowly over years has help complete important projects when the time comes without borrowing money. The Webber Street water tank is scheduled to be repainted this summer at an estimated cost between $300,000 and $400,000. The department will also be involved with the Boston Street Project water main relocations this summer. A priority for the department is safety training throughout the year. Superintendent Todd Taylor is please to report the department worked the entire year without a lost-time injury.
We strive to keep insurance costs down. The goal of Matt Cook, Human Resource director, is to continue to “hold the line.” City employees were asked for the second time in 3 years to pick up a larger portion of the city’s total premium costs after another year of higher than usual claims. The increase took effect in the 3rd quarter of 2009, a hard pill to swallow, after no pay increase in more than 3 years to city employees. One way the city approached the increased health costs was to be proactive by increasing its Wellness Program benefits.
The annual “Fit For Duty” health screenings were held for the Fire Department with a dietician available. The same types of health screenings matching the “Fit For Duty” screening were also held at the Police Department for the first time last year. 73 employees participated, representing 39% of the eligible employee population.
Fitness reimbursement, including gym memberships and supervised exercise programs, were included in the covered expenses. 118 employees and dependents took advantage for the fitness reimbursement benefit. Scientific research has proven that increased exercise levels have a direct positive effect on health insurance costs. Healthier employees are happier and more productive, and improvements in cardiovascular health can have tremendous positive effects on health insurance costs.
Safety continues to be a No. 1 goal for all departments. The city had an exceptional year for safety in 2009. Only 3 claims required restricted duty or time off work, totaling only 60 loss hours. We attribute this to the number of training sessions that Matt held during the year. The training sessions were offered to the city “free of charge” as they were graciously donated by our vendors in an effort to support safety and employee development.
Matt faced many more challenges than expected. Many thanks for his extreme patience and his dedication to all of us. Although we recognize that employee morale may have been low in 2009, the HR Department worked hard to provide alternative benefits to the employees with the goal of improving our overall health and safety, ultimately affecting the bottom line of the city’s health costs.
We continue to recognize our local youth for their exemplary actions. The Mayoral Awards Program continued last year with two awards given every quarter. This program is a cooperative effort with our Human Resource Department, the Mayor’s Office and the LaPorte Community School Corp. Recipients receive a congratulatory letter from the mayor, a lapel pin and a prize sponsored by a local business.
READ THE REST of the 2010 State of the City under WNLP’s Local Government category.
