| Middletown City Managers Weekly Update to Council August, 2 2009 |
| Thursday, August 6, 2009 9:43:00 AM - Middletown Ohio |
Photo By: Randy Lewis
Weekly Update to City Council
from the City Manager
August 2, 2009
Characteristics Of High Performing Organizations Identified.
From the International City Management Newsletter, there are six attributes of local government organizations who retain high performing employees: 1) organizations are committed to community building; 2) they are focused; 3) they set the bar high; 4) they are prepared to seize opportunity; 5) they encourage strategic risk-taking and innovation; 6) they have a strategy for dealing with employees who are not on board with the mission. High-performing local governments believe that most employees want to do well and make a difference. We are doing well and making a difference in Middletown! Thanks to all of our hard working employees who care about Middletown!
Housing Demolition
We are utilizing Neighborhood Stabilization Program money to demolish blighted houses in the City. As part of that program, the Community Revitalization Department offered houses ready to be demolished for use to the Police and Fire Departments for training exercises. As the houses are approved for demolition and the bids are awarded, the Police Department will use the properties for SRT training, (see below). The Fire Dept. will be utilizing some of our properties later this fall. As training is completed, we will give the demolition contractor the go-ahead to demolish the property and complete the project.
Police Special Response Team (SRT) Training
The Special Response Team of the Middletown Police Department has had the opportunity to use some of the houses slated for demolition by Community Revitalization for training purposes. This provides a unique opportunity for our officers to practice breaching, searching, entry methods and containment in high risk situations. This experience has been invaluable to our tactical officers giving them knowledge of our abilities and limitations that otherwise could only be gained in crisis situations. This gave us the chance to plan and execute techniques that we have trained for over a period of years in a realistic setting.
So far we have conducted our training operations in areas where there are several of these houses clustered together. These locations tend to have a higher crime rate and a visible police presence is a positive. We have received encouraging feedback from the onlookers and residents in the area.
Helping Residents with Code Enforcement Issues
As part of code enforcement efforts to bring properties back within the property maintenance code city-wide, it became obvious that many residents had minor deficiencies. Some lacked the ability to complete the work but, most lacked the resources to complete even minor repairs due to the poor economy.
The City reached out to various community churches and service organizations to asking volunteer groups to assist the elderly and disabled in the Volunteer Improvement Program (V.I.P.). Currently the Oaks Community Church, Kiwanis, and AK retiree organization (CARE) has adopted projects to assist with minor exterior property maintenance.
In May the program was expanded to assist low-income citizens as well. The City was approached by Malachi Youth Opportunities Program and Butler County Workforce One regarding summer work for at-risk 18-24 year olds. The service agency pays for all salaries and expenses in exchange for employment at various businesses throughout the County. The Community Revitalization Department set up work groups with several young people from these programs and put them to work in V.I.P. They are supervised by our Building Inspectors to ensure that the repairs are being correctly performed. $65,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds are set aside to purchase the repair materials required.
To date V.I.P has completed close to 20 projects. We will continue to work with this program as long as funding exists and the weather cooperates. The end result is that properties are being repaired with no material or labor costs to the City or to residents other than the Building Inspectors supervision time. We will work with residents over the summer and fall and restart the program next spring to continue work on making our City attractive and code compliant.
Middletown Community Foundation provides $25,000 Grant
As the V.I.P. program referenced above continued, it became obvious that the economy has taken its toll on all of our residents, not just low income CDBG eligible citizens. The City approached the Middletown Community Foundation and requested an additional $25,000 for purchase of materials for residents who are above the CDBG income guidelines, but still in need of assistance. I am pleased to announce that the Foundation granted our request this week and awarded the City the entire $25,000 requested. I am thrilled to see the improvement in housing maintenance all over the community.
Joint Meeting Planned
We are planning another joint meeting with MUM, the School Board and City Council for sometime in August or September. We will work on the format to make it a little more interactive for officials.
Upcoming Events
August 3 Park Board meeting, 5:30 p.m., Conference Room 2C
August 4 City Council Meeting, 5:30 p.m., Council Chambers
August 4 National Night Out , 5 – 9 p.m., Jacot Park
August 5 Broad Street Bash, Central & Broad St., 5:30 – 9:30 p.m. (DixZ Highway rescheduled)
August 5 Airport Commission meeting, 5:00 p.m., Conference Room 4A
August 6 Chamber of Commerce monthly business luncheon, Middletown Senior Center, 11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. Speaker: State Representative Tim Derickson. Council members, please RSVP to Betsy at 7831.
August 7 Council Housing Committee meeting, 8:00 a.m. Conference Room 2C
August 7 Farmers Market, Central & Broad St., 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
August 7 First Friday Concert, First Methodist Church, 120 S. Broad St., Noon – 1 p.m. (New Horizons Jazz Band)
August 8 Ribbon Cutting, Mangy Mutt Dog Haven - 1226 Elliott Drive, Middletown Ribbon cutting at 12:15 pm
August 11 Board of Health meeting, 7:30 p.m., Conference Room 2B
August 12 Planning Commission meeting, 6:30 p.m., Council Chambers
August 12 Broad Street Bash, The Cleavers, 5:30 p.m., Central and Broad
August 13 Summer Sound Concert, Smith Park, 7:00 p.m. (Gospel – Dayton Ambassadors)
August 14 Farmers Market, Central & Broad St., 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
August 19 Tree Commission meeting, Parks Building, 5:30 p.m.
Links for additional information:
City Manager’s Weekly Update: www.cityofmiddletown.org
Middletown Community Calendar: http://www.calendarwiz.com/middletowncalendar
Pothole Patrol: www.cityofmiddletown.org or call 727-3691 (Option 2)
Have a great week! Judy
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