City of Davison, Michigan

This morning I was able to travel along with Mayor Rappuhn and Police Chief Brandon to the McLlaren Heath Center to issue a plaque to Dr. Brian Beck.

Dr. Beck is one of these local partners who help make the community what it is.

This past year Dr. Beck made a donation to the City of Davison so the Police Department could purchase some night vision equipment. I blogged on this previously, but we are just getting around to thanking him for his generous support.

This is not the first time Dr. beck has helped our community. A few years back he made a nice contribution to the Davison Area Regional Trail Committee.

Thanks Dr. Beck for giving back to your community.

There has been a disaster in my office.

Okay, would you believe a minor mishap?

This is what I came back to today in my office. Between the unseasonable thaw last week and the week end rain the ceiling tile gave in.

We have been putting band aids on our building for years now and the toll is starting to add up. The problem is more that a leak here or there. Our entire roof system is shot. The deck board has rotted away on the municipal center and has started down that [path with our library.

I’m glad we are moving forward with the new municipal center project. It’ll be nice to work without rain attire…

Something interesting happened at this year’s Michigan Local Government Manager Association Winter Institute (MLGMA). It seems the Board of Directors and our current President, Randall Byrne have chosen yours truly to Chair next years Winter Institute.

Wow, I can add that to my list of…Never done that before.

It is a nice honor to be ask to head up this educational event. Some managers have this is the only educational opportunity of the year to learn how to improve ourselves.

I look forward to working with a hand full of my esteemed colleagues and the MML staff to come up with a stimulating and provocative educational experience.

The Board has selected our destination city next year to be Frankenmuth, Michigan. Did you know that Frankenmuth sees over 3 million visitors every year?

I am very interested in hearing ideas for topics from fellow managers and the general public. Is there something we should or could be doing better?

TMI is something that you normally hear when you have Too Much Information and get a vivid picture of something you would rather not see.

I use it here because I just had TMI to pass on in a Blog. I’ve been in Kalamazoo at the Michigan Local Government Managers Conference and there has been a great deal of information that has passed through my ears.

The most informative session (so far) has been the one I was not enthused about. A three hour block with an economist does not sound interesting on its face.

George Erickcek, a Senior Regional Analyst from W.E. Upjohn Institute, explained in great detail why the Michigan economy is still down while the rest of the country has been growing at a very good 3-4%.

And its easy to say. Our economy was based on manufacturing and we have not changed to take on the next phase of economic reality.

Here is a brief comparison on the difference between the last time we had a major shift from the agricultural society to the industrial age:

• The shift from AG to Industrial there was a transferable skills. Hard working farmers had skill sets that transferred well to the initial factories.
• The shift from industrial or manufacturing to the service or information age has very little in common with hardly any transferable worker skill sets.

There were great stats, graphs, and charts that really help show the seriousness of our situation in Michigan and maybe I’ll blog another time on some of those issues.

The education process never stops. And this is good.

Today is the first day of the Michigan Local Government Association Winter Institute. This year the institute is held in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The sessions that we are looking at over the next four days are a diverse mixture. Here are some of the sessions that we have to look forward to.

• Capital Planning and Budgeting
• Overview of State & Local Economy
• Local Government Fiscal Databases
• Integrated Risk Management Planning
• Interacted Ethics Program
• A Case Study on Harbor Shores Development
• The Changing Role of Managers in Crises Situations
• Digital Summit
• Investment Outlook 2006 and Beyond
• Partnerships for Change
• Emergency Management
• State and Federal Affairs updates

A part of being an ICMA Credentialed Manager we are committed to 40 hours of educational or training in a year’s time, and these opportunities help keep up to date.

There will also be opportunities to network with fellow managers and learn what issues other communities are facing and how they are being dealt with. It should be a great week and I’ll attempt to check my emails, but I may be slower than normal in returning emails with answers.

Today I am spending some time in Lansing with fellow Davison Richfield Fire Authority Members. We are meeting with Eva Hatt of MIOSHA to discuss the Firefighter Right to Know requirements.

What Right to Know says in simple terms is that a Firefighter has the right to know what they are going into when entry a structure fire or other emergency situation. That means that we, as a fire department, have to gather information on properties so that we can show the firefighters where the dangerous stuff is.

Sound simple?

Well it’s not always so. The easiest way to get the information is to send a survey out to all parcels that may have certain items and then collect the data. That is the way we use to do it until MIOSHA did an audit of our Right to Know information and told us it was not sufficient.

What we came up with was a plan to have a firefighter visit every site, draw up a site plan and inventory the type and amount of explosive or flammable goods that are kept on the property. Each of the three municipalities then passed an Ordinance with a fee schedule to pay for the inspections.

Of course, no one likes paying a fee they had not paid before, but other than that the program has been moving along.

A group of Farmers questioned the whole process claiming they are exempt from MIOSHA. They also informed us that MIOSHA told them that the fire departments do not have to inspect farms under Right to Know.

Are you confused yet?

To shorten this already too long explanation, we are spending time in Lansing, with MIOSHIA to make sure we are following the requirements that they set down to keep our firefighters safe.

That is the bottom line here, keeping our firefighters safe as we can.

One thing people in Michigan take for granted is potable water. That is water that can be safely used for consummation. Fellow city managers throughout the country have water as a major concern for public service.

Members of four communities
gathered to discuss common issues.

That being said, we have had to respond to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) lowering of the Arsenic level and invest heavily in our infrastructure. The city residents voted on an option to soften the water when we built our new Skellenger Water Treatment Plant (WTP).

It took us about two years to make improvements to some of our water delivery lines and construct the WTP. We have a two stage plant, the first phase is referred to as Greensand filtration. This gets the Arsenic out. The second phase is referred to as R/O or Reverse Osmosis, and we use this to soften the water.

Other communities have responded to the federal mandate and built or added on to their existing WTP. Recently Scott Yaklin and I met with three other communities who all have used TetraTech MPS as engineers and are working with GE Osmonics for the R/O filters.

A look at the R/O filters (the series of
long white tubes).

It was good to hear other experiences with the technology, chemicals and costumer service issues. We are all at different stages of operations. Some have been operating for over a year and we are approaching our year mark in March.

We received some interesting data and will be looking for things that happened in other communities.

From listening to everyone speak I must take my hat off to Scott and Matt Syteck of our DPW. They worked day to day during the construction process with Sorenson Gross who was our General Contractor for this project. Soreson Gross did an excellent job of running the project and we actually finish the project about $25,000 lower than the construction bid.

We look forward to our next meeting with our sister water cities.

The City of Davison Department of Public Works (DPW) welcomed Brian Flewelling to his first day as a full time employee on Monday.

It just so happened that it was a beautiful day, mid thirties and sunshine.

It also just so happened that Brian was assigned to clean sanitary sewers. What a great way to start what hopefully turns out to be a long career.

Brian had worked for us briefly as a seasonal employee, brings a diverse background with other experiences, has been a life long resident and also is a member of our local Fire Department.

In the photos you will see Brian working along with Kevin Frasier who has been working for the DPW for over 20 years.

Please help me in welcoming Brian, we look forward to many years of service.

Former Council member Patricia Conley passed away yesterday, Sunday, January 15, 2006.

Pat had been involved in politics at the State, Regional, and local government levels for as long as anyone could remember.

Pat’s last position on City Council was Mayor Pro-Tem. After being elected in 1993 she was re-elected to four consecutive terms.

She represented the City of Davison at the Metropolitan Alliance for the past 24 years.

Mrs. Conley was a very visible representative for the City. You would always see Pat proudly marching in local and regional parades. Pat was also the voice for DART (Davison Area Regional Trail) in Abernathy Regional Park.

Pat was also one of the original members of the M-15 Heritage Route and helped the route be the first named a Heritage Route-Recreational in the State of Michigan.

Where Pat will be missed by her community, her efforts, time and love of Davison will live forever in my mind.