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December 3, 2009 City Manager’s Report

There are times I need to summarize the many projects being worked on in Lakewood.  We have several things going on right now and I want to make sure the Commission is informed every step of the way.  Here is a list:

Codification Manual update -  David Reagan and I are working through the comments received in the three workshops and implementing what we can.  We will then meet with Louis Oliver to resolve all legal issues.  Prior to sending MTAS the needed changes I will email those to the Board.  This is a complicated process but we are moving along on it.

Water Contract renewal – Louis and I will be meeting with the Director and Attorney for Old Hickory Utility District soon.  Their Attorney has been out of town and unavailable.  I have talked with David Amburgey several times and do not foresee any real problem.  We need to rewrite some of the language but most of the contract is very good as presented. I hope to have this on the January Commission Agenda.

 Water Department Computer and software upgrade - We do all the water, sewer, and trash collection billing with hardware and software nearly twenty years old. We also use this to produce the financial statements for every city enterprise fund.  The computer is making strange noises running a Unix operating system that almost no one supports.  We need to upgrade.

I have been taking bids from various providers of software services.  Some have given hardware bids too but computers are much cheaper elsewhere.  The reason we need to have software support is in the rare case our system stops working during a billing cycle.  These companies can have people in Lakewood within hours to get us back up and running.

Lakewood got almost twenty years of service out of the last system.  That is remarkable given all the technology changes during that time.  The city did start with state-of-the art equipment back then and it has served us well.  It is my opinion that we should try to get twenty years out of the next system too.  

Digital Water meters – Mr. Allen has suggested the city look into the costs of upgrading city water meters to communicate readings wirelessly. There are many reasons to do this since most of our water meters need replacing anyway.  I have met with several suppliers to get a better understanding of the technology.  The next step is to place a formal Request For Proposal advertisement in the newspaper to find the true cost of such a system for Lakewood.

Mike Turner has scheduled a meeting with the State Economic Development Department Friday December 4 at 9 am.  This meeting is to resolve the conflict over our CDBG Grant submission that the state will not accept.  This all appears to be another misinterpretation of the Metro Charter.  I will keep the board updated as to the outcome of that meeting. 

The attorney representing Comcast called me Tuesday and set up a meeting tomorrow to discuss the Cable Franchise conflict.  We contend that the cable franchise should be with Lakewood not Metro Nashville since we own the road right of way here.  The attorneys representing Comcast have long agreed with Metro’s interpretation.  We will be trying to show them why they are wrong.

I have passed out the breakdown of charges sent from the Metro Stormwater Department.  This is what the City Commission asked for during the presentation by Toby Compton and Tom Palko.