Memorandum – July 17, 2009
City of Willits
MEMORANDUM
Date: July 17, 2009
To: Honorable Mayor and City Council
From: Paul Cayler, City Manager
Subject: Administrative Progress Report
The following developments may be of interest to you and the community-at-large. Please contact me at (707) 459-4601, if you have any questions.
WATER
As of July 13, 2009, the total water storage capacity in Morris and Centennial Reservoirs is 1,177 acre feet. This is a very welcome development. Water storage is approximately 244 acre feet greater than last year at the same time. The next important water capacity trigger point for declaring a potential Phase One Water Emergency is August 1st, wherein there must be greater than 830 acre feet in storage. There is no water emergency in Willits right now.
In other positive news regarding water, it appears that the City’s overall water usage in June 2009 compared to the previous two years is also down. This statistic is based on how much drinking water is produced at the Water Treatment Plant, and then shipped by pipeline in the City. In June 2008 and June 2007, approximately 40.5 million gallons was pumped into the City to meet customer demand. In June 2009, the amount pumped was 32.05 million gallons. This equals a 20.8% decrease. City staff believes that this reduction is due to customer water conservation efforts, and leak repair. This reduction in demand is critical in the dry summer months in order to get the City through until seasonal rains bring relief.
RECEIPT OF STATE MONEY FOR BALL FIELDS PROJECT
More good news on the State Parks Grant Funds… On July 9, 2009, the City received a disbursement check for $280,000 for the grant related to the Ball Fields Project. I am happy to that it was not an IOU. This takes a lot of pressure off of the City’s General Fund being liable for closing out this project.
MONIES RECEIVED DUE TO GOOD WORK BY CONCERNED CITIZENS
A BIG thank you to Wendy Copperfield, and her dedicated sponsors and volunteers for the good community work they did to put on the Kids Fitness and Nutrition Fair. The result of the fair was much good public education on healthy life style choices for children. As an added bonus, Wendy’s effort generated nearly $1,100 in proceeds which will be used for City Parks improvements. Again thank you Wendy!
AB 1362 PASSED STATE SENATE GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE
This item is related to State Parks Grants as related to the need to extend deadlines for grant funded project, especially the Kids Club project. On July 9, 2009, AB 1362 passed out the State Senate Government Organization Committee as an urgency item. The next step in the bill process is the State Senate Appropriations Committee. The Kids Club project experienced significant delays due to the state freeze on grant disbursement payments earlier this year. The City supports AB1362 (Evans) in order to permit state agencies to give grant deadline extensions to projects that experienced suspensions. The Kids Club grant needs a grant extension because construction was not completed before July 1, 2009.