Wednesday, December 9, 2009

More Thoughts on State of the City

In the first part of his speech, Mayor Cole strongly emphasized the importance of SIUC to the economic and cultural well being of Carbondale and the effect of enrollment on the community:

The enrollment issue at SIU is, by far, the most important issue facing our region’s economy; get enrollment and retention back to where they should be and a lot of problems are solved. Every employee of that university should be working toward that goal.

Apparently it was an ad lib, as it's not in the text of the speech, but he also added that every citizen of Carbondale should be working toward that goal as well.

He also made reference to unsolved murders in the community, noting an arrest in the Falon Taylor case, and mentioning several cases still open:

Likewise, we are fully committed to closing the remaining unsolved homicides with arrests and convictions. I would remind everyone of our effort to gather information that could lead to arrests in the Pyramid Apartments fire (December 6, 1992), the Connie Cole-Holmes homicide (June 6, 1996) and the Ryan Livingston homicide (July 12, 2006). As an incentive, we have established a $5,000 minimum reward for each unsolved homicide case in the City. The reward money won’t bring back the victim, but it could be enough to get information from an informant or someone who can help us bring closure to a terrible tragedy.

This mention generated some murmur from the otherwise quiet crowd.

He only noted the Saluki Way initiative obliquly, with a reference to the ongoing planning for the police and fire stations.

Given his emphasis on the city's steps towards sustainability,

As a signatory on the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and a member of their Climate Protection Task Force, I have joined with mayors from across the nation to help promote more sensible energy solutions and to find ways to reduce our energy consumption. I am also active with the National League of Cities and, following their Green Cities Summit this past spring, I saw the need to refocus some of our efforts in the areas of energy and the environment. Because of that, I named a new Sustainability Commission that is charged with bringing recommendations to the City and to working with other groups and individuals that are equally committed to our long-term viability.

I would like to take a moment to mention a couple of other achievements in this area.

First, we greatly expanded our curbside recycling programs this year, with the addition of collecting mixed paper and cardboard. Our new green bins are specifically for clean and dry paper products. New materials that can be collected include junk mail (including window envelopes), office paper, magazines, catalogs, books, newspaper, cardboard, paperboard boxes and shredded paper. We also continue to utilize our blue bins for recyclable household items, specifically collecting aluminum and steel food and beverage cans, glass bottles and jars, and plastic bottles. We have one of the most comprehensive recycling programs of any community in the region, if not the most comprehensive, and I remind everyone that recycling is a simple, yet effective, way to reduce waste, save energy and lessen the demand on natural resources.

Second, in response to my directive to staff for an energy audit of our facilities and services, I am pleased to report that great strides were made in our Public Works Department. By systematically reviewing all of our usage areas and their associated costs, by reconfiguring some systems and by making common sense savings, the Department has been able to project approximately $150,000 in annual energy reductions and cost savings. This comes from identifying creative ways to reduce energy usage by 27% at our Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant, saving nearly $50,000 a year. It comes from synchronizing air temperatures in this building, saving more than $13,000 a year. It comes from upgrading HVAC units at the Eurma Hayes Center, estimated to save more than $5,000 a year. It comes from reducing the pumping needs and increasing efficiencies at the Northwest Wastewater Treatment Plant, saving nearly $20,000 a year. It comes from now recycling 100% of the waste oils, hydraulic fluids, scrap metals, tires, appliances and other items in our Maintenance and Environmental Services division. It comes from turning off lights and using more natural lighting at our Central Laboratory, and emailing lab reports to clients instead of mailing them, which saves more than $500 a year in that function alone, and also cuts down on the use of so much paper.

These steps show our seriousness in addressing the issues of sustainability and they show our on-going concern for environmental awareness, saving money and creating better ways to provide services to our customers.

it should be interesting to hear how the city is rated in the State of the Sustainable City address this afternoon.

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