At the July 15 City Council meeting, Mountlake Terrace Department Directors reported on performance measures for the first half of 2019. The measures monitor progress and achievements of goals and milestones.
Recreation and Parks Director Jeff Betz stated that highlights for the Recreation Department are very impressive so far this year. Recreation Supervisor Kevin Witte reported there were 248 rentals compared to 310 rentals in all of 2018. Swim lesson capacity is up three percent (3%) over 2018 with 29,687 lessons taught by midyear. Daily attendance for recreation programs is 840 for the first half of 2019 compared to 892 for all of 2018 with heaviest attendance in the summer. It was also noted that Recreation has 79 different summer camps serving 1,286 kids, and June dance recitals sold out both shows with over 100 dancers performing 52 routines.
Community and Economic Development Director Christy Osborn noted the department’s high volume of work with large projects such as Sound Transit’s Light Rail, plan review for the Civic Campus Project, as well as updates to the Town Center Plan and construction of Atlas 236. There were 1,620 building inspections compared to 2,574 for all of 2018, and 498 electrical inspections compared to 799 in 2018. Code violations were up significantly with 94 cases opened compared to 49 in 2018. Fifty-four new businesses opened in the first half of 2019 compared to 49 in 2018.
Public Works Director Eric LaFrance explained that preventive maintenance helps keep costs down and systems working more efficiently. “With the significant snow event we had last year, we put down a lot of sand. This spring we used the street sweeper to pick up over 400 cubic yards of sand to prevent it from ending up in the storm drains. It’s a lot more cost effective to sweep it off the street than cleaning out drains with the Vactor truck,” he added.
Public Works also did 1,500 locates for city owned utilities, ramped up water backflow inspections to help keep the water systems clean, and handled a large water main break on the county line in January. Mr. LaFrance emphasized the cost of that water main break and associated street repair was about $60,000 and noted that these types of expensive repairs demonstrate the need to replace aging infrastructure along with preventive maintenance.
City Clerk/Community Relations Director Virginia Olsen reported an increase in the number of news releases issued and published. Ms. Olsen said the city conducted seven open houses in the first half of 2019 as many large projects have reached the implementation stage. She added that the Planning Commission held ten meetings on the Town Center Subarea Plan update with a few more to go. Ms. Olsen stated that one of the larger projects was the completion of the city’s website redesign one year earlier than originally scheduled to help with the city’s economic development initiatives.
More information is available on the city’s website at www.cityofmlt.com/469 and click on the July 15, 2019 City Council meeting under City Council Archives.
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