City announces its 2022 year end update

During the city board meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 20, City Administrator Phillip Patterson released an update on the progress for 2022.

The update involves the numbers and statistics for the police department, fire department, electric and public works department, community development, human resources, IT and utility billing, according to the 2022 Year End Update emailed by Patterson. The following are the numbers released for each of the departments listed:

Police

• Crime clearance rate through November was 88.7%, which is basically the same as last year. This compares to a national average of about 32%.

• Drug Seizures decreased 12.3% to 4,734 (Est. Value of $83,290) from 5,401 in 2021 (Est. Value of $222,528)

• The Street Crimes Unit made 59 arrests and seized approximately 13 ounces of marijuana compared to 20 last year, 32 ounces of methamphetamine compared to 26 last year, 3 ounces of mushrooms, along with 7 firearms, 1 vehicle, and $9,406 in cash.

• Total number of traffic stops increased 49% to 3,598 compared to 2,399 in 2021.

• Speeding violations increased by 26% to 602 compared to 476 in 2021.

• Provided 81 funeral escorts, worked 14 special events and provided and installed 20 child car seats.

• Answered over 18,000 calls for service.

• The SROs worked 105 school events and made 44 speaking presentations to classes on topics such as drugs, alcohol and crime prevention.

Fire

• Responded to a total of 3,271 emergency incidents. EMS incidents totaled 2,562 and fire/rescue incidents totaled 709. This is up 3% from 2021.

• Of the fire incidents, 99% of buildings and contents were saved – representing $76 million saved.

• Response time to in-city emergency decreased by 3% to 4:08 (time of call, to arrival on scene).

• Participated in 26,853 hours of training.

• Received two grants from the Department of Homeland Security totaling just over $1,232,000.00.

Electric

• Crews installed over 200 new permanent power services for 306 new customers.

• Repaired over 353 street and security lights.

• Installed an additional 1,332 AMI Electric Meters, for a total of 3,409 currently in use.

• Provided electrical power to 8,938 customers.

Public Works

• Water/Wastewater Services added 54,159’ of water lines increasing the total miles of city owned and maintained lines to 202; added 29,000’ of wastewater lines increasing the total miles of city owned and maintained lines to 122; added 210 new water customers and 200 new wastewater customers.

• City maintenance processes 930 work orders on equipment and vehicles.

• Sanitation sent 34,395 tons of trash was sent to the landfill at a cost of $1,053,886 in tipping fees; collected 801 tons of recycling materials were collected and diverted from the landfill saving $25,600 in tipping fees.

The street department completed the following:

• The last phase of Simon Sager Drive was completed July connecting Hwy 412 to Tahlequah Street.

• Villa View Road rebuild project from Sycamore Heights Road to the State Line was completed in September.

• Quarter Road culvert upgrade from Waukesha Road to Lincoln Street completed September.

• Water Treatment Plant asphalt driveway and parking was completed in August.

• Brentwood Drainage Project- a portion of the project was completed from Kenwood north toward the southeast corner of the Brentwood subdivision.

Further progress on this project was impeded by staff shortages and weather conditions.

• City Drainage Maintenance Plan- Staff completed inspection and ditch/retention pond work in a number of the ditches and ponds throughout the city.

• Staff responded to over 300 service requests ranging from potholes, traffic sign maintenance, cleaning/clearing of drainage structures and ROW maintenance.

The water treatment plant processed almost 1.34 billion gallons of drinking water and the $31 million water treatment plant improvement project was completed.

The wastewater treatment plant discharged 1.2 billion gallons of treated wastewater to Sager Creek and approximately 103 million gallons of non-potable water was used for processes within the treatment plant through the reuse of water system. The reuse system prevented the need to use drinking water for these processes which provides a significant savings to the city.

Community development

• Permitted dwelling units are up 14% from 350 to 399.

• Construction valuation is up 41% from $22M to $37M

• Engineering division provided design and construction administration for over $200,000 of in- house projects and $3.5M in contractor projects.

• Property Maintenance Code complaints are down 75% (from 1,710 to 433)

• Total number of library patrons is up 2% (14,638 to 14,933)

• Airport provided 478 full-service transactions compared to 277 in 2021. The self-serve pump received 1,169 transactions compared to 945 in 2021. Gallons of fuel sold was 182,682 compared to 126,714 in 2021.

• The animal shelter took in 810 animals compared to 708 in 2021. Adoptions were at 151 compared to 145 in 2021.

• Participation in Parks & Recreation special events was steady with 69 runners participating in the Dogwood Race; 50 participants in the Kids Fishing Derby; 263 participants in the Dive in Movie; 20 artists in the Chalk It Up contest and 65 runners in the Turkey Trot.

Human resources

• Successfully inspected all City facilities, parks and other city structures for safety issues

• 390 interviews were conducted.

• 69 new hire orientations were completed.

• 22 property loss claims were processed.

• Conducted employee classes for Trenching and Excavation safety, Flagger safety, and Confined Spaces Entry Training

• 131 employees have reached their wellness points for the year.

• Biggest Loser Contest saw a loss of 204.9 pounds for the 123 employees that participated.

• For Walktober, 54 employees participated and walked 7,792,109 steps or 3,689.45 miles (an equivalent of walking from Siloam Springs to Hawaii).

IT

• Responded to over 2,300 tickets for IT services from the departments/divisions;

• Conducted a Vulnerability Assessment for City networks and systems, and fixed any vulnerabilities within IT’s purview that were outlined in the report.

• Established a monthly Tips-and-Tricks email to city staff relating to cybersecurity and daily computing needs.

• Worked with Utility Billing to setup a self-service kiosk to allow citizens to pay their utility bills without needing to get in line at City Hall.

• Worked with the Electric Department to install a server allowing Electric staff to lookup pertinent meter and transformer information while working in the field.

Utility billing generated and processes almost 11,900 utility bills and late notices every month.