CLEWISTON — Interim City Manager Wendell Johnson reports:

City manager search — The city manager search officially started last week with a visit on Monday by search consultant Colin Baenziger. During the visit, the mayor and each commissioner individually met with Mr. Baenziger to provide information deemed vital to recruitment of the best city manager candidates. The objective was to gather information that accurately features the community for use by potential candidates to determine if the position is one they should pursue. Each commissioner spent approximately 45 minutes to an hour in discussion with Mr. Baenziger, and the collective results were consistently similar.

The City Manager Recruitment Profile Basic Information Needs Request from Mr. Baenziger was distributed and discussed with directors during the Wednesday morning staff meeting, and needed information and materials will be gathered and submitted to Mr. Baenziger before the end of this week. The tentative search schedule follows:

March 15 — The recruitment profile will be posted on consultant’s website and submitted to the appropriate publications and local government professionals.

April 5 — closing date for submission of applications.

April 12 — consultant report to city on the results of the recruitment.

May 6 — Consultant distributes reports and materials to the city for the recommended candidates. These will include the candidates’ resumes and introduction as well as the results of reference, background and internet/newspaper archives checks.

May 23 — City holds reception for the finalists.

May 24 — One-on-one and full commission interviews and selection of candidate for the position.

Enterprise fleet management — Staff met with Enterprise representative Greg Iannelli this week to discuss the possibility of a fleet management relationship with the city. We are moving forward with the cost-benefit analysis, which reflects a 10-year operational history of the city existing fleet to include 1) capital cost, 2) maintenance cost, and 3) fuel costs. Once these data are compiled, it will be compared to an Enterprise’s fleet management lease to determine the savings that can be realized based on the same operational factors.

Community Development Director Travis Reese reports:

• The new AutoZone located at the corner of Lopez and U.S. 27 is progressing quickly. The contractor plans on stocking shelves within 30 days.

• Another dilapidated building in Clewiston is being removed from Sugarland Highway, formerly known as the Hendry County Motors. No plans for new construction yet.

Public Works Director Sean Scheffler reports:

• Bids were opened on Tuesday, March 26, for the following: overlay paving project, hot spot paving project, country club roof project and the sidewalk improvement project.

• Street Division: (1) Patched potholes. (2) Sprayed for weeds. (3) Painted street marking. (4) Finished washing sidewalks in festival grounds. (5) Patched utility street cut on Bond Street. (6) The yellow “Caution” lip around the wet area of the Splash Pad was painted. (7) Installed new “yellow caution bull nose” behind the city hall. (8) Final pad prep for the bathroom unit.

• Sports Complex: (1) A fence contractor has been told to get started fencing the transformer in the Big Quad. (2) A new scorekeeper table was built and installed on Field 1. (3) Festival area was treated for ants.

• Facility Maintenance: (1) The floors in the John Boy Auditorium are being refinished. (2) Re-keyed the Field 1 concession stand. (3) Painting library and Youth Center.

• Trinidad Project: (1) Picnic pavilion is scheduled for delivery on March 6. (2) Utility crews installed the wastewater line for bathroom on Trinidad. (3) Bathroom facility was scheduled for delivery on Friday, March 1.

• NOTE from Public Works: Required driveway apron deadline is quickly approaching. Call Community Development at 983-1500 or Code Enforcement at 983-1454 for details on the very important requirement.

Police Chief Aaron Angell reports:

• Renovations at the new police department continue. The project is progressing well, and all of the major construction has been completed. We are now putting the final touches on the project and still anticipate that we will be substantially complete with the project by the first of April.

• As we ended the month of February, analysis of the activity reported to the Clewiston Police Department revealed that we experienced an increase in part one offenses. This was attributable to an overall increase in property-related crimes, most noticeably theft. The following are other notable statistics from your Clewiston Police Department for the month of February:

• Officers responded to a total of 29 motor vehicle accidents.

• We conducted a total of 267 residential checks and a total of 342 business checks.

• Officers performed 126 traffic stops.

• Officers responded to a total of 37 alarm activations.

• In total, officers responded to a total 1,273 calls for service during the month of February.

The following is a brief synopsis of activity over the course of the past week.

• Officers made a total of four arrests

•Officers responded to 303 calls for service (includes officer-initiated activity)

• Average officer response time to calls for service, 00:03:00

Utilities Director Danny Williams reports: Electric Crew Activities

• Repaired sports lighting timer for the Trinidad basketball court;

• Reviewed scope of work with contractor for transmission line repair;

• Removed vegetation and repaired house service at Della Tobias Avenue;

• Changed transformer and installed new 220 volt outlets at Civic Park for the Clewiston Sugar Festival

• Finished transformer bank for AutoZone and installed electric meter;

• Installed two new streetlights on East Trinidad Avenue;

• Repaired an interference problem on the line in Harlem affecting cable TV;

• Relocated two anchors and guy wire at Westside Elementary School;

• Removed debris from around water meters;

• Disconnected two services for contractor repair work;

• Spliced “bad” neutral on 13th Street.

Water Sewer Crew Activities

The smoke testing portion of the phase one Sanitary Sewer Inflow prevention program is complete. Thank you to everyone for your patience! Inspection of the manholes and GPS mapping has commenced and USSI crews will be back working throughout the service area installing LDL plugs as needed. Other activities to report from our water/sewer department include:

• Changed six water meters in the Harlem community;

• Assisted South Shore Water Association with 6-inch water line break;

• Ran sewer and water line for new bathroom building at Trinidad Park;

• Set two meters in Orchard Park neighborhood;

• Performed maintenance and repairs of risers and checked pumps at Lift Station

• Connected water service to new AutoZone building.
Information Technology

• Meter readers received new and improved tablets this week. This should speed up read times and increase accuracy.

• Phishing scams targeting businesses are rising. Be mindful of any email that contains a link or asks for a username/password!

Dates to remember
March 7 — Clewiston Library Advisory Board meeting
March 18 — City Commission meeting
March 21 — Golf Course Advisory Board meeting
March 25 — special magistrate hearing