A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT

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1 A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT A Note from the President... 1 Career Awareness... 2 Save the Date Spring Conference... 4 Save the Date APWA Awards Submittal... 4 House of Delegates Update... 7 Did You Know?... 9 (Proposed) 2015 Executive Committee Ray Ibarra As the winter season approaches, I look back and wonder where the year has gone. For the past year it has been a pleasure to serve as your Chapter President. I am humbled to have been chosen to serve our great organization through this past year. I would like to thank our Executive Committee for helping me lead the Chapter for without their leadership it would have been a difficult task. With the start of the snow season we need to start thanking the Public Works employees who will spend endless hours fighting the cold and winter snow storms. Their ability to keep the streets and highways clear for public safety is a thankless task and we appreciate their hard work and dedication. As they work these long hours clearing the snow storms please let them know what a great job they are doing. I would like to welcome our new Chapter President for 2015, Chuck Bartlett, Senior Project Manager for Alfred Benesch & Company and new executive committee member Doug Whitacre, Public Works Director for the City of Topeka, who will serve as Career Awareness Chair. With the start of the 2015 year please start thinking about Chapter awards for your organization. The National website has a listing of the six nomination sites and deadlines when the application needs to be submitted to our Kansas Chapter Awards Chair, Brett Letkowski. Finally, I look forward to serving as Past President next year. I would also like to recognize and thank Brian Clennan who served as Past President last year and completed our successful application for the 2014 Presidential Award for Chapter Excellence. Brian, you will be missed at our meetings next year. Happy Holidays!! Ray Chapter News 1

2 Career Awareness As part of the student outreach, the career awareness chair coordinates a presentation with the student chapters of America Society of Civil Engineer (ASCE) at the University of Kansas and Kansas State University. The presentation typically includes the following topics: importance of licensure, levels of APWA membership, benefits of APWA, and projects that are constructed by Public Works Departments. The presentation to Kansas State University this year was given on October 23 and was presented by James Wagner, P.E., a Civil Engineer for the City of Wichita and Shawn Mellies, P.E., the Chief Design Engineer for the City of Wichita. The presentation to the University of Kansas was given on October 24 and was presented by Colin Costley, P.E., a Project Manager for Professional Engineering Central Avenue Realignment between 119 th & 135th Consultants (PEC) and Shawn Mellies, P.E., the Chief Design Engineer for the City of Wichita. Projects that were highlighted in the presentations include: the 13 th Street & I-235 Floodway Crossing Interchange, the West Kellogg expansion, the Greensburg Streetscape, and the realignment of West Central Avenue between 119 th and 135 th. Greensburg Streetscape Chapter News 2

3 West Kellogg Expansion 13 th Street & I-235 Floodway Crossing Interchange Chapter News 3

4 Spring 2015 Conference - Save the Date Save the date for the upcoming joint spring conference for the APWA Kansas Chapter and the Kansas County Highway Association. The conference will be held May 13th to 15th in Manhattan, Kansas at the Four Points by Sheraton. This year's pre-conference golf tournament is scheduled for Colbert Hills Golf Course and the conference committee is working on providing a diverse range of speaking topics. The Keynote Speaker will be Jeff Lanza, a retired FBI Agent and an award-winning nationally known speaker that will discuss business ethics. As always there will be a phenomenal Thursday night dinner followed by the exciting scholarship auction. Please plan on attending this great opportunity for networking and education next May; details on registration will be out soon! APWA Awards Submittal Save the Date February 2, 2015 The 2014 National APWA Awards are now available on-line to review the criteria and submittal requirements For the Kansas APWA Chapter, the deadline to submit your project is February 2, You will submit them to me directly via to baletkowski@transystems.com I must have them by midnight February 2, I can accept most formats such as.doc;.pdf; pdf is the preferred format. If your submittal is over 10MB please contact me via phone at so we can make different arrangements. I would also ask that you submit between 8 12 photos of your project. Below are the different categories for submitting. Project of the year award The APWA Public Works Project of the Year Award was established to promote excellence in the management and administration of public works projects by recognizing the alliance between the managing agency, the consultant/architect/engineer, and the contractor who, working together, complete public works projects. Awards are given in four divisions: 1. Projects less than $5 million 2. Projects of $5 million, but less than $25 million 3. Projects of $25 million to $75 million 4. Projects more than $75 million and five categories: 1. Structures to include public structure preservation/rehabilitation, municipal buildings, parks, etc. Chapter News 4

5 2. Transportation to include roads, bridges, mass transit, etc. 3. Environment to include treatment and recycling facilities, landfill reclamation projects, sewer projects, etc. 4. Historical Restoration/Preservation to include historical restoration, preservation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings, structures, and facilities, etc. 5. Disaster or Emergency Construction/Repair to include the techniques and timing for safety, community relations, environmental protection, adverse conditions and additional considerations. Project of the year award for small cities/rural communities The APWA Public Works Project of the Year Award for agencies from cities or counties with a population of 75,000 or less was established to promote excellence in demonstrating creativity, ingenuity, and efficiency in the delivery of Public Works projects that have a profound impact on the community. The award does not have a fixed dollar amount and can include, but is not limited to, the following categories: structures, environmental, historic preservation, emergency response, or transportation projects that have created a positive impact on the life of the community. The Award is given for impact in the community as compared to a dollar amount. The categories which could be included are: 1. Structures to include public structure preservation/rehabilitation, municipal buildings, parks, etc. 2. Transportation to include roads, bridges, transit, traffic calming, etc. 3. Environment to include treatment and recycling facilities, landfill projects, sewer projects, sustainable practices. 4. Historical Restoration/Preservation to include historical restoration, preservation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings, structures, and facilities, etc. 5. Disaster or Emergency Construction/Repair to include the techniques and timing for safety, community relations, environmental protection, adverse conditions and additional considerations. Please note, if you submit an award under the small cities/rural communities, you cannot submit the same project for Project of the Year Award. Top Ten Public Works Leaders of the Year Award The Top Ten Public Works Leaders of the Year program seeks to inspire excellence and dedication in public service by recognizing the outstanding career service achievements of individual public works professionals and officials, from both the public and private sectors. The primary focus of the award is on career service to the public works profession rather than on any one single event or project. There are six Professional Award Categories and their criteria can be found at the link below: 1. Citation for Exemplary Service to Public Works 2. Diversity Exemplary Practices Award Chapter News 5

6 3. Excellence in Snow and Ice Control Award 4. Exceptional Performance Award 5. Sustainability Practice Award 6. Technical Innovation Award Management Innovation Award There are sixteen Member Award Categories and their criteria can be found at the link below: 1. Charles Walter Nichols Award for Environmental Excellence 2. Community Involvement Award 3. Distinguished Service to Public Works Award 4. Donald C. Stone Award for Excellence in Education 5. Harry S. Swearingen Award for Outstanding Chapter Achievement and Excellence in Chapter Service 6. International Service Award 7. Professional Manager of the Year Award - Administrative Management 8. Professional Manager of the Year Award - Engineering and Technology 9. Professional Manager of the Year Award - Facilities and Grounds 10. Professional Manager of the Year Award - Public Fleet 11. Professional Manager of the Year Award - Public Right-of-Way 12. Professional Manager of the Year Award - Emergency Management 13. Professional Manager of the Year Award - Solid Waste 14. Professional Manager of the Year Award - Transportation 15. Professional Manager of the Year Award - Water Resources 16. Young Leader Award There are two Public Work Historical Society Awards (PWHS) 1. Abel Wolman Award 2. Michael Robinson Award Kansas Chapter George Williams Award The George Williams Award was created in recognition of outstanding excellence and dedication in public service through the outstanding achievements and accomplishments of an individual public works official. Excellence in Field Supervision Excellence in Program Operations Chapter News 6

7 House of Delegates becomes COUNCIL OF CHAPTERS 2014 For decades there has been a group called the House of Delegates made up of a delegate (serving on the Chapter Board) from each Chapter. In 2014, that name changed to Council of Chapters and new work assignments were given to each delegate in the group. There are 63 Delegates throughout the APWA organization. The Council of Chapters will serve the organization as advisors to the Board of Directors, Executive Director, Technical Committees and staff in support of the mission of the Association. The Council will serve as consultants to Chapters in support of member engagement and growth. Chapters coaching or mentoring chapters to address their overall goals for membership development and service is a key role of the Council of Chapters. The Council will provide a mechanism for coordination of information to and from Chapters, provide a mechanism for feedback and input into APWA initiatives, and to identify issues and concerns from Chapters to the Council. The Council of Chapters is divided into eight (8) committees: Membership Recruitment Public Works Leadership for the Future Chapter Capacity Building through Mentoring Infrastructure Financing of the Future Advocacy at the Chapter and Local Level Congress Participation Marketing/Promoting Donald C Stone (DCS) Center PACE Awards The Kansas Chapter has a Delegate and Alternate Delegate serving on the Executive Committee. Kenzil Lynn is the Delegate and is assigned to the Infrastructure Financing of the Future Committee. This committee has met twice since its formation. The first task has been to accumulate as much information as possible about the numerous financing options available for projects. This information will be available to the membership once the task is complete. This is just the first task and as this is completed the committee will be moving on to others. Brenda Herrman is the Alternate Delegate and serves on the Chapter Capacity Building through Mentoring Committee. The Kansas Chapter will be participating in Chapter Mentoring by providing information about the Chapter s activities that will go into a Chapter Mentoring Bank so that any APWA Chapter looking for assistance in a given area will have contact information available to them. Chapter News 7

8 The Scholarship Auction will be highlighted as one of the events that has been tremendously successful over the years. Jeff Hancock, SMS Consulting in Manhattan is currently the chair of this committee. He has many members who help in the delivery of this fun event. Other special interest areas for the KS Chapter are our Roundtable Discussions, Justin Erickson, City of Newton, oversees these activities. Career Awareness events are managed by new Executive Committee member, Douglas Whitacre, Director of Public Works, City of Topeka.. The Council of Chapters will meet with the APWA Board of Directors on February 27, 2015 in Kansas City to update and advise the National Board of actions taken and initiatives underway from each Committee. Chapter News 8

9 Did You Know Silent Night was first sung as part of a church service in Austria. A guitar was used because the church organ was so badly rusted it couldn t be played. When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko. Finnish folklore has it that Ukko is made of straw, but is strong enough to carry Santa Claus anyway. One town in Indiana is called Santa Claus. There is also a Santa, Idaho. The popular Christmas song Jingle Bells was actually written for Thanksgiving. The song was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called One Horse Open Sleigh. The top three places to celebrate New Year s Eve are Las Vegas, Disney World and of course, New York City. More vehicles are stolen on New Year s Day than any other holiday In honor of the Times Square ball drop's centennial anniversary, a brand new fifth design debuted for New Year's Eve Once again manufactured by Waterford Crystal with a diameter of 6 feet (1.8 m), but weighing 1,212 pounds (550 kg), it used LED lamps provided by Philips (which can produce 16,777,216 or 224 colors), with computerized lighting patterns developed by the New York City-based lighting firm Focus Lighting. The ball featured 9,576 energy-efficient bulbs that consumed the same amount of electricity as only 10 toasters.[2] The 2008 ball was only used once, and was placed on display at the Times Square Visitors Center following the event. For 2009, a larger version of the fifth ball was introduced an icosahedral geodesic sphere lit by 32,256 LED lamps. At 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter, containing 2,688 Waterford Crystal panels, with a weight of 11,875 pounds (5,386 kg), it is twice as large as the 2008 ball. It was also designed to be weatherproof, as the ball is now displayed atop One Times Square year-round following the celebrations. Chapter News 9

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