Weekly Report
City Manager Report 2/25/11
Thanks to All who Made Freeze Fest a Success!
2010 Performance Report and 2011 City Management Plans Available on City Website
2025 Community Energy Independence Plan to be Presented to Common Cuncil
Fourth Annual Whitewater Environmental Achievement Awards Program Announced
Thanks to All Who Made Freeze Fest a Success!
By all accounts I’ve heard, last weekend’s Whitewater Freeze Fest was a very successful event. Many thanks go out to the many people who volunteered their time on this great community event! Special thanks to city recreation and special events coordinator Michelle DuJardin for a job well done.
2010 Performance Report and 2011 City Management Plans Available on City Website
Last week the City Council was given copies of the 2010 City Performance Report as well as a copy of the 2011 City Management Plan. Each year the various departments and agencies of the city set forward objectives to be accomplished during the year. These objectives are set in addressing the eight strategic points contained in the Whitewater Next! Strategic Plan that was adopted by the Common Council in December 2005.
The 2010 City Performance Report is available online. This report is intended to provide a report card of sorts on how well we have achieved the objectives set in 2010. Of the 147 major objectives set to be completed during the past year a total of 87.1% were actually accomplished. This compares favorably with the 83% completion rate in 2009 and 82.9% completion rate in 2008.
The 2011 City Management Plan is also online. The plan contains the performance objectives that have been set forward for various departments and agencies of the city for the coming year. These performance objectives were set during the city’s 2011 budget making process conducted last fall.
Accountability to the Whitewater Common Council and the citizens of Whitewater that we collectively serve is an important value to the management team leading the City of Whitewater. These reports are part of our on-going efforts to be continually responsive and responsible to the Whitewater community.
2025 Community Energy Independence Plan Presented to Common Council Next Tuesday
Early last year the city was the recipient of a Community Energy Independence Planning Grant from the State of Wisconsin Governor’s Office of Energy Independence. During the past year our local energy team has been working on setting long term goals and objectives so that by 2025 the city might be able to reach an overall goal of reducing its dependence on fossil fuels by 25%. A product of this effort, which has included City staff, Whitewater Unified School District staff, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater staff, community members and utility providers, is the 2025 Community Independence Plan that will be presented and recommended for adoption to the Common Council next Tuesday evening.
While this is a non-binding plan, it does provide guidance as the city goes forward on how the community can reduce its energy costs as well as to promote and encourage the use of alternative energy sources.
Special thanks goes to the members of the energy team who worked very diligently on this plan: Mary Nimm (Chair) (City staff), Suzanne Zentner (Whitewater Unified School District), Joshua Clements (UW-Extension), Vivian Kuss (WE Energies), Bruce Parker (City staff), Tim Reel (Whitewater Wastewater Utility), Jim Strasburg (Whitewater Unified School District, Eric Compass (UW-Whitewater) and Greg Swanson (UW-Whitewater).
Other contributors to the report are: Cameron Clapper (City staff), Thayer Coburn (Whitewater Aquatic Center), Nathan Jaeger (Whitewater Unified School District), Connie Lindholm (WE Energies), Paula Malone (Whitewater Aquatic Center), and Chuck Zinda (Focus on Energy).
Fourth Annual Whitewater Environmental Achievement Awards Program Announced
The Whitewater community and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater are pleased to invite nominations for the Fourth Annual Whitewater Environmental Achievement Award. This award was created to recognize individuals, high schools and companies from Whitewater and the surrounding area who have made especially noteworthy contributions to addressing important environmental issues. Please see more detail at http://www.uww.edu/sustainability/awards/.
We are now accepting nominations, with a deadline of March 31, 2011. Award finalists will be contacted in early April and recipients will be announced during Earth Week at UW-Whitewater.
The winners of the 2010 Whitewater Environmental Achievement Award were Eric Compas and George Savage (individual category), Crave Brothers (company category), and Hillcrest High School (high school category).
Quote for the Week
“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” - Vince Lombardi