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City Council Mayor Charles L. Sisk 303.665.6889 siskc@ci.louisville.co.us Ward I Dave Clabots 303.673.9116 clabotd@ci.louisville.co.us Bob Muckle 303.981.0697 muckler@ci.louisville.co.us Ward II Sheri Marsella 303.665.3276 marsels@ci.louisville.co.us Frost Yarnell 303.229.4215 yarnelf@ci.louisville.co.us Ward III Don Brown 303.673.0648 brownd@ci.louisville.co.us Ron Sackett 720.890.8970 sacketr@ci.louisville.co.us Interim City Manager Heather Balser 303.335.4530 balserh@ci.louisville.co.us City Council Meetings are held the first and third Tuesdays of each month at 7:00 PM at City Hall 749 Main Street. 10 find out in which WUrd you live, please call Meredyth Muth at 303.335.4536. SPRING 2007 A MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR SPRING FORWARD ^ s we have all endured an extraordinary long winter, I wanted to share with you some nof our concerns going forward. We have been challenged (to say the least) with snow removal from the historic and unprecedented storms in De- coupled with very cold weather has left the remnants of the storms for many days and has caused many inconveniences for all of our citizens. I have heard from many of you and your concerns are certainly valid and deserve responses. What are we doing to address some of these issues? Initially I have asked our Public Works Department to share with your City Council some alternatives on how we can better equip ourselves in the future. Admittedly that will be oflittle consolation for the blizzards of 2006- 2007, but I am a big believer in history and that really allows us to learn from the past. Parenthetically, Louisville is not alone in our quest for answers as we read and hear from all of the municipalities and counties in the Denver Metro Area about similar concerns. We will also learn from other cities as to best practices and how they have adapted to meet these onslaughts from Mother Nature. As part of the Metro Mayors Caucus, we are convening a workshop to share information to allow all of us to become more acutely aware of the various alternatives. Again, we in Louisville are not on an island and we have the abil- ity to learn from others and adapt accordingly. Louisville has been able to make some alterations in policy even during the storms, such as a direct telephone number for snow issues and an email address for those concerns. City efforts to prioritize the needs of the City instead of concentrating on the specific departmental priorities. In ad- dition, we utilized a new de-icier for breaking up accumulated ice on the streets. unprecedented snowfall will and has cost Louisville dollars that were not budgeted. unknown expenses will relate to the damage to our streets as evidenced by the potholes. We are therefore asking Public Works to give us some estimate as to those unanticipated ex- penses. We are fortunate that our street system has been maintained and monies have been spent for maintenance on a regular and continuous basis, understanding our roadways are one of the primary and fundamental tenets of providing services. City Council will embark on our 2008 budget discussions earlier this year, and we will then evaluate, as we do every year, the priorities for services for our citi- zens. Clearly this winter will influence us, but the caution is not to overreact, but to react. My last point is to thank all of our City employees from the bottom of my heart for their countless hours of service during the snow storms. While many of us were home with our loved ones during the holidays, many of our employees were on the streets of Louisville doing the very best with the equipment and supplies provided them to allow us to have pas- sage. Can we do better? As to our employees, NO, but do we want to expend more monies for supplies, equipment, and facilities for storage, my suggestion is YES we can do better. It involves the budget and for the City Council, how do we allocate our resources after review- City of Louisville - www.ci.louisville.co.us