At Monday night’s Great Bend City Council meeting, City Administrator Howard Partington gave an update on the activities of various city departments in the past couple weeks. Below is a summary of some of the highlights.
 Engineering
• Suchy Construction completed placement of all curb and gutter under the 2012 Curb and Gutter Replacement Project last week.
• Issued an Invitation for Bids to continue expansion of the paving and parking lot at the Great Bend Sports Complex. Bids are due on Oct. 30.
• Received notice from KDOT that the City’s allotment of Federal Funds available via the FY 2012 Federal Fund Exchange program have increased due to appropriation extensions made by the Federal Government. This change and consideration of the acceptance of these funds will be presented at the Nov. 5 City Council meeting.
Public Works
• Repaired levee fence west of Redbarn and west of Locust.
• Installed new chlorinator pump at the Fifth and Evergreen water well.
• Worked with the Environmental Protection Agency on the Plating Inc. chromium investigation water sampling plan.
• Sanitarian reports 900 year to date complaints, 29 new complaints (four from citizens and 25 from staff), 36 complaints completed by citizens, three abatement notices sent and 16 cars removed (210 year to date).
• Working on city-wide tire clean-up.
Police
• Officer Jefferson Davis and Officer Brian Dougherty did the “True Lies” presentation for Great Bend High School during the day and in the evening presented the program for all parents of students in grades Sevnen through 12. They also presented “True Lies” to all eighth grade students at the Great Bend Middle School.
• D.A.R.E. bowling parties for Lincoln, Jefferson, and Eisenhower elementary schools.
• Oct. 10 – Recently promoted Sgt. Rob Weber and Cpls. Jay Bachar and Billy Paden attended a “Basic Supervisory Class” in Hutchinson.
• Oct. 10 – Police Department Records Division successfully completed an audit conducted by Kansas Highway Patrol which is a standard audit done every three years.
Administration
• Promoting Explore Great Bend concept for November. So far, 37 different businesses, restaurants and attractions are on board for month of activities to promote EXPLORING GREAT BEND! A new application will be coming soon as well for Ipad/Iphone and Android users.
• Coordinating and developing the Great Bend Holiday Events Calendar for November and December
• Recruiting volunteers for this year’s Trail of Lights greeters from Nov. 24 to Dec. 22.
• Partington attended the annual International City-County Management Association Annual Conference in Phoenix, Ariz., last week. Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great” was a speaker again this year.