Gainesville council hears accomplishments, visions from city departments

GAINESVILLE - There wasn't any money talk, but leaders from various Gainesville City departments cast a vision for the upcoming year for Gainesville City Council members at preliminary budget hearings Thursday morning.

The initial presentation came from Assistant Public Works Director Chris Rodalski, who outlined accomplishments of the seven divisions under the Public Works Department umbrella before telling council members about goals for FY 2013 for those departments.

Those seven divisions include: Public Lands & Buildings (PL&B), Engineering, Traffic Engineering, Street Maintenance, Alta Vista Cemetery, Solid Waste and Vehicle Services. In addition, Public Works manages the Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport under its Engineering Division.

Rodalski spent more than an hour reviewing plans for all seven divisions, telling council members that his department is making every effort to collaborate on projects to minimize cost for the city.

"We are trying to be innovative with what we have," said Rodalski.

In addition to discussing a number of road projects and storm water projects for the coming fiscal year, Rodalski also noted that his department wants to improve traffic conditions in the growing city. Plus, he said one of his ongoing goals with Street Maintenance is to be of better service to Gainesville residents.

"[One goal]is to respond to citizens' concerns in the next business day," said Rodalski. "That division gets a lot of concerns from citizens and we try to be very responsive to that."

Rodalski told council members he's very pleased with the city's recycling efforts. He noted that revenues for the recycling project, which is administered under the Solid Waste Division, are exceeding expenditures by 10-percent. He said the city needs to order more roadside recycling bins for homeowners in the coming fiscal year, noting an increase of almost two percent in recyclable collections in the past fiscal year.

In addition to the presentation from the Public Works Department, council heard from Assistant City Manager Angela Sheppard about the Georgia Mountains Center, the facility that will soon be transferred Brenau University. She said the city will play a big part in facilitating the transition to the university, determining which items will need to go to the university, which items will need to be retained by the city and which items should be sold as surplus.

Sheppard also said that the city should make sure the Mountains Center is well-maintained for the university and that will involve some waterproofing work during the first part of the fiscal year.

Actual dollar figures for each division budget will be presented in May.