Public Service
Three years ago after I was elected, I stopped by the City Clerk’s office to fill out some paperwork and set up my email account. I sat down at Diane Burkemper’s computer, and I noted that most the letters on the keyboard had been completely worn off. Diane said that they had been making due with what they had for so long, they were just used to touch-typing all the time. Not long after, when Director Ron Colangelo took me on a tour of the Public Works facility he showed me some of the trucks that have been in service for so long that the baseboards were rusting out. In one of my discussions with Ray Roberts, who took over as Public Works Director upon Ron’s retirement, he showed me the GIS (Geographic Information System) that is used to map the city’s infrastructure like water mains, sanitary lines, and storm sewers. The system is also used to document when repairs are made, but the software is so old it cannot be updated and transferring the data to a n