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We all like to start the new year with goals and plans to improve ourselves. For some of us its exercising more, learning a new skill or returning focus to family or life goals. For your District 18 Office, we wanted to look within and better understand how we are serving you and hopefully find even better ways to deliver you first class services from Metro Government.
As part of that effort, we began tracking not only the number of calls, emails, and other contacts with constituents but also the topics, results and work undertaking to resolve each. Some calls were simply asking for help working LG&E related to a power outage, while others may be much more complex causing us to work weeks or even months to get a positive result.
Biggest Projects Undertaken In 2023
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DePres Park Improvements: This has included improving the surface for the Pickleball Courts, repairing the picnic pavilion, adding an ADA accessible water fountain near the courts and playground, and finding funding to resurface the basketball courts and hopefully support installation of new ballfield lights that are more energy efficient and less costly to operate.
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Ward Avenue Sidewalk Project: At the request of the Owl Creek Homeowners Association, we worked with Public Works to create a plan and then fund the construction of a new sidewalk to connect the Owl Creek, Foxgate Subdivision and Foxboro Subdivision to already existing sidewalks in the City of Anchorage. This project is expected to be completed by summer 2024.
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Dorsey Lane Traffic and Safety Improvements: We have spent significant time trying to work through rules and regulations that prevent us from being able to add stop signs, speed humps or other types of devices on certain type roadways that have speeding or other safety issues. This year we have added speed/radar machines on Dorsey, worked with homeowners and police to get agreements for the use of private property for enforcement of traffic laws and in 2024, working with Public Works, we plan to add a innovative traffic calming lining of Dorsey that hopefully will assist in reducing speeding without causing additional congestion. We have also worked on improving lighting (and continue to do so), striping and improved the intersection of Dorsey and Hurstbourne Parkway through new signage and adjusted pavement striping.
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Paving, Paving and more Paving: The Metro Council has once again increased our level of paving. 8 years ago, we pushed to increase the annual funding from $3M to over $20 annually. For the past two years we have moved that number near $30M. This increase has led to significant improvements in the condition of our district’s roads.
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Northeast Regional Library: Worked with the Louisville Free Public Library to increase investment in books, purchasing AEDs for all library branches throughout Metro as well as other improvements to the accessibility of the library through paving of access roads, reduction of the speed limit from 25 to 15 mph on the access road surrounding the library as well as the installation of new security cameras.
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Sidewalk Repair and Connections: We have funded over $350,000 in the current fiscal year for repairing broken sidewalks and connecting sidewalks along Shelbyville Road. This will be one of the largest investments made since Merger started in 2003 and will also help to eventually allow a person to walk along Shelbyville Road without having to walk onto the shoulder of the street for large segments.
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Animal Rabies/Vaccine Clinic: We held our first animal rabies clinic in the district this fall. The event was held at Plainview Park near the Tway Historic Home and was able to serve 23 animals.
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Junk Drop Offs and Shredding Events: Office hosted 2 junk drop-off events with shredding and a "stand alone" shred event for District 18 residents at the UL Shelby Campus serving more than 2,100 people/vehicles.
Analysis of the Calls, Emails, and other contacts we received in 2023
In 2023 we received 937 individual contacts from residents of District 18. Some of these calls could be resolved simply by giving a date or email address, while others may take many calls, field inspections by our office, follow-ups and could result in funding requests that could lead to months of additional work. Below is a chart to outline the topics of some of our most frequent contact issues. These numbers were compiled by my office help to understand how we are utilizing our time as well as where we need to prioritize our efforts in upcoming budget hearings. |
