Mayor Karen Farbridge’s Blog

One of the things that I highlighted in my State of the City address was all the work that goes on behind the scenes to keep this city running. That work, which we call “turning the crank” takes up about 80 to 90% of our resources.

In my address, I covered some of the work done by just one of our divisions - the Operations Division.  Here is the full list of their activites last year:

The Operations department is responsible for the following services:
• Road surface, boulevard and sidewalk maintenance
• Sewer and storm system maintenance
• Sign installation and maintenance (including temporary road closures)
• Parkland & Greenway maintenance
• Forestry & Horticulture
• Traffic control (including school crossing guards)
• Downtown parking facilities and administration
• By-law enforcement
• City fleet maintenance
• Farmer’s Market operation
• Splash pads & wading pools
• Greenhouse operation and horticultural displays throughout the city
• Snow removal – roads, sidewalks, parking lots, and at all City facilities

Parklands & Greenways Maintenance

• 246 parks (550 hectares of parkland)
• 210 boulevard, median and ditch locations
• 74 kms of park trails
• 172 sports fields
• 210 special events & 100+ sports tournaments facilitated annually
• The City’s green house produces over 60,000 plants each year
• 128 flower and shrub beds are planted and maintained
• 21 permanent staff, 90 students

Forestry

• 2,500 trees planted annually through community planting events
• 1,493 city owned trees trimmed (6 per day)
• 1,185 requests from home owners for tree inspections (4 per day)
• All forestry activity completed with 6 staff

Fleet

• Operates a full scale auto service and repair shop
• 14 mechanics and service technicians maintain a fleet of 289 vehicles and over 460 pieces of equipment
• The vehicle pool includes the entire Police fleet, Ambulance fleet, and City owned heavy equipment, trucks, and cars
• The equipment inventory ranges from gas power weed eaters and leaf blowers to riding lawn movers, tractors, trailers, and snow removal equipment

Farmers Market

The Farmer’s Market creates employment opportunity for over 80-100 local vendors; is considered a cultural gem in downtown Guelph

Administration

• Performed over 3,000 locates for underground services in 2007
• Receives on average 57 calls per day for information or service (14,264 calls in 2007)
• 32% of those calls require in-field action by the Department

Bylaw

• 4,180 calls received for enforcement concerns (11.5 per day)
• 19,259 calls for temporary overnight parking exemptions (52 per day)
• By-law staff patrolled 80,000 km of roadway in 2007 (219 km daily)

Parking

• 2,223 parking spaces maintained
• 1,197 monthly parking permits issued annually
• 246 Veterans parking permits issued

Traffic Services

•  91 traffic counts completed
• 1315 collision reports processed
• Traffic control set up for 37 special events & street parties
• Maintain 168 traffic signals
• 2200 staff hours maintaining traffic signal plant
• Maintain and operate 2 computerized traffic signal systems

Downtown

• 7 km of sidewalk to clean and maintain daily

Roads

• 467 sewer blocks reported in 2007
• 102 inlet/outlets cleaned monthly in winter, twice monthly in summer
• 538 kms of roadways (1,113 lane km) inspected every 2 weeks
• 679 kms of sidewalk to maintain and clear

Signs

• Installation of large overhead street signs at all signalized intersections scheduled for completion in 2008
• There are over 13,000 traffic signs throughout the city
• Over 1000 new signs are installed annually
• Nearly 2000 signs are replaced annually

Winter control

• 21 Winter events (snow fall)
• 19,402 staff hours, or 924 staff hours per event to clear City
• 154,862 km traveled by winter staff
• 98,088 litres of fuel consumed
• 10 Winter storm events resulting in full city-wide plow outs

After Hours Emergency Calls for Service

• 1,323 calls –1,849 hours of staff overtime
• Increase of 7% over 2006

Insurance Claims

• Of all the services, maintenance and emergency response that we provided in 2007, the department processed 62 insurance claims (tree damage, property damage, slips, trips and falls, road conditions, etc)