Calendar Details
Monday, September 15
3:30 pm - Environment Committee, Room 280. AGENDA: Proposed Revisions to Tree Ordinance; Incorporating Environmental considerations into Decision-Making; Chicago Pledge for Environmental Initiatives
5:00 pm - Dinner Briefing, Room CH-14
6:00 pm - Council Zoning Hearings, Chamber
Wednesday, September 19
3:30 pm - Economic Development/Planning Committee, Room 280. AGENDA: Independence Boulevard Phase II Study; Residential Pedestrian Lighting Process
Information Items:
Solid Waste Services Increases Efforts to Control Rollout Cart Inventory
Resource:
Victoria O. Garland, 704-336-3410 or vgarland@ci.charlotte.nc.us
The management of over 200,000 rollout carts used by residents in the City's curbside garbage collection program presents an ongoing challenge. Due to the recent increase in the number of displaced and stolen cart replacement requests, Solid Waste Services created a staff taskforce with the specific charge to increase efforts to verify the authenticity of these requests.
Until recently, the City averaged 100 or fewer displaced or stolen cart requests per month. However, during the past year the monthly average increased to 399 carts. The six-month average was 419. A study of the requests revealed that some were repeat requests from single addresses and that certain streets or neighborhoods had very high requests.
The City leases its cart inventory from Otto Container Management, LLC through a Rollout Container Lease Agreement. The current three-year agreement that began on July 1, 2008, includes a provision for the City to pay Otto $22.50 for each replaced stolen cart that exceeds a monthly cap of 118 carts. The provision helps Otto offset rising production costs for the petroleum-based carts.
Staff has made significant progress in reducing the number of displaced or stolen carts requiring replacement. For the month of July, more extensive review of cart requests resulted in 163 legitimate claims. This represented a 61% decrease in the previous six month average of 419 missing carts. In addition to closer scrutiny of cart replacement requests, staff will also proactively address the cart issue by using more public education to stress why it is important that carts remain at their assigned addresses.
Utilities Earns International GIS Award
Resource:
Doug Bean, 704-391-5070 or dbean@ci.charlotte.nc.us
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities was one of 180 worldwide recipients recently selected from more than 100,000 nominees to receive the Special Achievement in GIS award from the Environmental System Research Institute.
The award recognizes the overall quality of our Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program, which is used to help manage assets, improve business processes and ultimately enhance customer service.
The award was presented in August during the 28th Annual International GIS Users Conference in San Diego. Recipients were nominated and selected by industry peers. Our program was the only winner from North Carolina, and was recognized alongside top GIS programs including the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre and the Hong Kong SAR Government Planning Department.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg's GIS program was recognized based on several accomplishments, including:
- Supporting field operations and EPA requirements through effective collection of field data
- Integrating GIS into other business systems such as customer information and document management
- Distributing GIS data among other City departments using the latest database technology; and
- Helping field employees complete their work more efficiently by designing and building mobile GIS applications that deliver water and sewer system data directly to the work site.
