Bucher Municipal: Soaring high to deliver your best street sweeping solution
Bottom line, you need the best street sweeper for your street sweeping program. Whether you are a small municipality, regional airport or contractor buying your first street sweeper or if you are a large city, airport or conglomerate buying your … More from our cover sponsor →
Ann Arbor: at the forefront of green fleets
Ann Arbor was featured in 2012 as a “Clean Cities Success Story: Michigan Green Fleets” on the website of MotorWeek magazine. The spotlight explained how, starting in 2004, the city’s Green Fleets Project established a goal of reducing the municipal … Continue reading →
Top-shelf communication: That’s the good stuff for Fort Lauderdale, Fla., fleet service
“Our Fleet Services Department falls under our Sustainability Division within the public works department,” said Carlos Berriz, fleet program manager with the city of Fort Lauderdale since 2012. “That puts the environment in the forefront of the way we do … Continue reading →
NAFA recommends: 10 Steps to follow at budget time
“Experienced fleet managers know that budgeting never stops. Preparation for the next cycle begins as soon as the current year is finalized, and changing circumstances, fuel price, higher crash rates, etc., often make the fleet budget a moving target,” Katherine … Continue reading →
Make your voice heard: Strategies for cutting down on the budget blues
Budget time can resemble a Sisyphean task. According to Katherine Vigneau, CAFM, director of professional development for NAFA, “Budget time for fleet managers is a time of opportunity, but also a frustrating exercise of trying to articulate what the organization … Continue reading →
No. 1 for the king of white meat Gainesville, Ga.
Gainesville, Ga., is a capital within a capital. Business innovator Jesse Jewell, who lived from 1902 to 1975, first carved the city’s place in international prominence as the “Poultry Capital of the World,” during the Depression era. Furthermore, in 1995 … Continue reading →
Calhoun dominates with economical, fully engineered, intelligent storage solutions
By TORI MATICHUK | Calhoun Super Structure Keep your fleet safe from the elements If you think all fabric buildings are the same, think again. Meet Calhoun Super Structure, the Canadian, family-owned company with over two decades of manufacturing and … Continue reading →
Cars, trucks and blizzards: It’s all in a day for fleet managers
The March edition of The Municipal is one in which we pay special attention to issues of fleet service and management. But in late January, as I tapped out a few relevant thoughts, states on and near the eastern seaboard … Continue reading →
New dynamic earns PD DOJ award
A phoenix that rose from the ashes of a poor relationship between the Columbia Heights, Minn., Police Department and the city’s public school district led to vastly improved synergy and a 30-year low in criminal activity. The turnaround has also … Continue reading →
Artful rainwater design worth more than hydrologic value
Sustainable, beautiful, educational, and properly managing rainwater events. These are some of the elements that go into artful stormwater management design — or artful rainwater design, as the co-authors of “Artful Rainwater Design” would prefer it be called. Eliza Pennypacker, … Continue reading →
Capturing volunteer interest in the fire service
A more diverse fire service is good for the community for many reasons. Experts believe gender representation is not where it needs to be, but significant progress has been made in the past 50 years. Women are not only serving … Continue reading →
Reeder takes on ‘continuity of change’
Greg Reeder, public works director for the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was gratified to learn he had been selected as one of the Top Ten Public Works Leaders by the American Public Works Association on the 55th anniversary of … Continue reading →
Bayfield brings the past into its future
Bayfield, Wis., is a small tourist town on the eastern side of the state. A gateway for the Apostle Islands, it features scenic hiking trails, hosts a yearly Apple Festival and is known as the Berry Center of Wisconsin. Over … Continue reading →
Ithaca flips policy on sidewalk programs
Prior to 2014, property owners in Ithaca, N.Y., had been 100 percent responsible for sidewalk replacement costs; now the city assumes the responsibility. When Mayor Svante Myrick was campaigning for office, he went door to door seeking residents’ input. Sidewalk … Continue reading →
Renewed hope and public involvement go hand-in-hand
In 2003, when Mayor Scott Eisenhauer of Danville and his team came into office, pride was at low ebb. The number one complaint was the deplorable condition of city streets. “The first big step in resolving that was to get … Continue reading →
Danville, Ill.: Engineering sustainability
In 2005, the city of Danville had a problem. A century-old viaduct that permitted traffic on a vital east-west artery to flow beneath six tracks of busy railway lines had, by engineering standards, structurally failed. While the infrastructure remained operational, … Continue reading →
Don’t let sidewalk repair trip you up
There’s a popular holiday song that starts by describing a city sidewalk bustling with activity. Even though the holiday season is over, does such a scenario describe your city’s sidewalks? Whether yours are filled with activity or not, they still … Continue reading →
Clearing a path Snow removal on non-motorized transportation routes
Removing snow is, most days, anything but delightful. It’s bad enough to have to contend with clearing highways, byways and city streets, but with the rise of multimodal and non-motorized transportation routes comes another set of challenges for winter maintenance … Continue reading →
George Merrick Coral Gables, Fla.
George Edgar Merrick was, by all accounts, a hardworking, optimistic, creative idealist, with a flair for marketing and a skill for making money. He was born near Pittsburgh in 1886, the eldest of six children. His minister father, Solomon, took … Continue reading →