CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE
WEEKLY MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor Rines, Councilors and Department Heads
FROM: Jeffrey Kobrock, City Manager
DATE: February 4, 2005
RE: Weekly Memo
Meetings for the Week of February 7, 2005
Economic Dev. Comm. Tues., Feb. 8, 8:00 am, City Hall
Council Meeting Thurs., Feb. 10, 7:00 pm, City Hall
City Staff
At the City’s website, there is the opportunity for emailing the City general comments or questions, rather than emailing directly to a staff person. We recently found this message in the general mailbox:
“I would like to thank Michelle Fournier for her excellent customer service to assist me in obtaining the information I needed to register my car. I spoke with Michelle and she went above and beyond what I expected to help me. I am so grateful for her willingness to offer her help and her positive attitude to assist me. The time she took to help me saved me a lot of stress in running around to obtain the information I needed which would have taken time away from my family. I feel it is necessary that Michelle receive recognition for her kind acts. THANK YOU SO MUCH MICHELLE!!!”
Customer service is an important priority for all City staff and Michelle really hit a home run with this customer!
Library
Our library service is becoming a victim of its own success. Minerva, the new library catalog software that links libraries in Maine has increased activity dramatically for library staff. Ever-increasing volumes of interlibrary loans are a direct result of the Minerva software. Minerva creates a “virtual library” for the library patron of most large to mid-size public libraries and all libraries within the University system. This incredibly powerful tool has opened substantial new opportunities for borrowing on the part of Gardiner Library users and has driven demand for interlibrary loans dramatically beyond historical levels. Although it is hard for the staff to keep up with this immediate increase in activity, this is clearly a great customer service tool, and has been embraced by patrons fairly quickly upon introduction.
WWTP
A real milestone passed this week in the Wastewater upgrade project. One of three new pumps in the Maine Avenue pump station was put on line, which involved taking the pump station off line (a very challenging event) for several hours on two separate occasions. This signals the completion of the new force main in the waterfront area, positioning us well for a spring construction start of the waterfront project. Although significant pipe work still remains along Rt. 24 down to the South Gardiner plant, progress on the technically complex improvements to the capacity of the Maine Avenue pump station have moved along very nicely.
In this packet
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