15 apply for city manager post

Acting City Manager Phyllis Loftis  has been appointed as a director on the Greater Shawnee Area Chamber Board and will serve through the end of this year.
Loftis attended her first meeting recently and reported that the search for a successor for City Manager Jim Collard has drawn 15 applicants so far. She said the city commission has yet to set the criteria as to how a new manager will be selected.
She also pointed out that a new planning director will assume his post Monday, Aug. 18. When the new director arrives in a little more than two weeks, it will mark a year since Mike Southard left the position to take a job in Ada.
Loftis also said several street projects are either under way, have been completed and/or are ready to start. North Union from Highland to Wallace and Ninth Street from Market east to Minnesota has been completed. The Main Street resurfacing project from Kickapoo east to Harrison appears to be finished, and the major resurfacing of North Broadway from Highland south to Seventh Street began Thursday.
Other projects are East MacArthur from Harrison to Bryan and West Rosa from Kickapoo for about a half-mile west. A woman who lives along West Rosa called me Friday and said that project is a long way from being finished. She said the project began July 7, has been told it’s a 150-day project, and that crews are doing work on the utilities. She said Friday they were in front of her house.
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I’d like to apologize to John Merrill for referring to him as Mike Merrill in last Saturday’s column. A reader e-mailed me earlier this week, saying she really enjoyed this column each week, but wanted to know how I got John’s name as Mike. It was just an oversight on my part.
Last week’s column referred to the older Merrill, who is 102, and talked about his attendance at the final performance of the International Finals Youth Rodeo July 19. Accompanied by his son, Mike, who volunteers in the media center each summer at the IFYR, John also took a tour of the trade show that afternoon.
The woman who sent me the kind e-mail said that John is a long-time member of her church and probably has the best attendance record of anyone in any church most anywhere. She said that Mike looks in on him every day and helps him stay active.
She said her favorite fact about John is that he has to be oldest living Boy Scout in the world. He became a Boy Scout as a youngster and has stayed active as a leader and still keeps an active interest in our troop at First Christian Church. “I’ve seen him many times greet the youngest boys in our church and tell them about Boy Scouts and invite them to their next meeting.  He is a remarkable and humble person that none of us will ever forget,” she wrote.
She concluded by telling me “keep up your good work. I really appreciate you.” I appreciate her pointing out the mistake and her kind comments about this column, too.
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I’d like to pass on kudos to Pat Bell, local woman, who found a man’s ring on a chain lying on the ground at the International Finals Youth Rodeo. Not knowing for sure what to do, she brought the lost ring to the News-Star, hoping we could locate the owner.
I contacted Stephanie Meiler, secretary at the Expo Center, and she helped to get the ring back to its rightful owner who had been looking for it and who had reported it lost.
Pat deserves a big thank you, too, from the young woman who lost it.
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Toni Gray, assistant to the Shawnee city manager, passed along some information in response to the Tri-County Speaks column regarding the horses in the city project. She says bridles and hitching posts to stabilize the horses are not necessary because, as time permits, the parks employees are taking the horses down one-by-one and stabilizing the legs and feet. The stabilization is taking place between other operations and functions of the parks department, Gray said.
Also, the person or business purchasing the horse chooses the design and color of the horse.
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Linda Agee wrote me this week, pointing out she has had several inquiries from people about water continuing to go over the spillway even though the water level is well below spillway level. She inquired if I would print an article to let people know what the situation is.
Utility Director Jim Bierd wrote this in response to Linda’s inquiry.
“Boils at spillway were inspected by Terracon May 5, 2008. Their determination was that ‘the boils’ observed do not appear to be a major detriment to the structural integrity of the dam. The spillway for this dam was cut out of weathered sandstone. The concrete slab and weir on the spillway was poured on top of the weathered sandstone. It appears the head pressure, as a result of the height of the weir, is causing seepage to flow through cracks in the back wall of the weir and boiling up out of cracks in the spillway slab. Since the spillway is comprised of sandstone, the loss of significant amounts of material because of piping is not likely.  A majority of the boils could be eliminated in the future by sealing the cracks in the back wall of the concrete weir and the spillway slab when the lake level goes down and this area becomes dry.”
Bierd said “sealing of the cracks will be scheduled when the area is sufficiently dry and our current workload permits.”
A local resident had written Agee about the dam on Shawnee Twin Lake No. 1, and she responded saying she was forwarding it to Bierd and City Engineer John Krywicki. The resident’s e-mail in part stated, “the dam on lake No. 1 is definitely leaking in the area of the spillway. An inspection when the lake water was low would not have indicated this, but now that the lake is close to spill level, water is clearly bypassing the dam, flowing under the spillway, and up and out near the railroad irons which were  installed by city crews a few decades ago. Water is not flowing over  the spillway, but bubbling up through the holes in the concrete and flowing down stream.
“Because these leaks are near the spill level, they may not be a big threat, but that should be determined by a qualified inspector. I highly recommend the OWRB send an inspector out right away to look at the problem. Of course, the vegetation mentioned below should be addressed as well.”
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If you have ideas or something of interest for this column, please call me at 214-3922 or e-mail me at michael.mccormick@news-star.com, but please include your name and a phone number for contact purposes.