AGENDA #7a

BUDGET WORKING PAPER

to:                  W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager

from:            Bill Letteri, Public Works Director

subject:      New Groundskeeper Position for Downtown Services (12 months)

date:            March 8, 2006

The purpose of this report is to provide detailed information on proposed expansion of downtown clean-up services.

BACKGROUND

The Downtown district’s extensive business and pedestrian activity generates daily accumulation of litter. As part of our current clean-up program, one full time Public Works employee is dedicated five days per week to clean-up at locations along Franklin Street, the Wallace Parking Deck and five Town parking lots. The daily work schedule begins at 3:30 a.m. when pedestrian and vehicular traffic patterns are minimal, thus maximizing efficiency and safety. Cleaning responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Litter pickup
• Vacuuming of sidewalks
• Blowing of hard surfaces to collect litter for disposal

The efforts of the full time employee are supplemented by a temporary employee working five hours each weekend morning. The combined annual cost for this dedicated service of cleaning the Downtown is about $60,000, including personnel costs of $45,000 and material and equipment costs of $16,000.

DISCUSSION

The Town participated in a clean and safe audit of Downtown sponsored by Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership during the winter of 2005, the results of which supported the need to expand Downtown clean-up services. The addition of a second full time person dedicated to Downtown clean-up would expand our overall presence downtown and would accomplish the following:

• Improve cleanliness and appearance of downtown locations into the afternoon and evening hours;
• Enable two employees to work together on tasks more efficiently accomplished by more than one person, such as power washing; removing cigarette butts from under tree grate; and mulching in planter beds on a more timely basis;
• Provide the opportunity to rotate less desirable work shifts;
• Provide the advantage of being able to more thoroughly clean benches, remove gum from sidewalks and clean metal surfaces around kiosks and common areas.

The addition of another full time employee dedicated to the clean-up in the Downtown area would cost about $37,000 per year. If this position were approved, then the division’s temporary salary account could be reduced $10,000 (16.7 percent). The net increase then would become $27,000 for this staff expansion. The total program cost next year for downtown services would become $87,000, including the existing $60,000 in the base budget (see above) and this marginal $27,000 for the added position.

RECOMMENDATION

We recommend that one full time groundskeeper position be added to the Landscape Division’s grounds maintenance staff next year at an annual cost of $37,000 to assist in the cleaning efforts of the Downtown area. The cost could be reduced to $27,000 through a reduction of $10,000 in the division’s temporary salaries account.