Weekly Status Report - 4/29/10

MEMORANDUM

TO:               City Council

FROM:         David J. Deutsch, City Manager

SUBJECT:  Status Report/Council Poll 

DATE:  April 29, 2010

Status Report

1. Advertising BGE Tree Reimbursement Deadline

As requested by City Council, BGE is advertising in the April 29th editions of the Bowie Blade-News and Bowie Star the May 31st deadline for requesting tree reimbursements.  Attached is a copy of the advertisement.  The City has also advertised this deadline on the City’s Web page, cable television channel and in the upcoming City Newsletter.

2. BRCPC Savings Over BGE Standard Offer Service

The City participates in the Baltimore Regional Cooperative Purchasing Committee (BRCPC) for purchasing electricity and natural gas.  BRCPC is made up of 21 governmental jurisdictions in the Baltimore metropolitan area that collectively purchase electricity and natural gas.  As a result of the City’s participation with BRCPC, the City saved $104,012 over the BGE Standard Offer Service (SOS) in FY 2008 and has saved $357,856 over the BGE SOS in FY 2009.  We expect FY 2010 information to be available this fall, but anticipate substantial savings for FY 2010 as well.  The BGE SOS rate starting in June will be $.1234 per kWh.  The current BRCPC rate for electricity is $.093 per kWh and for street light electricity is $.077 per kWh. 

3. BGE Improvements at Bowie Corporate Center and MedAssurant

On October 7, 2009 the Bowie Corporate Center and MedAssurant experienced a power outage due to a wind storm that resulted in significant lost work time on that date.  This was not the first time that power had been lost at this facility resulting in lost productivity.  As a result of that outage, BGE committed to providing a new feeder (8466) to serve this facility and committed to a cable replacement job and the replacement of sectionalizing equipment on feeder 8463 that had been serving this facility.  Both of these projects have now been completed.  The new feeder has been operational since March 25th.  The new cable was energized on April 27th.  Both of these projects should not only improve the dependability of electric service for Bowie Corporate Center and MedAssurant and provide redundancy of service at this facility, but these improvements should also improve the dependability of electric service to the Bowie Town Center and Bowie Health Center.

4. Safe Speed Program

The Bowie Safe Speed Program is underway and speed cameras are in place and operational on Northview Drive.  The Program is running smoothly and Officers have begun the process of approving the first batch of warning citations that have been forwarded by ACS.  On the first day of operation, the cameras were triggered 860 times.  Out of those activations, 748 violations were placed into the system for approval by the Police Department.  The only setback has been capturing violations during the time period that the speed limit drops to 20 mph when the school zone lights are flashing.  In order to capture these violations in the portable cameras, the box must be manually reset to the correct parameters.  This is not practical as it would require the Officer to go out to the site six separate times each day.  The vendor is looking into a possible solution at this time and hopes to have an answer in the coming months.  Fortunately, as we move forward in the program and add fixed cameras to certain sites, we will be able to make the adjustments to the fixed cameras remotely through the computer.

DJD/asf

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