A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT

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1 A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT A Note from the President... 1 APWA/KCHA Spring 2015 Conference... 2 Career Awareness... 2 Scholarships... 2 Kansas Chapter Scholarship Winner... 3 Engineers Without Borders... 4 Chuck Barlett, PE Alfred Benesch & Company Spring is in the air. But as we transition to warmer weather I want to recognize those men and women in Publics Works that have worked hard through the winter. Regardless of the weather, these dedicated folks have worked day and night fighting ice and snow, repairing broken waterlines, and performing other tasks that make life safer for our communities. In addition, our Public Works Departments are again being asked to do more with less. Reduced state and local budgets challenge us all. Our directors, managers and supervisors continue to step up and meet those challenges. Clearly, those that serve in the field of Public Works work hard for the benefit of our communities. Thank you to all of you for your dedication. Future City Competition... 5 Kansas LTAP Newsletters... 6 Did You Know?... 7 This year, we welcome Doug Whitacre, Topeka Director of Public Works, to the Executive Committee. Doug will be serving as the Career Awareness Chairman. I also want to thank Past President Ray Ibarra, Junction City Director of Public Works, for serving as our president in Our 2015 conference this year will be May 13th through the 15th in Manhattan. On-line registration is open now. The agenda was developed in partnership with our friends from the Kansas County Highway Association with great speakers and many interesting and informative topics. The annual Golf Tournament will be on the 13th at Colbert Hills and the popular Student Scholarship Auction will be on the evening of the 14th. Please plan on joining us for a time of networking, education and irresponsible bidding for a good cause. 1

2 APWA/KCHA Spring 2015 Conference David Cronin, PE, City Engineer, Lawrence Sign up for the upcoming joint spring conference for the APWA Kansas Chapter and the Kansas County Highway Association being held May 13th to 15th in Manhattan, Kansas at the Four Points by Sheraton. Registration information is now available on the chapter's webpage. Make plans to play in the golf tournament May 13th at Colbert Hills Golf Course. The conference Keynote Speaker will be Jeff Lanza, a retired FBI Agent and an award-winning nationally known speaker that will discuss business ethics. As always there will be an outstanding Thursday night dinner followed by the scholarship auction. Please plan on attending this great opportunity for networking and education, see you there! Career Awareness Doug Whitacre An APWA Career Awareness Presentation will be made to the KU Student Chapter of ASCE on Wednesday April 29th. Bartlett & West Engineering will be assisting with the presentation. Contact has been made with the KSU Student Chapter and a presentation will be scheduled sometime next fall once the calendar is established for the fall semester. Scholarships Russ Tomevi A couple of years ago the Scholarship Committee researched investment options for the Scholarship Fund. Previously the scholarship funds had always been invested in CDs and we all know how little has been paid on those investments the last few years. Ultimately the Committee recommended to the Executive Board to move the funds to a Merrill Lynch sub-account under the APWA National investments. With Board approval, the funds began to be transferred as the CDs matured. The transfers were completed in the spring of Last year the Scholarship Committee also recommended increasing the number scholarships given each semester. With the Executive Committees approval, the APWA Kansas Chapter began awarding four $1,000 scholarships with the fall semester. Two are given to KU students and two are given to KSU students. That's a total of $8,000 in scholarships awarded each year. The Chapter has traditionally held an auction in two out every three years in conjunction with the spring conference with the proceeds going into the scholarship fund. Last year there wasn't an auction but the Merrill Lynch funds did pretty well. In fact the scholarship fund gained enough to award the scholarships without having to touch the principal amount. This was the first time that this has occurred and was a great encouragement to all of the individuals that have worked for many years to build up the fund. 2

3 Kansas Chapter Scholarship Winner for Spring 2015 at KU Ron Seitz, Scholarship Committee Chair Each school year, the Kansas Chapter offers up to two scholarships of $2,000 each, or $1,000 per semester, for civil engineering students at both KU and K-State. Since one of the recipients of our scholarship in the fall semester at KU graduated in December, we had the opportunity to award an additional scholarship for the Spring 2015 semester. The recipient of this scholarship is Thomas J. Vance. Tom is a senior at KU studying Civil Engineering and expects to graduate in May Tom has worked two summers in public works related jobs and says this experience has stimulated his interest in working for a city public works department after graduation. He has also worked as a Concrete Research Assistant in KU s Infrastructure Research Institute assembling concrete models for structural research. He has also been involved in a variety of activities while attending KU, including the Steel Bridge Design Team, American Society of Civil Engineers, and Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. Since the school year APWA members have been sponsoring a scholarship program to assist junior and senior level civil engineering students at Kansas State University and the University of Kansas with their educational costs. With this award 41 students have been awarded a total of $53,000 in scholarships through the program. The funds for these scholarships have been raised due to the generous bidding and donations made by many APWA members and companies at scholarship auctions, and the monies collected in our chapter golf tournaments. Thanks to the Scholarship Auction Committee members, and particularly Jeff Hancock, who is the chief organizer of the auction. Organizing the auction takes an incredible amount of work by Jeff, and he has done a great job. We have also been very fortunate to have support year after year by many generous companies and individuals who have donated items to the auction. Our next conference, which will include an auction, is scheduled for May 6-8, 2015, at the Four Points Sheraton in Manhattan. Since this will be a joint conference with the Kansas County Highway Association all proceeds from the auction will be divided between the two organizations. Thank you to everyone for your continued support of the Scholarship Fund! 3

4 Engineers Without Borders Peter Clark, P.E., City of Manhattan Current School Building Guatemala Assessment Team Arriving in Guatemala City, Guatemala This past winter break a team from K-State s Engineers Without Borders Chapter traveled to El Amate, Guatemala. The community of 48 families is dispersed across highlands northwest of Guatemala City, Guatemala. This was the first assessment trip within the program, which began in August 2014, when the El Amate community formally requested to partner with EWB-KSU to build a permanent school structure. Their current school structure for 26 students is in need of replacement due to a leaky roof, poor ventilation, and poor lighting. During the assessment trip, the team surveyed the proposed school site and assessed the soil content. We also met with the ministry of education, the mayor of Joyabaj, and INFOM, which is a government organization designed to work with indigenous communities to support them in advancing their lives. Each of these meetings contributed additional information to complete our post-assessment report and prepare for the design process. We also visited several school previously implemented by other EWB student chapters, which assisted us in seeing what the El Amate primary school could look like in the future. Currently, the team is in the design process. The initial construction date is dependent on the success of raising $18,000 in funds and our ability to complete designs within the EWB-USA paperwork reporting timeframe. We look forward to seeing this program develop and the partnership with the community strengthened. 4

5 Future City Competition - Great Plains Regional David Cronin, PE, City Engineer, Lawrence The APWA Kansas Chapter was again a Gold Sponsor of the Future City regional competition held at Kansas State University on January 24, The Future City Competition is a national competition for middle school students to image, design and build cities of the future. Students work as a team to plan cities using SimCity software; research and write solutions to an engineering problem; build tabletop scale models with recycled materials; and present their ideas before judges. Regional winners represent their region at the National Finals in Washington, DC. The Great Plains Regional held the competition for the 12th year which alternates every other year with KU and K-State Engineering Schools hosting the event. In addition to a trip to Washington, D.C. each team member of the winning team receive a $1000 scholarship to either KU or K-State if they enroll in Engineering. This year 62 teams from 34 schools from Kansas, Colorado and Missouri competed. "Blomstrende-Liv" from Southwest Middle School in Lawrence won the Great Plains competition and went on to compete at the National Competition in February. Other awards were given to teams which included the APWA Kansas Chapter's Sustainable Infrastructure - awarded to "icity 6 Plus" from Bergman Elementary in Manhattan. 5

6 Kansas LTAP Newsletters Now Electronic Get Yours Here Lisa Harris Communications and Outreach Manager You are probably familiar with the Kansas Local Technical Assistance Program, and if you are not, you should be! KS LTAP is a public service program that provides training and technical assistance and useful information to public works and road and bridge departments across the state. LTAP is also one of our Chapter s partners in the Kansas Roads Scholar Program. Winter 2015 issue Fall 2014 issue One of KS LTAP s services is a free quarterly newsletter to local agencies. Until recently, hard copies were mailed to over 3,500 recipients, but that has become cost-prohibitive. The newsletter is now electronic, and anyone can receive it. But you have to sign up if you want to know when each issue is posted. To sign up for notification, go to and fill out your basic contact information. Press submit and you re done. Links to the two most recent LTAP newsletters are below. By the way, the content for KS LTAP newsletters comes primarily from topics suggested by LTAP s Advisory Committee, including some APWA Kansas chapter members. (Committee members are listed on the back of each newsletter.) However, anyone can suggest a topic to be covered; call Lisa Harris at LTAP at (785) if you have one to suggest. 6

7 Did You Know 1. Who first conceived the idea of Daylight Savings Time? a. Christopher Columbus b. Theodore Roosevelt c. Benjamin Franklin d. Alexander Graham Bell 2. The German phrase der Osterhase means: a. Easter basket b. Easter bunny c. Chocolate Eggs d. Easter parade 3. There is a legend that on the first day of spring, you can balance: a. An egg on a table b. Your checkbook c. A football on your knee d. A spoon on your nose 4. The word equinox means: a. Equal days b. Equal nights c. A Chevrolet SUV d. Disambiguation 7

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