Sunday, December 31, 2006

Continuous Improvement

In the context of my posting about working on the Baldrige Award, I found this little quote to have both a powerful message and also to say that improvement is incremental. If we get better than where we were when we started, then success can be identified.
Continuous improvement is the goal.

Let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

Good, Better, Best.
Never Let Me Rest.
Until My Good Is Better.
And My Better Best.

Army Ranger Slogan

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Shoot for the Stars

Today, I was reading one of the several Blogs I check.  While reading, I thought of the context of this piece.  We always think at the end of the year about what we accomplished and what is planned for the New Year.

I reviewed a list of the objectives I had for our department heads and key staff.  Most of the items were addressed, although some were not achieved in the manner I expected them to be completed.  Still, we had a pretty impressive list.

2007 will be a year that will mark some significant change for us.  As I shared with the staff Wednesday, I have been thinking about quality for some time.  When I met with the City Commission for my job interview in December 2002, I stated that one of my personal objectives for the time I am City Manager is for the organization to be recognized as the best managed small city in America.

Now I am not talking about City Manager management but management of the City of Concordia.  To accomplish that objective, the key metric is to be “recognized.”

Here is the objective for 2007- we are going to start work to win one of the Malcolm Baldrige Awards.  For those who want to check it out, go to this web site: http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/.

As I type, I can hear the mocking going on down at the coffee shop, which is probably the right place for it.  Everybody knows that “no work is done at the coffee shop.”

Every teacher we had, every coach we played for, every boss we ever worked for told us that we needed to stretch our daily performance to excel and to succeed.  Every day we get up for school or go to work is a battle to keep from being beaten down.  I remember my parents telling me to “reach for the stars.  You may not get it but you will be a darn site further than the one who doesn’t try.”

The Baldrige is the “star objective” for me.  We may not achieve that goal but we will be recognized as a leader in municipal governance because we are trying.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Ethanol Water Study

A couple of weeks ago, I did a presentation to the City Commission regarding the upcoming Ethanol Plant to be located here in Concordia.  The chief aim of the presentation was to address some of the misinformation circulating about the community.  What I intend to do here is reflect on what I see happening.

For those who are outside of Concordia reading, Everton Energy LLC announced they plan to construct a 110 million gallon ethanol production facility on the east side of Concordia.  Land options have been signed while the company does its water investigation.

Water is a key element in the success of this proposed project.  As a result, we asked Everton to hire one of the state’s premier water geologists to assist them in locating additional water resources for the project.  Everton hired Bob Vincent, owner of Ground Water Associates of Wichita, Kansas.  At the present time (12/18/06) they are drilling test wells along Plum Road, south and east of Concordia.  These test drillings will generate information about the water formations around Concordia and will be provided back to the City, County, Division of Water Resources (DWR) and the Kansas Geodetic Survey.

The plant will have a requirement for three utility services from the City.
  1. Potable water

  2. Waste water effluent

  3. Sanitary Sewer

The potable water is for the product processing, clean-up, and domestic use in the office and the plant.  The non-potable water will be used for boiler circulation.  The daily requirement will be 900,000 GPD (Gallons Per Day) and as engineering proceeds, the manufacture expects to design around a smaller consumptive amount.  So, how much smaller?  I can truly say, I don’t know.  

Everton will be more concerned about that than the City will be.  Everton’s objective is to find and provide the water they need above and beyond the current City resources.  Those water resources will be given over to the City to manage and sell back to Everton.

Those familiar with Concordia recognize one of our water resources is the Republican River.  The City has water rights in the Republican River basin and due to drought conditions the Division of Water Resources has restricted our water consumption from the Republican River basin.  Fortunately, we have water resources in two other water formations.  They are the Oak Creek Alluvium and the Dakota Aquifer.

Everton is spending their efforts in finding resources in the Dakota Aquifer.  This is very good since DWR is not allowing any new uses from the Republican River basin.  What DWR is particularly happy about is the effect of water production and discharge will be a net gain from what we currently draw and what we will be returning to the Republican River.

Lest we get excited about the quality of the water going to the river, it will be the same water we are discharging now.  What I know of the water use plan is this.  The potable water used in processing is a closed loop.  Process water is totally used in the production of ethanol and not discharged.  When the corn is introduced to the cooking process it is added to a brew.  Water is added to get the mixture at a certain moisture level and cooked.  Water loss comes from two points in the process.  It evaporates as steam and it goes out the plant as Dried Distillers Grain (DDG).  The drying process brings back water to the process side and is reused.  The biology of the return solution is important because it contains the materials that help break down the corn for the next process.  So, there is no discharge of process water.

Effluent water from the City’s waste water treatment plant will be used for operating the boiler and the cooling system.  These sources will be discharged from the plant back to Oak Creek and the Republican River so they can replenish those aquifers.  Water from the Dakota formation will end up in the Republican River in greater quantities than the City currently draws.  There is a Win-Win.

The other Win-Win for Everton and the City is, as I mentioned above, the water rights.  Once Everton finds and perfects the water resources, they will give the water rights to the City of Concordia.  Another DWR point of concern is that they prefer that a unit of local government be the water provider to the plant.  With Everton providing the water rights to the City, they will not be in the water business.  This gives DWR another point of comfort.

The last point to cover today is what the City gets from this relationship.  I have urged the Commission and CloudCorp to consider when we provide either water or sewer service outside the city limits, we would have as part of our development agreement provisions for annexation.  Our agreements thus far include willingness to annex the project in exchange for providing utility service to the plant. This is significant to the future of City tax policy.  The current property will be added as commercial value and not as agriculture as it currently is valued.  I haven’t tried doing a cost/benefit study yet but I see a general picture looking positive.  Again, Everton finding and supplying the water resources to the City, the City selling that water (and effluent water) to Everton and property tax gains on the project’s Assessed Value.

As we wait for the results of the water investigation, we see the possibility of benefits to both Everton and the City of Concordia.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

What's that have to do with the price of tea in China?

Several weeks ago, I attended an Economic Development Conference sponsored by the Kansas Bankers Association.  The noon speaker was the President of Kansas State University.  He spoke of the awards students were winning.  They were not sports awards – Academic Awards.  He was reporting on the most recent award winner.  She was a Kansas native that won one of the six most prestigious academic awards in the United States.  He went on to tell that K-State leads the nation in Public University awards of these six.  Private universities have more but K-State leads everyone else.

The week before, I was listening to Concordia High School Counselor Larry Laas, speak about the academic success of students in Concordia.  I asked him to look up the records they had at school.  Here is his email:

“I looked in my files and found that records began to be kept in 1966.  Since that time, Concordia has been fortunate to have 31 National Merit finalists and 45 National Merit Commended Students.  In just the last 12 years, we have had 12 National Merit Finalist and 11 National Merit Commended Students.  Very impressive for a school our size!”

As my mother used to say, “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?”

Well, as we recruit businesses to Concordia, as we are now, being able to point to the success of students in the classroom is a key point of interest to owners and families of folks who will come with those businesses.

We are doing something right in our schools.  Academics is the primary mission of schools.  We should take our hats off to the work our USD 333 staff is doing.