New mayor moves ahead with goals

Thursday, January 24, 2008

In one of her first public addresses since taking office Jan. 1, Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray told members of the Kiwanis Club Thursday that she has spent much of her first 23 days getting acquainted with her surroundings and making plans for the future of the city.

She said she is continuing to meet with city employees in an effort to become familiar with how things are run and to aid as she formulates the goals of her administration.

"It's been time consuming, but I think it's important," she said.

As she continues with those meetings, Murray says she will ask her employees to set goals for the year ahead -- something she believes is important to running the city efficiently.

In matters of efficiency, Murray announced that she is making an effort to make city hall, and the city at large, more energy efficient by replacing traditional lightbulbs with more environmentally-friendly ones. She said she recently inquired with Duke Energy about making the street lights in the city more energy efficient, but the technology is not yet available.

Also Murray said she would like to see the city's fleet of vehicles become more fuel-efficient in the future.

Efficiency was also the reason Murray approached the Board of Works last week with her idea to combine the jobs of the water superintendent and the sewage superintendent. The board voted to make current sewer Supt. George Russell the new "utility supervisor."

Other matters the mayor touched on during her speech included:

* Revamping the city website. Mayor Murray said she wanted to complete the effort that was begun a couple of years ago by making the website more interactive and attractive to users. She did not say how she plans to do that.

* Meeting with INDOT concerning the South Street extension. The mayor said there are grants available that would help the city pay to extend South Street to the west to connect with U.S. 231. The extension is meant to relieve some of he congestion on the existing east-west corridors in the city.

* Continuing plans for a Downtown Development District. Murray hopes to initiate a committee of downtown business owners and city officials to look at making improvement to the downtown business district, including increasing funding for the area.

* Continuing to encourage the construction of Ivy Tech's new Greencastle campus. She met with Ivy Tech Region 7 Chancellor Jeff Pittman Thursday afternoon concerning the project.

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  • Congratulations to Mayor Murray for prioritizing energy efficiency from the beginning of her administration. This will save Greencastle significant money over the long run and reduce our carbon footprint. Global warming presents a frightening future for our kids; we owe it to them to take steps like this.

    Duke Energy must be kidding when they say the technology isn't available to put in more efficient street lights. This has been done in lots of communities. Sounds like they are not cooperating with the city's energy efficiency efforts out of self interest. Too bad we don't have any other electricity provider to choose from!

    -- Posted by afjje1 on Fri, Jan 25, 2008, at 9:42 AM
  • For the mayor - it is absolutely amazing that Duke Energy would make such a statement. If you google to "Energy Efficient Street Lighting" you will find several references to this subject. One that is especially appropriate is the following:

    http://www.rpi.edu/dept/lrc/nystreet/

    if you go to this link it contains How-to-Guides for Municipal Officials, Planners/Engineers and a Case Study. This is too simple to just say DUKE ENERGY says the technology is not here yet. DO NOT GIVE UP SO EASILY.

    -- Posted by visionpub on Fri, Jan 25, 2008, at 2:33 PM
  • afjje1: Exactly what cities? Exactly what type of lights? Yes there are some choices but fluorescent is effected but cold weather, LED limits the lighted area.One big issue who will pay for a change out of street lights? The typical street light or yesterday was 175 watt and not they are 100 watt same lumens so Duke has taken action. However afjje1 if you actually have some information on energy saving, non mercury, optimum temperature ranging, and designed for use with photocontrols and if you can find the money to do all this call either the new Mayor or Duke Energy. I'm sure they will appreciate your help if you can really deliver.

    -- Posted by Trying hard on Sun, Jan 27, 2008, at 10:08 AM
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