SUBJECT/RECOMMENDATION:
Title
Approve policy and procedural guidance for staff to operate the variable lighting of the Clearwater Monument, located at 3350 Gulf to Bay Boulevard, Clearwater, FL 33759, and approve funds in the amount of $25,000 to provide remote controls for the lighting display.
Body
SUMMARY:
The City Council requested that staff develop a policy and procedural guidance for the operation of the variable lighting system on the Clearwater Monument, located at 3350 Gulf to Bay Boulevard.
Staff has developed this new policy and procedural guidelines which include the following:
● The Monument shall be lit on a nightly basis, commencing two hours prior to sundown and lasting until two hours after sunrise. The colors of the Monument shall remain as static shades of blue and green as dictated by the City’s logo and branding campaign.
● Staff members of the Parks & Recreation department shall be responsible for programming changes to the Monument colors. All maintenance requests and repairs will be handled by Parks & Recreation staff and appropriate contractors.
● On occasion, the Monument lighting shall be altered to the colors of red, white, and blue to coincide with patriotic Federal holidays. The change in colors shall take effect no more than two days before the holiday and shall cease no more than two days after the holiday. These holidays are as follows:
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Presidents Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day
Currently, in order to change the lighting display at the Monument, it must be altered on site from the Monument internal control panel. Staff is recommending that a project be established to connect the Monument through fiber optic cabling to the city network, thus allowing staff to make changes from any city-networked computer.
APPROPRIATION CODE AND AMOUNT:
A third quarter budget amendment will provide a transfer of $25,000 from General Fund reserves to capital improvement project 315-92844, Centennial Monument, to fund this contract.
At midyear, unspent project funding of $32,236.36 was returned to the General Fund (reserve) from capital program project 315-92844, Centennial Monument due to completion of the construction. This amendment at third quarter will return funds to that project to account for this unplanned expenditure.
USE OF RESERVE FUNDS:
Funding for this contract will be provided by a third quarter budget amendment allocating General Fund reserves in the amount of $25,000 to capital improvement project 315-92844, Centennial Monument. Inclusive of this item if approved, a net total of $2,354,880 of General Fund reserves has been appropriated by Council to fund expenditures in the 2015/16 operating budget. The remaining balance in General Fund reserves is approximately $29.4, or 23.6% of the current General Fund operating budget.