Last week’s program was provided by Rotarian Tatyana Austin. 
Tatyana’s guest speaker was City of Plant City Engineer, Michael
Schenk.  Mr. Schenk spoke to club about the pavement and sidewalk
management plan for Plant City.  Michael Schenk is a graduate of
the University of South Florida and came to the City of Plant City
Engineering department in 2015.  He has over 37 years of engineering
experience.  The city and county work together to finance projects.
  The recent millage increase in Plant City is only for resurfacing projects
in Plant City.  The City has contracted with an engineering firm for
pavement management service.  Mainly data collection for pavement
conditions.  This data will give the city the information it needs to better
plan and budget for the future.  There are 160 miles of streets and 7 miles
of brick streets that the City is responsible for.  In addition to the data
collection for street repairs, sidewalk information will also be collected.
  The asset data collection for ADA compliance ramps and other pavement
conditions will be in a PAVER database for continuous monitoring and
condition reporting.  Analysis is a very important tool in defining ranking
for repairs and what repair strategies should be used.  The engineering firm
will also train city staff for the future to ensure the success of the program.
  The budget for resurfacing and sidewalk repair is $3 million with $2
million coming from the 1 mil tax increase and $1 million from the city
taxes.  The amount of money that is available will determine what streets
to repair.             -submitted by Mike Arndt