The holidays usually are a time for employees to take those last vacation days of the year, but Mentor staff appear to be busy as ever, based on some items in the Dec. 23 city manager’s report to City Council.

Some highlights include a plan for New Year’s Eve family fun on ice and a first-time event involving a swap of used sports equipment. For more, see below:

Economic and Community Development
• Approximately a dozen economic development brochures were sent out to members of the greater Cleveland brokerage community.

Engineering and Building Department
• The Single Family Rental Inspection Program is ready to begin its third year. In 2011, there were 182 inspections performed. Forty-four of these were first inspections on new rental properties; the remaining 138 inspections were done on properties that were initially inspected two years ago. Of all the inspections performed this year, 95 properties required a re-inspection for code violation citations. Since the Rental Inspection Program began in 2009, about 58 percent of the code violations cited are in the area of general property maintenance both interior and exterior (i.e. unlicensed vehicles, debris in yard, holes in drywall, etc.). An additional 25 percent of the violations are electrical in nature. The remainder of the violations, approximately 17 percent, relate to plumbing or fire code concerns. The code enforcement inspector for this program continues to seek out new rental properties and to notify property owners when their property is up for re-inspection.

Finance Department
• The city’s application was approved by the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation for the retrospective-rating plan for the 2012 policy year. The city began participating in the retro plan in 2005, and as a result, continues to save significant amounts on our workers’ compensation premiums.

Fire Department
• Fire Prevention is continuing to monitor the bars and retail businesses with a focus on fire lanes, occupancy loads and clear exits to ensure that holiday celebrations continue in a safe fashion.

Parks and Recreation Department
• Plans for New Year’s Eve? There is a special skate from 6 to 9 p.m. at Mentor Civic Arena. All three rinks will be open for skating and the city will provide music and prizes to go along with the skating.
• On Jan. 7, 2012, the Recreation Department will have its first “Recycle Sports Swap” at Mentor Beach Park starting at 9 a.m. Bring all those outgrown shoes, bats, gloves, sticks, balls, skis, etc. Purchase a table and sell or trade your gently worn sports equipment. Call and sign up for a table soon; there is limited space and tables are going quickly.

Police Department
• Officers located a runaway juvenile at Americas Best Value Inn, 8370 Broadmoor. The juvenile and three young adults were located in a rented room. The room contained numerous open and unopened beers, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. All of the occupants were cited for underage possession of alcohol, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. The juvenile was turned over to her father.

Public Works Department
• The Public Works Activity Highlights last week were: Continued to repair failing spots on SR 615 bridge with flexset; installed new drainage basin — Hopkins at Markwood; emptied and cleaned cracksealer; coldpatching throughout city; repaired damaged pole at US 20 and Old Johnnycake; repaired signal interconnect on SR 84; Two Town ditch cleaning — 90 percent complete with section adjacent to Chestnut Commons; located laterals for residents — Frederick, Sugarbush; storm sewer cleaning — Bellflower; installing 6-inch pipe along section of Washington; inlet basin repair — SR 306 @ I-90; ditch re-profiling — Clover; taking advantage of warm weather to clean planting beds; replaced drinking fountain at Garfield Park; painting restrooms and repairing floors at Civic Center; and providing snowplowing instruction and training to city hall employees.

-- Betsy Scott, BScott@News-Herald.com, @ReporterBetsy