Standard Drain

The city has a set of standards it provides to engineers designing capital improvement in the City. The street and drainage improvements are usually combine with the water and sanitary sewer improvements to result in minimal pavement replacements. The specific purpose is to provide information required to prepare construction plans for the City’s capital projects. The design standards cannot separate street design from the drainage design because the street is a significant part of the drainage system.

The closed underground drainage system of a street is generally designed to a storm frequency based on rainfall intensity and flow concentration. The design varies based on peak runoff conditions and infrastructure type being built, but ultimately the goal is for the total right of way to be designed to handle the 100 year storm. The design of the street should have the edge of the right of way below the first floor elevation of the buildings along the street. The sidewalk and tree lawn should have a grade that runs towards the street. The curb allows the flow off the tree lawn and into the gutters which deliver the water to the closed underground system. The street pavement is also designed to move the water to the gutter and to the closed underground system. If the storm intensity and concentration exceeds the closed underground system, the right of way, the area from property line to property line will hold up to sixteen inches of water at the streets low point.

The design generally has an overland swale in the low area that will deliver water exceeding the right of way capacity to an open drainage system. The open systems in the City are generally detention ponds, ditches, the creek or lake.

Leadership and Culture

The constant shifting on leadership philosophies has brought us to servant leadership. With people changing their leadership styles every couple of years we become nothing more than dust in the wind. So, is servant leadership a significant change from existing leadership styles or just a slight modification?

Participatory leadership is a style of management where decisions are made with the most feasible amount of participation from those who are affected by the decisions. Participative leadership, as servant-leadership, incorporates the leader’s ability to “include, discuss, take ideas, look for ways to help people come on board, and celebrate every success that comes along”

Good leaders carry qualities of the servant leader, the ethical leader, and the situational leader. Servant leaders place more focus on personal and professional development of the stakeholders and followers. This quality is an important element in situational and ethical leaders as well. The highest value of servant leadership has to be the culture established within the organization.

An effective situational leader adjusts to the leadership demands of the situation and then hopefully a culture of people looking out for other people will be ready to step up when they are needed and most importantly, take responsibility for their actions. “A good leader develops the competence and commitment of their people so they’re self motivated rather than dependant on others for direction and guidance” ” (Hersey, p.91).