Mayor Graham Richard today visited the City'€™s Water Maintenance Department to mark the completion of the $11 million automatic meter reading (AMR) project.

STAR Financial Bank, the City'€™s contractor for City Utilities billing operations, is offering free City Utilities services for one year to select City Utilities customers.

Customers that currently receive their Utility bill online or customers that want to begin receiving their Utility bill

Mayor Graham Richard today announced his support for the creation of a Regional Marketing Partnership for economic development. Mayor Richard made the announcement during his Report to the People speech at the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce.

City Street Department crews today finished the leaf pickup program for 2005. All three sections of the City have had three rounds of leaf pickup. Crews collected 18,000 tons of leaves.

Street Department crews will now focus on snow and ice removal.

The Sewer Advisory Group will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, February 1. The meeting will be held in the Utility Administration Conference Room 280 of the City-County Building.

City Utilities staff members will present updates on the City'€™s Combined Sewer Capacity Improvements Program and Water

Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard will be a featured speaker at two national conferences in Washington, D.C. later this week.

Mayor Graham Richard today was joined by the “Mayor'€™s Money in Your Pocket” partners to announce plans for the 2006 Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program, which runs January 28-April 13.

The program will kickoff with a “Super Saturday” event from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, January 28 at the Wayne

City Street Department leaf pickup crews have finished the final pickup in the North section of the City. Crews are collecting leaves in the Central section for the final pickup in that area. Once the Central area is complete, crews will move to the South section.

Mayor Graham Richard today was the guest speaker at the Downtown Rotary where he presented a preview of his 2006 Report to the People sessions.

Mayor Richard expressed his support for proposed legislation in the Indiana General Assembly that promotes more local control and flexibility for

Mayor Graham Richard today announced the schedule for the 2006 Report to the People sessions.

Each Report to the People session will feature a recap of accomplishments and a look ahead to new initiatives that the City will work on to improve services. All of the reports are open to the public and

The Indiana Court of Appeals today ruled the City of Fort Wayne can complete the acquisition of the former Southtown Mall site with no additional liability.

The former owners of Southtown Mall had appealed the local court'€™s award of damages following the City'€™s condemnation of the site. The

City Street Department crews are working on the final pickup in the North section. Crews plan to complete the North section next week and then will move to the Central and South sections for the final pickup in those areas.

The City of Fort Wayne has launched a “Downtown Experience” survey on its website, www.cityoffortwayne.org. The City is taking responses through January 16.

City Street Department crews have resumed the leaf pickup program. Crews are working in the South and North sections of the City.

The Street Department will continue to collect leaves as weather permits. Snow removal is the department'€™s top priority to keep streets accessible for emergency vehicles

Crews are continuing to deliver new City of Fort Wayne garbage containers to residents.

Crews were on schedule to complete the delivery of more than 80,000 carts before January 1 until snowfall in early December delayed delivery crews.

Residents, who have not received a cart, will have one

Fort Wayne City Utilities will change its customer service phone line and walk-in hours on January 3. The new hours for phone lines and walk-ins will be 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.

City employee Tom Cain'€™s home restoration efforts are featured in the upcoming January-February issue of Old-House Journal magazine. Old-House Journal is a lifestyle magazine with a national circulation of 300,000. The magazine, which has been published for 30 years, is marketed to old house

Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard will be the featured speaker at a Brookings Institution forum from noon-2 p.m. Wednesday, December 14 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

The City Street Department has suspended the Leaf Pickup program due to the recent and anticipated snow.

Mayor Graham Richard today announced the Holiday Cab program will begin Friday, December 16.