7. PRSR 05 12 2004Item # 7.
MEMORANDUM
TO: Park and Recreation Commission
FROM: Phil Hals, Street & Parks Superintendent
DATE: May 12, 2004
SUBJECT: 2004 Annual Report
Attachment
2004 Street/Park Department Annual Report
I will be in attendance at the Wednesday, May 12~h Park and Recreation Commission meeting
to review highlights of the 2004 Street/Park Department Annual Report and to answer any
questions the Cortutussion may have.
If you have any questions prior to the meeting, please contact me at 763/635-1120.
S~r~E~t"~PAR~ ~fPARTPIENT
MISSION STATEMENT:
It is the mission of the StreedPark Department to provide prompt and courteous services to
area residents in a financially responsible manner. In doing so, we strive to be safety conscious,
creative, helpful, ambitious, and understanding as we do whatever tasks are laid before us.
YEAR IN REVIEW
STREET PROTECTS COMPLETED
Se01 CactinP
The annual seal coating for 2003 included the following developments: Hillside Estates 5ch
Addition, Ridgewood Hills, Pheasant Run, Sunset Ridge, Oak Hills I"Addition, 197`"/198`"
Avenue between Highway 169, and Tyler Street. Pearson Brothers Company of Maple Grove
was the contractor for the project.
Bituminous Patches and Overlay
The following developments had areas that were patched with paver-laid overlays by Universal
Paving Company (formally Elk River Bituminous, Inc.): Brentwood, Meadowvale, Ridgewood
East, Deerfield I & II, Fairhaven Hills, and Heavenly Hills. The Street Department prepared the
sites for the contractor making their operation more efficient and thus lowering the overall
cost.
Drainage Projects
The roadside ditch along Yankton Street, from 187'" Avenue east 250 feet, was cleaned and a
culvert installed under 187d' Avenue. The retention ponds along Railroad Drive west of Main
Street and at Highland and Jackson, were cleaned. Forty-three storm sewer outfalls and about
200 catch basins were inspected as part of the NPDES program.
Crac~lling
The streets that are scheduled for sealcoating in 2004 were crackfilled in October of 2003.
These streets include: Gates/Freeport from Main Street to Jackson, East Main Street, and Evans
from 193`" to 197'".
Miscellaneous Jobs
• C~ Hall/Public Safety Building StreetlPark Department staff delivered about 7,500
cubic yards of sand fill far the excavating contractor at the City Hall/Public Safety
building site.
• City Hall Move: StreeUPark Department staff assisted with the move from old City Hall
to the temporary quarters in the Utilities office. Staff also did extensive salvage in the
old City Hall before the contract demolition.
• Street Department crews replaced bituminous curbing along 225`h Avenue from
Highway 169 easterly for 500 feet, along with 202nd and Ulysses in Knollwood.
• A contractor installed a fire protection sprinkler system in the street garage and a 6"
water main to supply the water.
• Street Department crews hauled 250 loads of dirt to stockpile at the street garage from
the 4`" Street project.
PARK PROTECTS COMPLETED
HiEhlands West Park
StreetlPark and Planning Department personnel installed playground equipment, drainage,
cushion material, and site grading. Contractors installed the concrete perimeter curbing and the
bituminous parking pad.
Lions Park
• Skate park-Contractor dug out the peat for the skate park area. Street/Park
Department staff hauled away about 5,300 cubic yards of poor soil, hauled in about
6,000 cubic yards of granular fill, compacted the site and fine graded it for the concrete
pad. The sledding hill was re-graded in the process.
• Trail Lighting-StreetJPark Department staff refurbished 33 recycled streetlights from
Orono Parkway and mounted them to "floating" bases that were manufactured by
Cretex of Elk River. Staff also worked with the installing electrical contractor, helping to
bury conduit, and pull wire.
• Hockey Rink Lights-City staff assembled new light heads on recycled light poles from
City Hall. Staff dug, formed, and poured the concrete bases and with the help of the
Utilities crew, set the poles so the electrical contractor could wire them.
Lions Park Center
• Parking Lot Lights-City staff dug the base mount holes and poured the concrete for 5
light poles for the parking lot at Lions Park Center, also assisting in assembling, erecting,
and wiring the lights.
• Patio-City staff installed conduits for future power and water, dug out poor quality soils,
and fine graded the site before the contractor poured the concrete pad.
Youth Athletic Complex
• Concession Stand-City staff dug the footings and backfilled the foundation. A contractor
did the building construction
• Fields #5 & #6-City staff established the outfield turf and installed the aglime infield
while a contractor constructed the fencing and backstops.
Baldwin Park
City staff built a scaled down BMX bike track.
Trott Brook Barn
StreetlPark and Planning Department personnel hung sheet rock and wood paneling. A
contractor re-sided the exterior.
Picnic Tables
City staff built and painted 20 new picnic tables that were placed at Lions Park Center.
RECYCLING
In April each year, the StreeUPark Department hosts a City Clean-up Day that has been very
successful. This effort is coordinated by the Building and Environmental Department and is
staffed by city workers and volunteers. Contractors collect and recycle appliances and tires.
Furniture that is serviceable is collected by Goodwill and the unserviceable furniture is
collected by local trash haulers and taken to the RDF Plant. City workers collect and process
the scrap metal and batteries before selling them to local scrap metal dealers.
Our largest commitment to recycling is the brush and lawn waste drop off facility. In 2003, we
spent 546 hours for equipment and labor to process, haul, and compost the material collected.
This facility is very popular with the residents, but it requires a great deal more department
time than I ever imagined. We transported approximately 5,000 c.y. of compost material or
approximately 420 loads.
In 2003 our used oil/oil filters and anti-freeze recycling public drop off collected 4,410 gallons of
used oil, which was recycled through OSI, and 520 gallons of anti-freeze was collected and
stored. We crushed and recycled approximately 1,330 oil filters. Once processed, the oil filters
then fit into three 55 gallon containers that were recycled through OSI.
In addition, we recycled 455 lbs. of latex paint and 225 lbs. of oil based paint at the Tri-County
Solid Waste facility in St. Cloud.
BUILDING MAINTENANCE
Gary Lore made the transition from Maintenance I, StreetlPark employee to Building
Maintenance Supervisor. This change coincided with the construction of the new Public Safety
Building and the remodeling of City Hall. The timing for this change was excellent, because it
has given Gary the opportunity to work with the installers and programmers of the various
building systems as they came online.
The Building Maintenance Department will continue to develop as the city builds larger and
more complex buildings. The building cleaning has been done by a local contract cleaner.
2004 GOALS
Eq~ment: Maintain updated, reliable, and adequate equipment.
Task:
Review spending policy for annual equipment purchases. Move from 20 to I S
year replacement schedule for plow trucks.
20+Years 15.19 10.14 5-9 YearsO-4 Years
Years Years
There are two major factors putting pressure on our equipment purchase
projections. First, the growth that the city is experiencing makes it necessary to
add another snowplow route every time we add a new truck, making it
impossible to retire a plow truck. Therefore, even our oldest plow trucks are
the front line units. The second factor is that of a fleet of 10 trucks, 6 were
purchased used with the idea that we could plow more snow with 2 used trucks
than one new one. The only flaw in that rationale is that you only get half of the
service years. We have projected a 20-year life span for plow trucks and we
should move towards a 15-year replacement schedule. At present, we have one
front line truck that is 23 years old, two that are 20 years old and one that is 19
years old. Add to this replacement schedule, 3 trucks that are 17 years old, 2
sweepers with an average age of 20 years and a 26-year-old grader, and the
problem becomes evident. My suggestion is to "double purchase" plow trucks
for at least 6 years so that we can begin to retire at least 2 of our oldest trucks
and still keep up with the city's growth.
Please refer to the statistics page for the ten-year equipment purchase projections. The chart
below is illustrative of the years of service for our present fleet of plow trucks.
Number of Trucks
~ ai~i ~{ .i..~.: r 7 1 ~ ~ oil ° y({: ~~i 3 tt ' .
~ i~ ~ 4 ~
4,,tt >~'~~„i°3 '' i ~E6~W ~
3 ~ ti ' ~ ~ }~ ~: dive 1!iy(s s 7t r `~ '3x tt;iiI 3 ~. It ~ r
` ~" ®#of Trucks
1 ~ ~
0
Years In Service
Informal City Survey of Plow Truck Replacement
City of Eagan 12 Years
Coon Rapids 10 Years
Anoka 10 Years
Shakopee I 0 Years
Andover 10-12 Years
Employee: Maintain an adequate workforce.
Tasks:
• Hire one new maintenance worker to assume the snowplow route that is vacant,
because of park maintenance department transfers.
• Hire one additional maintenance worker to provide one new plow route for new plats.
• Start a formal in-house heavy equipment operator training program.
Building Maintenance: Maintain city buildings so that they are economical to
operate, functional and pleasant for the occupants.
Tasks:
Hire a building maintenance assistant who is capable of operating all building systems.
Hire city employees for building cleaners and phase out the contract cleaners.
Equipment Services: Maintain city equipment and vehicles to the highest standards
so as to maximize their useful life in a cost effective manner.
Task:
• Set up as many units as possible to extend their primary use and where possible have a
secondary use before the City disposes of them.
Street: Maintenance of street and storm water infrastructure to a high level of
serviceability in a cost effective manner.
Tasks:
• Concentrate street maintenance activities where monies spent will be most effective in
extending pavement serviceability, such as seal coating, crackfilling, cold-mill patches and
radiant patches.
• Expand in house maintenance for such items as traffic signal maintenance.
• Add GPS equipment to accurately locate storm water catch basins and out flows for the
NPDES data collection.
• Repair storm water drainage system as needed to satisfy NPDES inspection criteria.
• Update the Street Department facility by building an equipment storage building, cold
storage building, and a salt storage building.
• Expand our compost facility for material drop off and pick up. Purchase the processing
equipment needed to produce higher quality compost more efficiently.
• Create amailbox-grouping program for cul-de-sacs to improve plow ability.
• Add traffic signals on School Street at Lions Park Drive and the high school parking lot
to improve traffic flow and eliminate the need for a police employee to direct traffic
daily.
Composting: Reduce landfill volumes and produce a usable recycled product that
could be partially self sustaining financially.
Tasks:
Locate our composting facility on a parcel of land that is large enough to do windrow
recycling of grass, leaves, and brush chips.
Purchase a windrow turner to shorten the turn around time from grass clippings to
good quality compost.
Purchase a screening plant process and screen compost so that it is a product that can
be sold to the public, using incoming funds to offset production costs.
Snowplowing Evaluate our Snowplowing Program
This Siar News survey (as recreated above) indicates a serious difference in perception. We, at
the Street Department, think that our snowplowing service is above average, but 45% of those
responding gave less than complimentary remarks. We log all complaints received at the Street
Department and the following is a breakdown of the 54 complaints received for the 2003-2004
season:
• Sod Damage-17
• Mailbox Damage-8
• Sanding Calls-6
• Plowing/Service Concerns-19
• Wrongfurisdiction-4
I would like to implement any changes that I can to make our snowplowing operation as
effective and efficient as possible.
STATISTICS
TEN-YEAR EQUIPMENT PURCHASE PROJECTIONS
2004
2005
Single Axle Dump Truck w/ Plow Equip. $ 135,000
Sidewalk Plow 50,000
Mini Backhoe 25.000
$210,000
Sweeper $175,000
Truck w/ Plow Equipment 150,000
Radiant Patcher 20,000
* Windrow Turner 100.000
$445,000
2006
Dump Truck w/ Plow Equip. $ 150,000
Dump Truck w/ Plow Equip. 150,000
Building Roof Replacement 50,000
* Screen Plant 140.000
$490,000
2007
Dump Truck w/ Plow Equip. $160,000
Dump Truck w/ Plow Equip. 160,000
Pick up Truck 27,000
I Ton Dump or Stake Truck 50,000
Skid Steer 30.000
$427,000
2008
Front End Loader $175,000
Grader Trade 150,000
Loader Mounted Snowblower 100,000
Unspecified Small Equipment 10.000
$435,000
2009
Dump Truck w/ Plow Equip. $200,000
Dump Truck w/ Plow Equip. 200,000
Pick up Truck 30,000
Unspecified Small Equipment 10.000
$490,000
2010
2011
2012
2013
Dump Truck w/ Plow Equip. $210,000
Sweeper 210,000
Bucket Truck 50.000
$470,000
Dump Truck w/ Plow Equip. $220,000
One Ton Dump Truck 70,000
Skid Loader 35,000
Unspecified Small Equipment 10.000
$335,000
Dump Truck w/Plow Equip. $225,000
Roadside Mower 75,000
Unspecified Small Equipment 10.000
$3 10,000
Front End Loader $200,000
Pickup Truck 35.000
$235,000
* Purchased with landfill abatement funds