Agenda - Public Works Committee - 04/19/2011

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Public Works Committee Date: 04/19/2011 By: Grant Riemer Engineering/Public Works Information Title: Summary of Snow Removal Activities for 2010-2011 Season Item #: 5. 3. Background: Just to refresh everyones memory on the scope of our snow removal operations the Public Works department is responsible for clearing snow and ice from the following areas: 400 lane miles of road 253 cul-de-sacs and short dead end roads 39 miles of trails and sidewalks 2 fire stations City hall parking lots and ramp 4 hockey rinks and 3 pleasure skating rinks 3 water tower sites and 3 pumphouse locations Miscellaneous parking lots in the park system. Notification: Observations: As everyone is well aware the 2010-2011 snow season has been a long one. As of March 31 we are at 84.7 inches of snow this season with our average being 55.9 inches. Our first full scale plow invent was November 13th and the last was March 23rd. This season we had 16 full scale plowing events and 11 minor events. To use last year for a comparison, we had 8 full scale plowing events and 20 minor events. Minor events are when the street department can handle the snow or ice without calling other departments for help. Salt use was up about 13% over last year as well. We started the year with approximately 500 tons in our shed, but with 7 full scale and 2 minor plowing events in November and December we were out of salt rather quickly. The Council was asked to authorize the purchase of 600 tons of additional salt to get us through to the first of the year. In all we have used 1600 tons of salt, 300 tons of sand/salt mixture and about 30 tons of granite chips this season. On the financial side of the season, we were over budget for 2010 by 3% or $8100.00. We were fortunate to get an early spring and did not plow at all in March of 2010. As it stands right know we are at 59% of 2011 budget. The overage in the budget can mainly be contributed to timing of the storms. 9 major events/2 minor events were on weekends or holidays. Plowing complaints were as follows: Mailbox damage-25 Sod damage-22 Misc-33 (Misc includes such things as cul-de-sac not plowed, recycling bin tipped over, snow at the end of my driveway, snow in front of fire hydrant, snow placement in cul-de-sac, etc....) The equipment held up well this season with only one major hydraulic hose repair that needed to be farmed out. All other repairs were completed in house. Those repairs included replacing frame bolts on two rear mount wings, some fabrication work on smaller plows, misc electrical and hydraulic repairs, etc....