Agenda - Public Works Committee - 04/19/2005

Home

P.W. CASE SUMMARY FOR 2004-2005 SNOW REMOVAL SEASON By: Grant Riemer, Public Works Supervisor Background: This case is meant to be a brief review of thc 2004-2005 snow removal season. The snow removal season consisted of 4 major plowing events and 20 minor events.- Major events consist of' calling in a full crew, plus part time staff. Minor events normally consist of sanding intersections, plowing/sanding main routes, drift control, etc .... Our first full scale plowing operation was on 1/13/05. This winter we lost our oldest piece of snow fighting equipment to mechanical failure. Duc to the cost of the repair and the age of the equipment (1972 motor grader) we decided to retire the equipment instead of repairing it. We will be looking at some type of equipment rental agreement, possibly for the coming season, and eventual replacement in the near future. Overall our snow removal fleet is in good shape. For the upcoming year we will continue to analyze our equipment needs and make budget requests for new equipment we feel we will need to maintain our goal of an 8 hour plowing event for a 2-4 inch snowfall. The following table represents some general statistics regarding our plowing operation: 98-99 99-00 .00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 Full scale operation 10 N/A 11 11 3 11 4 Minor operations N/A N/A 17 29 12 14 20 Salt amounts 154 290 480 510 200 500 750 Salt/Sand amounts 1400 1200 1500 1350' 300 1100 500 Complaints- total 67 N/A 137 87 14 64 22 Sod damage 18 N/A 37 38 1 35 3 Mailbox damage 7 N/A 10 7 1 12 4 Misc. 42 N/A 90 42 12 15 16 The overall scope of our operation continues to change. Continued development and growth in our City will place more demand on our staff and equipment. Ramsey Town Center will bring with it the challenges of parking ramps, contract hauling, snow removal operations instead of a snowplowing operation and the coordination of everyone in the area to accomplish the task of clearing a downtown area. as quickly and economically as possible. Sidewalk maintenance is another area that is expanding quickly. We currently plow the school walking area on the same priority as our streets, with the rest of the sidewalks done 1-2 days after the streets are cleared. Demand is increasing to accomplish system wide clearing of sidewalks at the same priority level as our streets. Public demand that the skating, rinks be cleared the day of the storm is also 1