Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/13/2007

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the incredible response from our Streets Division, the streets were passable within hours of the storm. The Street Division was largely responsible for the debris clean-up offering an extension of service to City residents by traversing each mile of local and regional roads and clearing the debris from the entire Right of Way. The City's street system includes 161.1 miles of paved local and collector roads, 4.68 miles of dirt roads, 0.76 miles of concrete streets, and 39.5 miles of State and County controlled paved arterial highway corridors. The storm sewer utility system consists of pipes, ponds, and ditches that handle the runoff created by new and existing developments as well as our roadway system. Storm sewer maintenance is an 'ongoing process. Much of our efforts at the present time is reacting to problem areas as they appear and then working with engineering to implement long-term solutions to resolve these problems.' The public works campus continues to change both inside its buildings and the grounds outside. Last year, the Public Works Department received direction from the City Council to put only temporary structures in our Campus area and pursue the use of the land owned by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for another site. We subsequently moved forward with the construction of a salt storage area and internally completed an irrigation system for the entrance. Parks and Utilities Operations: 2006 saw a formal separation of duties between the Parks and Utilities divisions. Both departments continue to evolve in both activity and complexity within their respective responsibilities. Splitting the divisions allowed for the needed specialization of both disciplines. Parks: Parks personnel include a Parks Supervisor, Parks Lead Person, and six Public Works Maintenance Workers. Most years, seasonal employees and volunteers are also utilized extensively during high demand times of the year. Volunteer support resulted in a substantial number of landscaping improvements within our parks. Major areas of responsibilities include operational maintenance and development of the City's parks, buildings,' shelters, playgrounds, and trail systems. This includes turf and irrigation maintenance, athletic field preparation, trail maintenance, park equipment maintenance and repair, and other seasonal activities such as the ice skating rinks. Ramsey's parks and trail system includes 565 acres of municipal parkland distributed into 19 separate parks and over 30 miles of trails and sidewalks. Adding trail segments is an important planning task to network the entire trail system in Ramsey. One of the major accomplishments during the 2006 summer season was to complete the construction of a trail from Elmcrest Park to Alpine Drive utilizing our newly acquired trail paver. This effort was a joint effort with the Streets Division and resulted in 'savings' of more than . one-third of the $60,000 purchase price for the new paving equipment - on the very first trail project! Utilities: The Utilities staff includes one Supervisor and one Public Works maintenance worker. Seasonal employees are also utilized extensively during high demand times of the year. Major areas of responsibilities include operational maintenance of the City's 2006 Annual Report -10-