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09.e Public Works-Staff Report Staff Report Date of Meeting: 8/19/2025 For: Mayor and City Council From: Charles Fischer – Director of Public Works Subject: PW - Staff Report Roads/ ROW Wood chips continue to be collected but at a much slower pace than earlier this season. The pile will be removed for the Taco Daze event and then will come back and be available through the fall. Public Works staff spent over two weeks clearing storm damaged trees whether fallen or hanging in the roadways from the July storm event. The yard behind the PW building filled up rapidly and overflow tree debris was diverted to the T-Ball parking lot. The pile will remain in place until this winter when we will need to grind the piles again, as we did last winter. Washington County was contacted to request City staff to haul storm damage debris to a County site, but this would have come at a potential future unknown cost for grinding the material. Due to the amount of tree and brush material collected so far and with tree trimming scheduled to begin late fall, we will need to grind our piles again this winter as they will be too large to sustainably burn. Weaker trees still continue to fall as we have had other significant rain and wind events since the major storm in July. Calcium Chloride application to the southern gravel roads continues to be pushed back as we have experienced rain events every week which has continually reduced dust issues. There may have been a few days in between rain events of minor dust but not of significant disturbance. There still may be a need for an application prior to fall when conditions normally dry out towards the beginning of September. Public Works attended the National Night Out event at the Community Center with equipment demonstration and staff to engage with the public attending the event. ROW mowing has also continued of the first 5-7 feet from the road. Due to the wet summer the vegetation has grown rapidly after the early summer mowing. Staff will transfer into mowing the full ROW starting on September 1st correspondingly to our City policy. With significant levels of staff time dedicated to the 150 miles of ROW, we have seen more residents beginning to maintain a lower grass height of the first 5-7 feet of ROW which has helped create safer sight lines throughout the City. Public Works thanks those taking the time helping improve the safety along our roadways. Parks Our seasonal staff member has been continuously busy mowing City properties, due to the wetter than average season, and maintaining the Wayne Erickson ballfield which has a higher number of rentals compared to previous years. Staff Report Date of Meeting: 8/19/2025 For: Mayor and City Council From: Charles Fischer – Director of Public Works Subject: PW - Staff Report Staff installed a heavy application of ground wood chips, to the Lilleskogen Trail, which still remain from the grinding process the previous winter. On average, a foot of chips has been applied to the entire trail system at Lilleskogen Park totaling over 500 yards of material. This was a three-day project which utilized all three full-time staff to complete. Public Works has continued working with Xcel to move the power from the old cold storage building to a new meter location in the turf area adjacent to the parking lot. All aspects of the installation have been finalized and we are now waiting on Xcel to send us a date to hook up the new meter. Sewer Tank pumping in the Bliss and Anderson Erickson systems will begin in September. The number of tanks to be pumped this season is around half of last year’s total. There have been no major issues to report other than the extended power outage in the neighborhood from the late July storm. Fortunately, when the power is out minimal influent waste stream is caught by the system as all the homes are on well systems which do not operate in a power outage. We are, however, seeing more and more properties installing whole-home generators which can continue providing a water source for fixtures in the home. In the future, as these whole-home systems increase in number we will need to evaluate the need to install permanent generators to run the four lift stations in the Bliss and one lift station in the Anderson Erickson system to keep up with influent flow. Upcoming Events The Community Fun Day (8/13) and Taco Daze (9/5-6) events will also keep Public Works staff busy assisting with set ups and adding additional maintenance items pre and post event. The flower pots will continue to be maintained up to the Taco Daze event and then will be left to dry out, reducing the weight, before removals the following week. The flags will come down after Veterans Day reducing wear and tear from the winter season.