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09.d Staff Report-PW Staff Report Date of Meeting: 6/21/2022 For: Honorable Mayor and Council From: Charles Fischer – Director of Public Works Subject: Staff Report Roads/ROW: Public Works staff have continued pot hole repair this month and nearing a completion of pothole repair. The next road repairs will start with patch repairs where larger pot holes will be cut out and full depth asphalt replacement will take place. Multiple roads in the City have these necessary repairs and will continue throughout the year. Shoulder mowing has been completed on all roads, other than a select few which are mowed after all other roads are complete, north of Hwy 97. Staff is only mowing the first five to six feet of vegetation and utilizing the boom mower to cut down small bushes and sapling trees in the remaining five to 10 feet of the ROW and at intersection where visibility is reduced due to vegetative growth. Shoulder mowing of roads south of Hwy 97 will begin the week of June 27th. Shouldering work has also been completed for washouts which happened during an early spring rain event. Further shouldering work will be completed later in the season after the second round of ROW mowing before winter. Continued heavy rain events has caused soft ground conditions in the heavily forested sections of the City’s ROW and strong winds have blown down weaker rooted trees. Public Works has continued tree removals in the ROW and required the used of a rented piece of equipment to replace the loader we normally use for tree removal. The rental was required due to the loader having a leak int the hydraulic tank which has been determined to likely be a manufacturing error. Sewer/Water: On June 7th at 4:30pm Public Works was notified that the well pump which serves the Community Center, Warming House, Elim Church and Gammelgarden had failed. That evening Public Works contacted multiple well repair contractors and only one was able to respond immediately to the call. Rivers Edge Plumbing and Well Drilling was able to meet Public Works on site to diagnose the failure and plan a pump replacement. The failure was found in the pump motor windings, which is a typical failure point. While pulling the pump Public Works and the well service inspected the drop pipe, which carries water up the well, and found multiple pits and holes in the threaded connection fittings. It was deemed necessary to replace all twelve sections of pipe. The replacement of the pipe was the majority cost of repair to the well. The new pipe, pump motor, and power cable were re-installed by Wednesday evening and at that time the water was treated for any contamination and left to rest until Thursday morning. Thursday morning, water pressure was restored to all of the buildings. After pressure was restored to each building Public Works flushed each service for a minimum of 4 hours and each building was able to use the water for restroom use only. The Minnesota Department of Health arrived Friday morning to take samples of the water for the detection of any biological contamination. On June 12th, Public Works was notified by the MDH that the water was safe for drinking and food preparation and each user of the system was notified. Sewer system flow has leveled off since the Spring snow melt. Each system is operating within permit limits. One control panel failed to engage a lift pump in the Bliss neighborhood and Smilies Sewer Service pumped two tanks for added capacity while the control panel was under repair. Two tanks were required to be pumped as the pump station is shared by two properties. The electrician was able to repair the control panel and normal operation of the control panel and pump has been restored. One resident currently not connected to the AE system, but within the service boundary, has been permitted for a new connection. The need for connection to the system is due to the failure of the private system within the property. Public Works will be monitoring the connection closely for proper installation of the tanks, pump control, and pump to match existing services within the system. Parks: Summer seasonal, John, has been very busy keeping up with the mowing of the parks, building grounds, and drain fields. The spring rains have continued to keep the grass healthy and growing rapidly and once a week or more mowing per site has been required. String trimming has fallen behind but with the excessive heat we should be able to catch up within a week. Public Works graded the ballpark infields to reduce the weed growth and promote better drainage of the infields to reduce standing water. An weed control product was applied to manage the remaining deeply rooted vegetation. Public Works has focused more attention to a two-month long field rental at Wayne Erickson Memorial field. The team has been and will be using the field on Mondays and Wednesdays during June and July. Public Works has added maintenance of dragging and painting the foul lines at the field on the days of the rental. During one of the games the team reported one of the banks of lights in the outfield was not turning on. Public Works has had an electrician inspect the control components for the lights and a complete prewired control panel has been ordered for the six lights on the pole. This will help save labor costs during the replacement. There is a scheduled softball tournament at Wayne Erickson Memorial Field between June 24 th and 26th. Public Works staff will be completing additional maintenance to the field prior to the event as well. Landscape beds are in need of clean up and mulching. Public Works has had this maintenance on the schedule since the beginning of Spring but fallen tree clean up and road maintenance needs were compounded this year because of the harsh winter weather and strong spring storms. Last season our second summer seasonal was able to keep up with the landscaping and did not require the use of full-time staff. Full-time staff will be assigned this task this year. Our summer seasonal is currently on a two week break to manage the minimal 67-day work policy for seasonal employees. By creating this time off he will be able to work up until his return to college in the fall. Full-time staff will be utilized to manage the summer seasonal work load. Public Works was approached by a Scandia resident , inquiring if there is the possibility of volunteering to mow parks and grounds utilizing the City mower. Public Works contacted LMCIT and discussed if there would be any liability issues having a volunteer use City equipment on City grounds. The LMCIT liability attorney explained that the volunteer would be covered at a different fiscal level if injury were to occur under workers compensation. Also, no additional liability is incurred having a volunteer perform work for the City. Training the volunteer will be mandatory just as a regular employee would be required for the machine which will be used.. Equipment: The Public Works John Deere 324L Loader has been out of service for four weeks due to the failure of welds in the hydraulic fluid holding tank. An initial leak was detected two months ago and at that time a repair weld was competed. At that time Public Works was in contact with the original vendor where the purchase of the loader was made and found that although only two years old the loader was no longer under warranty. Public Works then sought the assistance of vendors who could order and install a new tank and have it done in a timely manner. During that time a second leak developed and the loader was taken out of service until the replacement could be made. Unfortunately, the loader is assembled oversees and the replacement tank as well. The delivery of the new tank has taken over 4 weeks to arrive. If schedules stay on course the repair should be completed on June 20th, 2022. The main issue caused by taking the loader out of service was the inability to efficiently remove fallen trees during the heavy wind storms we have been receiving. Public Works rented a mini- excavator for one week to speed up the clean up of fallen trees in the ROW. The Public Works skid loader was used as well but sparingly due to the damage it creates in the ROW ditch and road surface while turning. The mini-excavator eliminated follow up repairs to the roads and ROW.