All right, let's call the June 3rd uh workshop to order. Roll call, please. Council member Nordby, here. Council member Woods, here. Council member McKenzie, here. Council member Schweer, here. Mayor Mongi, here. Can I get a motion to adopt the agenda, please? So moved. So moved. Council member Schwar. Second. Second. Council member Mackenzie. All those in favor say I. I. I. Thank you. Topics. Thank you, Mayor. Uh we have one topic on the agenda for this evening. Um going to do a cleanup day recap and kind of just go over the day, look at uh ways we can improve the process. It's gotten pretty big now. It's really well attended. Um actually some safety concerns are being brought up due to how many people are coming and going and you know just the size of the yard that we have at the shop um to be able to collect everything in a safe manner. So we got the crew here this evening to kind of go over the details um and uh we'll probably bring some suggestions back at a later time but kind of go over what the issues are and get you guys' feedback on what you think could help out the situation as well. So, I'll turn it over to them. Sounds good. Welcome, gang. All right, I will kick us off here. Thank you for having us today to discuss the citywide cleanup event. As Brian mentioned, today we're going to discuss this year's event um and some sites as well and ultimately a request for direction. So, starting with the event purpose, the citywide cleanup event is one of North St. Paul's most popular annual events. The cleanup gives North St. Paul residents the opportunity to dispose of their unwanted junk or items for free at our public works facility. The citywide cleanup prioritizes recycling whenever possible to promote the city and county's goals of sustainable best practices. in this event. Typically, it takes place on the second Saturday in May. And we also included this list of accepted items so you have an idea of the kinds of things that we are accepting at our event. And as you can see, the list of accepted items is much larger than anything that we don't accept. Um, things like household hazardous waste cannot be accepted by the city. we have to refer them over to Roseville's environmental center um in addition to compost and wood waste and any business waste as well as this is for residents enrolled in our garbage program. All right, so I went over the last few years um to collect some of the data of items we collected. Um in this chart here you'll see some stars. Those are some data that we don't have available. Um, last year in 2024 is when we really started to keep tabs of everything, including the participation. And so the highlighted column there shows this year's totals. Um, this year we had 313 vehicles in line. Um, compared to last year's 284, that is a 10% increase in traffic there. Um, and just going down the line, e-waste, we collected 6,951 pounds of electronic waste. That includes cell phones, TVs, computers, and other accessories. Um, that is a 13% increase from last year. Um we are still waiting from our appliance hauler on the total number of appliances but based on the data trends we're expecting around a 10 to 20% increase in those as well. So we're expecting 100 20 to 130 appliances. Um tires we've collected most tires we ever have collected at 160. Um, mattresses we have collected 136. And trash loads. We have collected the most trash that we have ever collected at our event with 20 trash loads. And I think those are pretty large dumpsters that 30 yards 30 yards. All right. So, as you can see, our cleanup event is growing every single year, and it looks to continue to grow in years to come. And now I will turn this over to Ron and Randy to discuss the logistics. All right. How do Hey, how do you change this with the arrow? With the arrow. Yeah, it's just a little bit arrow button. This one. All right. Um so yeah, we'll just talk about um the the event and how we have it set up. Um give you just a little bit of history from the past uh events that we had last year. We changed the lineup a little bit. um or quite a bit to line up on Second Street. We normally that was a s a single file line that we normally have on Second Street, but because of how long the line got last year and across a lot of the cross cross streets in the area, um keeping people from budding in lines, um you know, having you know, just enough people to watch that kind of stuff. We never really knew each year this has grown. So each year we've adjusted how we thought we could probably manage the line better or have a better lineup and each year it has gone a way that we didn't even plan on um just because it's been growing so much each year. So for this year when we sat down and we had a debriefing after last year's event, uh we came up with a plan that we would uh try to do a double line on Second Street to try to reduce that line and reduce the number of cross streets that it affected in the lineup. Um again this year it far exceeded what we thought even with that double line. Uh the line turned into a line that it worked out. Uh I would never would have mapped it out the way that it worked out. Um but uh this year Ava did a good job with uh looking for volunteers to help us out if we would have had the volunteers that we had this year um to help us out at all these different intersections. I'm not really sure what it would have how how this would have played out. I mean, we would have probably had to take some guys from public works or to put them out, but most of our guys are busy in the yard running equipment and just managing everything that goes on there. Um, so again, each year this event gets bigger and really on the day of we basically try to manage it. We have to manage it as we take it comes in. We never know how what it's going to be or and again just the sheer amount of people and the lineup and you know it's we really don't have a we didn't have a good map of you know where people would line up and how many there there would be but you know we managed to make it work um with that um to get people through that to get people through this line um in a more I guess effective way or faster way. I'm not sure that we can be more efficient with what we're doing. Um the problems that we that we have in the yard is that we can only put four dumpsters down at a time. Um with that with those four dumpsters being put down, um we have equipment that is pretty much managing all those dumpsters. the equipment that we have in there. We have a forklift, we have two back hose, and then we have two skid steers that we're managing that all that that garbage with. And what ends up happening is because our yard is so tight with those dumpsters. People pull come in with a big trailer load full of stuff. There might be a appliance in the middle of their trailer load of stuff. They pull up to a dumpster and they start off offloading their trash. And then they get to the appliance. Well, the appliance we there's an appliance trailer that gets dropped off for this event that's over on one side of the yard the way we have it set up. So, to actually get that person like to pull out and come back around or move around in the yard, there's really not enough room to do that. So, we have like skid steers and the forklift that kind of cart that stuff from those uh dumpster areas over to those appliance where the appliances might be or maybe where the electronics are or if they have a tire. So, um, these guys are, you know, moving this stuff around in there because there's really not enough room for the cars to drive around or trucks and trailers to drive around in the yard. Um, and then the back ho are in there. They're smashing the dumpsters down as as we do this. As they get full, we smash them down. So, these dumpsters, you know, the 20 dumpsters that we have, they are really compacted. um talking with tennis, they, you know, in their other events, he goes, they don't smash any of their dumpsters down. You know, they don't have the the resources to do that. So, we're fitting a lot more in these dumpsters as we're going because they're getting smashed down as we're working on that. But with that, I I Chris, correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know how many people from tennis that we had there. There's usually between 10 and 15 employees that are hired that we hire tennis to offload these vehicles. But you have those 10 or 15 employees. Um you have our 10 people that work at public works and then all that equipment you know in that small area um you know with this. So, um, some of our concerns and tennis, um, that talked to me after the event are, you know, starting to be safety concerns, you know, in our yard because, you know, they're loading a a refrigerator on a skid steer and then that skid steer is driving over to the the appliance trailers. And again, our guys are did a really good job at being aware and, you know, but your head's on a swivel for that whole event, for that whole time. And it just takes something that, you know, falls off that and hits one of the hits one of those people. And again, I'm not trying to be negative about this in any way. It's a, you know, it's a big event. A lot of people really, really like it and appreciate it. Um but as big as it's getting um the big concern is we have it's a space constraint for what we're dealing with with the volume of people and you know the the the people that were you know we had a lot of people like oh thank you so much this is great this is awesome you know and then you had people I've been waiting in line for two and a half hours I don't know how we don't know how to correct that I don't think that we can correct that with the space that we have um in talking with tennis after to get ideas, you know, from him. He said that they were at Cottage Groves the week before and he goes they have an area where they can put down 12 dumpsters and he goes with that it allows them the space if they had to manage or do anything with those other dumpsters. You know, they still have seven places they can go or eight places they can go with us. the four dumpsters that we put down. We tried putting a fifth one down to start the day off and we had to extend that right away because it really got super tight in there for that. Um, so these are some of the the things that uh you know what what we wanted to talk about uh to to all of you is you know we're open for ideas. We have really thought about I mean we've spent a lot of time uh Randy and myself talking with our guys after the event like hey you guys have some ideas do you have you know we've talked about other places where we could do it we've talked about Mcnite Fields or Mcnite parking lot but again with the lineup being where it is and where it would cross and you know we really don't come up with uh we we haven't come up with a a better alternative alternative or a place where we have more space to manage this. Um so again I'm just going to kind of let you know these are some of our you know concerns moving forward. This is the first time that uh Tennis had kind approached me afterwards to say hey I'm kind of getting a look and this is getting big and um with the equipment that you need. He appreciates all that because it saves on people's backs and loading this stuff, but it it is a dangerous situation in there w with it. And um again, just bringing kind of some facts forward, you know, to you guys to think about um you know, in talking in talking, sorry, I'm not even using this PowerPoint. Some pictures in here. Um this was just the start of the line on Second Street. That was at like 7 a.m. They were all lined up all the way up to 7th. You know, I started direct them down and that's like the beginning of the line at 7 a.m. when I got there. So, we still had an hour to go before it started. So, and just some facts with this. I think at 10:45 we spoke with Chris and I think we had had about 145 vehicles at 10:45 at that gone through the line or been through at that time at 10:45. The event ended at 11. So, and so doing the math there's 300 and some. So, when we put a police officer at the end of the line at 11:00, um it took us till roughly about almost 1:00 to get through the rest of the vehicles in there. And and again, that the the like I said, the part for for me is I could understand the frustrations from the residents that hey, this took so long. Um the fr frustrating part for us is that like I said I don't know how I can make it more efficient with what we have to work with with this. So um that's kind of um you know I'll say for the for the challenges of it. Um again it was it was great that we had all the volunteers this year that we did it is super important to have the police department involved with this event because we do cross a bunch of different streets. Um Dave was down managing uh First and 7th Avenue where the line went through the alley and luckily he was able to manage like these two areas where people could sneak in. He was able to go from 7th Avenue, let let people know where the line was and manage the alley to let people, you know, we you know get weave themselves in there. Um, and again, if you told me to make a map for next year on for a line this big, um, I I might do this. I might draw that map out exactly how that was because it was, uh, you know, a person could manage that area. One person could manage that area. But the big thing with it is we do need the police officers involved with it. We do need the the volunteers, you know, the number of volunteers we had at minimum, you know, for doing this. So, it's, you know, it turned into, you know, the first year we did it was public works and, you know, a person that kind of organized it and each year it's gotten bigger and bigger. So, um, it's just it's a it's a it's a big day um for for doing it. And again, for us, we never know what we're going to get and we kind of got to make shift on the fly, you know, to to to make it work, you know. And luckily, you know, it worked. It it worked out fine, you know. I think we're out of there at maybe 2:00 by the time we got, you know, stuff cleaned up. Um, but these are some of the challenges, you know, moving forward or, you know, the biggest the biggest concern is the safety. Um, you know, the last thing we want is someone to get hurt in there with this. Um, you know, the other the other concern is our parking lot took a beating with all of our skid steers and everything around there. We just had it uh crack sealed last fall and all that stuff ended up in our wheels of all of our machines. It was a beautiful day. I mean that you know funnel melt it all up. Yep. So um them are some of the And Randy you can fill in any video. Yeah. Well I didn't do that. um let me see some uh so in talking to tennis um he you know and again I'm going to throw these out there these are some things you know and we're going to get some more information for looking um for alternatives for this um quickly again we didn't talk uh numbers or talk how it would work or all the logistics of it but he said a lot of cities do like a oneweek uh bulk pickup where people can put stuff out at their curbs. The city pays for that week of that bulk pickup for, you know, so they go and they just pick that stuff up at their curb. So they haul that stuff, you know, out to their curb and the city picks up the the tab for that. And again, we have not got into any details on like what what this would be or how it would work or how we would operate this, but he said uh a lot of cities do that. Um that's not random though, is it? It's the It's on the day of their pickup that they put their stuff out. Is that correct? Yeah. You schedule in a week and then you put it out on your trash day pickup. Yeah. There you go. Yep. So, you you schedule and say, "Hey, yeah, I'm you know, I have both pickup this week and one time a year type of thing, right?" Yeah. Yes. Before it used to be anytime you want, one time a year you get Yes. So, yeah. This isn't your like your normal bulk pickup where you call up and you pay to get it would be like, "Hey, this week you you call in, you say you got bulk pickup and the city covers the tab for that for that pickup." Um they they say that uh pay the dump fee um for a week uh down at the county where they go down there, they could hauler stuff down there to the county and they would keep track of it down there and the city would pick up the tab for that, you know. So that was an option. Um and you know he said it the residents have bulk pickup every every single day but you know it's something that they they pay for whatever a refrigerator is $15 or $20 or whatever it might be. But there were some just quick ideas that he threw out um you for that. So, um, with that, there's a few things that we could eliminate and have a much different event like the electronics, you know, now with that new center, you can make them go there, get rid of it. Mattress, I think it's on here. Have a separate mattress event, which we did last year and I think we hadund and some mattresses from that week plus however many we got from the cleanup. So, I mean, we already had a separate event. We still ended up with way more mattresses. Yep. And another thing that ch changed with the electronics, electronics came here or would that come here before and pick up and they wouldn't charge us now that these new sites are open. Um now they charge us to come to this event. So that that's an additional cost that the city will incur for that because it is an option for residents to go down to dispose of that at the county and not be charged for for that. Is that correct, Chris? Yep. So, um, you know, we talked about, hey, what if we had, uh, we split this up where, hey, appliances and this go to Mcnite and, uh, trash goes over here. People come, they load everything in, they're all going to go to one spot, you know. So, I'm just trying to tell you that, you know, we're trying to think of all these different ways. it to to sum it up with the amount of you know vehicles that we have and the people that we have and how popular this is and the space we have to do it. Um I think we need to look for an alternative way to try to try to do this. So um we just wanted to bring this in front of you talk about um just kind of our experience. I know some of you guys were there and you guys got to experience it and see it and you know what it's like I said it it's I love the people that tell you hey this is great and this is awesome and they're happy to get rid of all this stuff makes you feel really good the people that are like this is you know this is ridiculous the two and a half hours and again the frustrating part for me is that I don't know what I can do to make that y you can't you can't please everybody but as in the line for me when I was at that corner there. I said, "You guys have to be patient. It's going to be a long day." I said, "Don't get angry at anybody because no one was expecting this many people out here." So, and most most people were pretty good about it. Yeah. And, you know, I don't know. It's free. I don't know if you put some type of a fee to it. Um, I think the problem and what we recognized being down there was the cube trucks and how many cube trucks we have. And I think if we were to eliminate the cube trucks that this is I obviously this is discussion. It's open for discussion. All of this is but whether it's a trailer or we get rid of the cube trucks and your trailer has to be so big. Um, we limit that. I think that would help alleviate that. I mean, there was one when we were down there that was jam-packed full. I probably 45 minutes just to unload that one alone. So, I mean, you look at that and you look at residents who said, "I sat in the car, you know, for 2 hours and I just wanted to get rid of this damn chair." I mean, how awful is that to sit there for two hours and try to get rid of a chair? Um, but that's it was free and that was their means of doing it. Um, I I'd like to see bulk pickup back on our bills. I mean, for example, even though we had this bulk pickup that Saturday, the weekend after, I got a brand new mattress, but I couldn't get rid of my old one because I still needed to use it. So, I had bulk pickup and for $70, I got rid of two things. And I look at that and think, all right, that's my whole annual bill that I would be paying. Now I can get rid of more stuff with just a single charge like that. So I know some residents don't like that. Some residents um were upset by the bulk bulk pickup, but I think this is a perfect opportunity to bring and consider that bulk pickup coming back. I do think that we would have our participation may go down a little bit more. Um but who's to say? I mean one suggestion I h I have um given that the biggest well one of the big concern well I mean obviously safety from a resident perspective one of the big concerns that they had was the length of time could we do something where there's like an optin you know like a text or something where you can opt in to get a text of you know your current wait time is this or your current wait time is that you know where hey yeah I'm going to drop off stuff and okay, the end of the line is here. Current wait time is 2 and a half hours or current wait time is 30 minutes. So, you know whether you want to go get in line or whether you've got an appointment in 30 minutes and so you can't get in line, that kind of thing or even through our, you know, through social media or something like that. I think that's a great idea. Um, but the fact that I mean you can go sit there in line and wait and like Ron said, I mean it's 11 o'clock, you have the cop car right at the end of it. Nobody got out of that until what, one o'clock? I mean, I sat there till the very end with you guys and it was about 1:00 that So, I like the wait time thing because it is convenient, especially on many levels of just having been there. I know there were a lot of people who said that, oh well, you know, you know, once we were towards the end of the line, we're like, oh, well, just so you know, we think it's going to be about two hours from here. And they're like, oh, well, you know, I've got something in like an hour. I don't have time to sit here and wait. And okay, that's fine. You can go, but you know, had they known that, they probably wouldn't have even have bothered getting in line. So, and maybe we can set that, you know, not expectation, but you know, provide that opportunity for everybody. Yeah. And we can look into I I don't know. I don't I mean, I'm just sure what you use for that. I mean, that's this purpose of discussion opening it up to judge is when you don't know how many cube trucks are there, right? Fine. be 20 minutes to unload one truck. Yeah. Yes. What were some of your comments from your guys sitting around your uh break time table about what what they're looking at? Well, you know what I mean? Because their input cuz they were there also. No. And no, there, you know, I'd say the biggest take out of that is there's like, oh man, it is like when you're in that machine for four or five hours and like your head's just on a swivel and you're just like tense the whole time because it it is you're on top of you're on top of each other. And you know, I'm terrible at taking pictures and and videos of, you know, things to kind of paint the picture of it. But when it's it was in full swing, I know Cassie spent most of her day at the front gate there with us. Um, but you know, that that was their thing is just like, man, that's like just it's just tense, you know, and the last thing in the world, you know, them guys want to do is hit someone or have something happen. And like I said, it's the comments are, "Oh, what's with all these cube trucks and these I mean, because them things were just packed." Like I said, it it legitimately a half hour, 45 minutes to unload some of those. And you know, some of those people, they came in, they didn't even really get out of their truck. They got out of their truck and watched. Now, that's a double-edged sword there because, right, because technically they're if they're driving that truck, they're supposed to be up in unloading it, too. That's their job. You would think so, but then you have the safety piece of it as well. So catch 22. It's a frustrating thing because but then if you have, you know, three or four people from tennis over there unloading it and they're loading it on a skid steer and then, you know, so it that's why I'm saying it it's just when it's those big loads of stuff where you're spending all that time to unload. Um, and it's, you know, they send in a family text out, hey, we got pickup. Let's rent a truck and everybody will go around and pick up. I guess the only thing I could do is put in no no U-Haul trucks. Truck pickup truck and trailer only. That's one thing we can do. No. No U-Haul trucks. U-Haul truck shows up. You take it down St. Paul. You pay for it. I mean, I think with the trailer thing, it's hard. You almost got to limit the size of the trailer, too, because you get these enclosed trailers that are bigger than the U-Haul coming in. Did they say how much they would charge if they go around and pick it up like that day of the trash? I mean, how much more is that compared to what we do down at the I don't know that, mayor. And again, we didn't talk any numbers. For me, that's something where you put on the curb and then they go around and there's no issues when you know, you know, people run into each other. And when you you said what, 20 dumpsters and four hours, so about every hour you're replacing a dumpster if there's four out there, right? Yep. Pretty much. Y I would love I would love to see a quote from them on what if we do a free week of about pickup, what they would charge us for us. I would I would love that quote. And then do we have any idea how much this event cost? Um a and do you feel that if we did one in spring and one in fall that would alleviate some of the I guess that would be another quote that I wouldn't mind seeing before us is we did a spring and a full with a charge into it with a a fee. No, no. Just just another cleanup event. I know. Because this one's too busy. What would a second one? I I I don't I don't know what the effect of that would be. I'm just going to I'm going to speak on on just on behalf of the guys down in public works. Um every every weekend in the summer, we have two guys in to take care of all the trash in the parks and just because, you know, by nice days, Silver Lake, Casey Lake Park, there's garbage everywhere. And so we can't go like a weekend without picking up trash. They're in every night for the car show to pick up the trash after the car show. You know, we usually tie those things together. They come in Saturday morning, but two guys in in the car show is a lot of garbage, you know, as that goes on. So every weekend pretty much from here on out, you know, till the car show ends and it does, you know, it's not nice weather. We have two guys in. Um, it's mandatory for our guys to be there for this cleanup event because I can't come to you guys and say, "Well, I put up a volunteer sheet and I only have two people that showed up." I mean, we need all hands on deck to make this thing work. Um, they're not excited about it. Um, it's fishing opener. Yeah, dude. Doing it. It's fishing opener. We have tried to change that. Tennis is pretty much booked out um years ahead of time for this. uh you know, we catch a lot of flack for that, but our guys are there to to take care of it. Um so so what I'm hearing from you, and I really appreciate your honesty, is that this would be a push back from your staff if we wanted to schedule a second one. I I'm not going to I will not throw them under the bus and say I I'm just speaking is that we ask a lot out of them. No, but as a director, you're concerned about their morale, and I appreciate I'm concerned about their morale and and I was going to get into when winter comes along, these guys are pretty much locked down in the winter. We have a minimum that can be gone because if we get a snow event, we can't have four four of our staff gone because of the the size crew we have. So, I I do want to I do try to limit like a I'll call it a mandatory weekend event if if I can, you know. But I mean, for what it's worth, this one in the spring is full. So, does that mean I mean, we're our numbers are rising. Would that mean another one in the fall? The numbers will rise so we continue to get more people because they're not the first group didn't get through the first time. So, let's try the fall again. And then it's just it it it's a great idea. Um, but you know, again, unless you try it, you don't know. And I think I would like to see us offload it to that company and not have our people do it and have them go around. That's the way I would like to see it because of because how because of how limited space we have and the number of dumpsters and the concerns that they have and we have, we just can't do it. So to me, it's, you know, we look and see what they can do as far as pricing wise, if they can do it the week of at least once a year and then see what the pricing is from there. especially with our elderly and disabled, they can get it to the curb where they might not be able to get it to them. And there was actually there was a woman that came down the day before I um was at the parks talking with Ron. Um and there was a lady that actually came down and said, "Hey, I'm trying to take something of my mother's. What time does this happen? She can't lift it. She can't do any of it. I want to be down here, but I'm not a resident. My mom is. So, do I have to bring my mom to the car? like what does this look like? So, I'm with you. I would like to see I I would like to see a full year of bulk pickup on that end. The one week still is how much you know how much can you put out on your curb and what will we'll say tennis for example. I don't know who we'll end up going with but if they see that you know is it a curb long? Are they going to take the full curb? What does that look like? I think it would kind of my mind would cut down on the the truck because people aren't going to have you know stuff piled all the way across their yard. they're all what the hell's going on over there? You know, that type of thing. Have a little accountability maybe because people aren't don't want to look like they're and I I think I again my just my opinion I I just I'll say as a resident or you know as a person that has to manage this or help you know help manage it. Um I think account when people when when things are flatout free anything free is worth saving up for. Yeah. it it it's I I think when there's really no skin in the game, you know, I I I think it makes it makes it worse. Um, and the other when talking about this, the other thing that tennis said is that they said you can uh offer to pay a percentage of the fee for that week. So, if you don't want to pay for everything, you know, let's just say a refrigerator cost $20 to get rid of and a mattress cost $50 to get rid of. He said you can pay 50% of what the normal fee would be for it. Um, so who's paying for this? I I remember you telling I can't remember who it is. Who pays? Score grant. What? The score grant that we score grant. The score grant can still do it even if it's curbside too, right? Yes. So it's not like we lose I believe. So I can't but that'd be something to check. I mean if it's this Yeah. You know the same thing when it comes to that and they you know pick it up themselves or you know that type of thing. Yeah. And we right now it's not coming out of the taxpayers. No, it's a score and like I said, I think you know it's it's well that type of thing, you know what I mean? When it comes to directly, but when it because when it came to bulk pickup, it came out of everybody's and that's where people got Yeah, I don't use it. You know, I got through all that mobile jumbo stuff, but um I mean there's another just to throw this out as we're brainstorming. What if we kept a couple dumpsters around the city and had people throw it in there? I think we'd be picking it up for days after guaranteed. And I'm just throwing that out as a only people dump by Joy Park down by that road. Couches and TVs. At least once a month, somebody throws it up in Joy Park up in that area. Just crap. Just dumb load out of their cars. Yeah. And is that North St. Paul pick? No, that's Maplewood. That's Maplewood. But we get called for it quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah. That's the issue unless there's some kind of constraints around it because even with the bulk pickup as these guys know because we used to do it and there were no constraints on it. So you'd go to places that would have seven mattresses out front of their place demo with tile like this big pile out there across the whole Well that's why there's no company dumpsters without fences because that's all people did open them up and chuck through things into there. So you get then you get a bulk pickup guy that's all by himself. How's he supposed to pick up some of this heavy equipment by himself out there, you know? Yeah. So then he's going to leave it because he can't lift it. You need you need equipment to do it. So that's where it's falls back into the location where we're at or in an area that's big enough to be able to handle it. Yeah. But you know, and again, definition of you know, okay, you look at what bulk pickup is. Nothing makes you feel better than uh an old lady that can say, "Hey, I've had a old chair and a mattress that I've been wanting to get rid of for a year and this is my opportunity to go do that." And she has her daughter come and get it for her. And you know, she gets rid of it and it's a great thing. And then you have the guy that comes down there that, you know, when they're he brings a broom and he's sweeping out uh tile scraps into the our parking lot from a bathroom remodel. Is that really bulk pickup? No. Technically, no. That's garbage, right? It's something that you should rent a dumpster for or something. No, it just falls under where, hey, you know, maybe it works out that, hey, hey, I'm going to do my bathroom remodel because the bulk pickup is this weekend and you know, he tears it out and does I mean, you we're not going to be able to control all those elements, but you know, when it's open where we said, hey, these are the things we take and there's no there's no monetary value attached to it, you know, we're going to, I think, have what we have what we have. But again, you know, my like I said, if I one thing and I don't say another thing about it, um, you know, it's it's this safety and again I you know, we all have to work under safety constraints in our jobs and whatever. So I don't hang my hat, hey, this is a safety thing and we can't do it. But safety and I can't make it any more efficient. We can't make it any more efficient than it is. Um, Ava made the comment or maybe Caesar, someone made a comment and they're like, "Here's this line." And it's a line that they can't see the end of and they we get on the radio and say, "Uh, send two cars in." And a half hour goes by. Yep. Two more. And we go, "Hey, send two more." And they're like, "Man, this line is, you know, miles long." And and for us, we're looking at what we can do in there. They they might be in there moving dumpsters. They might be smashing a dumpster. A truck might be pulling out. And that's what I'm saying. We cannot You lessened the hours. You went down some hours. From what? From what to what? We We the first one was 8 to 1. Yep. Yeah, I remember that. Yep. And that was way too long. Yep. Yep. Um and then I think the next time we changed it, we went 8 to 11. And then we figured, hey, at 11:00, if you're in line, we'll still take you. Um, and for the Did you think it was going to go as long as it did this year after you got out by I mean, was that is that normal? Was last year I think we were done 45 minutes last year. Yes. Last year at the end of line it was 45 minutes and we were done cleaned up pretty much. It was 2 hours after you closed that you got done. Yes, it was 11 12. Yeah, it was 1:00. Mhm. Um, and then I stayed later because electronics had to come back because they were full full and they had to leave, drive down to wherever they Hastings and whatever and then come back and get another load of stuff, you know, and then after that day we have all the lawnmowers and the gas and the tires and and everything that we deal with, you know, after the fact. So, yeah, it's a good four or five guys of our guys on the Monday after cleaning. Sure. So you got that time extra two hours plus clean up on the Monday afterwards to get your lot back to the way you want it. Yep. Not fully, but Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but what kind of wear and tear does that do, like you said, to our equipment and what does it do to the the parking lot and all the other stuff has to be taken in account as well. That's why we look at pricing like this if they do go pick it up. What does that compare to what we have to go through with our wear and tear and everything else? So, what are other cities? Have you talked to anybody around here that does clean up like Maplewood, Oakdale, if you have any other cities you know of? White Bear Township does it cuz they were advertising like the week after and I mean it's it's pretty big out there too but they do in one of the elementary school lots which I don't know how they can get by with for the just that's what they end up doing damage issue. I mean same thing a ton of dumpsters. You know we've tried different things throughout the years like a different electronics pickup or electronics line. So if you just had a computer, you didn't have to wait in that line. It just it didn't really work very well. Yeah. Because you never have anybody that just has one. Yes. Everything. Yeah. Nobody's going to stand in line for a cell phone. No. Yeah. I mean, I went last year and I drove and I was, "Oh, the line's not bad." And I looked and all a sudden I turned to my got the other corner and I couldn't see the end of the line. So I drove to Barge Road and dropped it off there and I was home two hours before my neighbor. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and at that at the end of it, you're spending all of your Saturday. Exactly. I spent $40 to get rid of my trailer load of stuff and save two hours of my life. Yeah. The paper shredding was another thing that we have a standalone event now, you know, at Casey. Uhhuh. In the summer versus having that here, too. Save space. Randy mentioned it. They had a mattress pickup and that was in November. November. So, we had a last year there was a mattress pickup, you know, and we still had a ton of mattresses, you know, for, you know, for this event. So, and are we still utilizing those dollars out of that grant for for like the mattress pickup, that kind of stuff? Yeah, that mattress pickup was a free service by Ramsey County. They hired a Okay. caller to do that for us. So long story short, we can't. So as is doing the event at the public works yard is one not safe, not feasible for the amount of people we have coming through. Correct. Yes. Without more or less for sure. Okay. So and we don't have any other place that we can put it that we know of. So, as it stands in its current form, you know, having everybody come one day is no longer an option, right? I wouldn't say it's no longer an option. Well, given I mean, we don't have any place that we can have everybody go to and we can't do it at a public works yard. Well, we can, but that it's not like it's no longer I mean, we've been doing this for years. It's now what can we limit what does the limitations look like? these big cube trucks. Clearly, we cannot accommodate these. I mean, it's we have to come through with some sort of rules and or adding bulk pickup or doing a week of bulk pickup or whatever that looks like. I would argue that though I would say the b the cube trucks are not the cause of the safety concerns for Ron and Ry's staff. I would say the cube trucks are the cause of the concerns from the residents and the amount of time it takes to get through the line, but the size of the yard, the number of dumpsters that we have to have and everything like that is the cause of the concern for you guys. Correct. Yes. So, I mean, even if we limit dumpster, limit cube trucks, even if we limit trucks with oversized trailers, things like that, you still have the logistics issue of cars pulling in and, you know, trying to move around and the the back hose and everything trying to operate within that space that is just logistically not safely feasible for the amount of stuff that we have coming in. So, so get rid of it. I mean, is that the question? I mean, I think at the end of the day, I think that means if we don't have a place that's big enough to safely put more dumpsters and be able to maneuver safely, then we have to eliminate it as it currently stands and go with something like the oneweek optin or something like that. I mean, is that a I mean, I'm not trying to say this is what we need to do, but the only thing I would say with it is I mean, you could switch it up a little bit. Maybe you do a weekl long appliance pickup where you don't accept appliances. Electronics we don't accept. I mean, there's maybe options where you could more dumpsters with eliminating certain things from that day. Is it ideal? I you don't know. That'd be more time for you guys though, right? Yeah. Well, it'd be you'd probably have a separate hauler like the appliance pick up whoever picks them up. They would go around and pick up that would be like a charge. No, but that's what we were just we're talking about being on site. Now, you brought that up. So, that's different. This is going around curb to curb like we were talking about again. Yes. At least some of the bigger cuz we were talking on site then you brought that. So, does that mean does it extended a week to that day? So, we don't want that. We want to be able to, you know, do the pickup as far as curbside and things like that, but have like a product, you know, if you want to get rid of your, like you said, electronics one, so it's all not sitting out there all week. Yeah. I I think that'd be a better better philosophy. Yeah. Yeah. So, I can kind of sum this up. So, um, basically, we have the two options. The one option is keep the event as is but have the changes either um adding a fee um limiting like no not taking any electronic stuff sending that all to Ramsey County and then doing a separate mattress event to totally eliminate that aspect of it. Um but I think city staff why we're here today is basically to get your permission to look into the option of doing a curbside pickup what that would look like. Um so basically running the numbers and bringing it back to you guys. Um so the one option is kind of the the only option which is uh you know keeping event but with edits and then the other option which we will look into. The other thing that Ron mentioned though I I don't think we'd be opposed to and that's the the having the numbers for the free drop off for our residents at that the place. Yeah. That's also contingent on the score grant, right? Yep. Exactly. Whatever the score grant, but if we can have it so you drop it off and I think we I mean they spent a fortune for this Kent location for all the electronics and everything else. So I mean it's not that far. It's right in Maplewood. Exactly. I think if we can Yeah. Dale Street Alert. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. More Crush Roseville, but I mean it's a it's designed for that too. Can I ask a question, Ava? Um so you you mentioned like a participant fee. Yeah. So would you know how would I guess one question is how would that work? I mean is are we going to have somebody out there with like a you know a credit card m you know like a I don't remember what they're called but a credit card swiper thing or you know hey I want to come through or here's five bucks or whatever you know because I mean and if somebody gets in line and they don't have money are we going to turn them away and say oh sorry you didn't pay you can't you know didn't pay the uh entry fee you know. Yeah. So we I would we were talking about that. Um do you want to talk about this? So looking at other cities, I can say that North St. Paul I believe is the only city in Ramsey County that does not charge for an event like this. Um surrounding cities will charge based on item if it's a bulk item like appliance or based on the load that they brought. So, it could be a specific size trailer has a specific fee, plus additional charges if they have something like a refrigerator or something like that. Um, as far as taking payment goes, I don't think other cities have been using credit cards or anything like that. They've been taking checks or cash up at the front of the line. Okay. Um, that may be more logistically difficult for us at this event. We would need more staff and additional training on taking money. It it is an option. Yeah. Okay. So, the grant we have that just pays for removing Does that pay for tennis? What does that grant pay for you guys' time too? The city, not the city, but tennis and their employees. Correct. Yeah. It pays for our cleanup haulers. So, dumpsters and tennis employees is covered under the grant. Yep. All the city stuff we do with our stuff is on the city. So it doesn't pay for their overtime, nothing like that. Correct. So that doesn't pay any of that. Okay. That's one thing it doubted. One other quick question. You know, tennis said, are they saying we ain't coming back until you make it safe? Because you're not clear on that. So that's why I want to make sure we're on that. He he did not say he did not say that. And but I want to make sure we're not missing something. Nope. I don't know what it says in the contract. I if that is written in the contract. I want to say one time he had brought something up where we we are required to do this once a year and that may not be correct. I have not read that but he just said hey Ron we should probably start talking about this is getting pretty tight or different different ways to look at it. And again I I wouldn't even be we won't even be having this conversation that well we'd be talking about it but we're saying hey we're going to have to move this. if we could put 10 dumpsters on the ground, I can say, "Hey, I can manage this way different." No, we can't. So, that's not an option. Yep. But, um, he said it's the first time he's brought it up and talked about it and, you know, he's like, if you need me to come and talk about it, he's like, I wouldn't be opposed to that, but he just is like, man, there's a lot of stuff going on. He's like, I just don't want someone to get hurt. I I look that same thing. It's a, you know, it's a genuine concern and like I said, it is. I mean, it's people going back and forth, smashing the dumpster. I mean, you see stuff go flying out, it's just been luck, right? Yeah. And it it's a it's a constant, you know, it's not like, all right, we're going to take a break, reset, take a half hour, you know, it's Well, then go an extra two hours plus the clean up the next day, too. And our time isn't being covered on that, too. So, I mean, it's definitely something to I'm glad we're getting more information. we can get the information. Plan A, plan B, which is the, you know, C, you know, whatever you use the vulture. The v vulture vulture. I'll try it again. Vulture. Thank you. And the um be able to just see what the curbside looks like because the manpower and everything else. And if they can split it up on days, you're not doing it every single day. If it's curbside, it's trash day for me is Tuesday. Trash day for the other side is Wednesday. So, it's not all there at the same time. Yeah. All right. Does that make sense to everybody? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you guys for for bringing it up because you know it's something we need to know and especially if it's security or um safety, we want to make sure that everybody's safe and we're able to take care of it. Thanks for your time and like I said, thanks for letting me kind of Well, anytime. You're the one you're the one in the trenches. We need to know and tell all the guys thank you for all their work on that. Thanks for all your service, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. There's nothing else. We'll call for adjournment till 6:30 for the council meeting. Yeah. Call for adjournment. So moved. So moved. Council member Woods. Second. Second. Council member Mackenzie. All those in favor say I. I. I. See you shortly. Sounds good.