This transcript has been processed to identify speakers based on the provided context of North St. Paul city officials and staff. [00:00:00] **Mayor John Monge**: All right, let me get to the right one. Workshop. All right, thank you. At 5:15 we will start the workshop. Roll call, please. [00:00:10] **Mayor John Monge**: Council Member Nordby? [00:00:11] **Jason Nordby**: Here. [00:00:12] **Mayor John Monge**: Council Member Woods? [00:00:13] **Troy Woods**: Here. [00:00:14] **Mayor John Monge**: Council Member McKenzie? [00:00:15] **Dave McKenzie**: Here. [00:00:16] **Mayor John Monge**: Council Member Schweer? [00:00:17] **Cassidy Schweer**: Here. [00:00:18] **Mayor John Monge**: Mayor Monge? Here. Thank you. Can I get a motion to adopt the agenda, please? [00:00:22] **Dave McKenzie**: I'll make a motion, so move. [00:00:24] **Jason Nordby**: Second. [00:00:25] **Mayor John Monge**: All those in favor say Aye. [00:00:26] **Council Members**: Aye. [00:00:27] **Mayor John Monge**: Thank you very much. City Manager Frandle, please. [00:00:30] **Brian Frandle**: Thank you, Mayor. Uh, two topics this evening. We're going to have Department updates. The first one is going to be the Electric Department, then we'll have Public Works to follow. I will turn it over to John Wick, our Electric Director. [00:00:45] **John Wick**: Thank you. Can you hear me good? Yes. So I'll do just a little bit of background about myself, the department, and then kind of dip into a few different topics. If you have any questions along the way, feel free to stop me. And if you have any at the end, I'll leave a little bit of time. And then I got my contact info on there if you think of anything later; we can always talk on the phone or you guys can come visit whenever you want. So... I don't have a mouse... okay. [00:01:15] **John Wick**: So the first few topics: talk about myself, what it is to be a North St. Paul electric worker, how you become an electric worker, a little bit about our department, and then I have some pictures of the guys doing what they do. [00:01:30] **John Wick**: Myself—I was hired in 2009 as a seasonal. I've been basically every position in the electric utility. I was a seasonal, I came on as a utility locator for a while, then I was an apprentice lineman, journeyman, and then superintendent and now director, all under Brian. I think I mentioned before that I owe a lot to Brian; he definitely taught me a lot coming up. [00:02:00] **John Wick**: I completed my apprenticeship through the city. We offer apprenticeship through Northwest Lineman College; that's what all our apprentices go through. It's a four-year program. We give them all credit for a year if they go to an accredited training program—I'll touch a little bit more on that in a bit. I grew up in the metro area; I'm from Forest Lake. I currently live there now with my wife and my two kids. [00:02:30] **John Wick**: So what is a North St. Paul line worker? They service the electrical distribution system. That entails a lot of things: installing and maintaining the high voltage lines, tree trimming, clearing trees away from any overhead power lines, putting in new underground high voltage lines, service lines, changing out poles, equipment, working on live power. The guys all wear protective rubber gear when they're working on the high voltage—I have some pictures of that here. [00:03:00] **John Wick**: You're on call 24/7. There's always at least somebody from our department ready to answer the phone. And realistically, if anything happens, there needs to be two to three people ready to come in at any given time. They operate equipment. The bread and butter for any electric worker is our bucket trucks and our digger derrick trucks for setting poles and working on the overhead lines. They also work everything for moving earth, too. Pretty much anything in our shop—minus some of the water and sewer equipment—those guys operate. [00:03:40] **John Wick**: You also need to be able to climb. The guys all learn how to climb in school and we still fairly often practice that. We do have equipment to kind of get around it sometimes, but it doesn't work all the time—you've got to climb. And then anybody that's been with us that's now a journeyman is expected to have completed that sort of apprenticeship. Like I said, we do Northwest Lineman College and we found that to be very effective in training the young apprentices. [00:04:15] **John Wick**: It's important to stay physically active. Your role is calling for you to do anything from digging a ditch to climbing poles or dragging brush. You need to be able to work outdoors and enjoy it. Complete a High School GED, you have to have a commercial driver's license and, like I said before, you need to go to an accredited program. Dakota County Technical College and M State Wadena are the two most popular in the state. And then after school, once you've become a lineman, you need to complete a four-year apprenticeship program. It's good to note that not all utilities offer apprenticeships; some only want to hire journeymen. That we offer an apprenticeship is very appealing to guys out of school or just with a little bit of experience that just haven't had that opportunity. [00:05:00] **John Wick**: Our current department does have seven line workers in it and then a utility worker locator. Of those linemen, we have two apprentices. We did have three up until last week; one of them passed his final test and he'll be getting his certificate in the mail here in the next month. It was a big deal. The guys take one test a month for three to four years just to pass the program, and they’ve got to pass it with at least an 80% or better on every test. They put a lot of work into it, studying on their own time. We expect them to be at work and putting in the time here, and then putting in the time at home as well. [00:05:40] **John Wick**: We do have a variety of years of service. Of our apprentices, one's been there for two years. We also have the most senior employee in the city, Dave Hosk—he's been there for 40 years. It's hard to say how much longer he'll be there; I hope he sticks around because he's really good to work with. And then myself, the director, and electric superintendent East Andale—he would have been here today but had a death in the family so he couldn't attend. [00:06:10] **John Wick**: Here’s some pictures of guys working. On the left there we got our backyard lineman; that's one of the pieces of equipment that's saved us from climbing more than we have in the past. It's able to fit through a 30-inch opening, everything retracts in, we can drive it into people's backyards and set it up, and it doesn't cause too much damage to the yard. You can see all the guys working with their rubber gloves, working around energized lines, and just working in teams. It's very common that you'll have two to three bucket trucks in on one job because you need to be accounting for every situation. You're working around stuff that's hazardous to your health and could potentially kill you; you need to have people you trust up there. [00:07:00] **John Wick**: Here’s some pictures of the guys climbing. Believe it or not, the one on the left was me back in school—kind of hard to see from here but I was a few pounds lighter. You can see the other two pictures are some of our guys on the crew. It's very common to have two people on the pole at once, sometimes three. [00:07:30] **John Wick**: A little bit of the history: we started in 1898, purchased from private investors. There was at one point in the late 1950s that NSP (Excel Energy at the time) tried to purchase us, and I guess I appreciate that they didn't sell the utility at that time. It provides more funds for public safety, roads, and just another income source for the city. Currently, the building we're in now—the Public Works Electric Shop—was constructed in 2009. We have roughly 74 miles of lines, overhead and underground high voltage. We sell roughly 71,000 megawatt hours a year and the revenue equates to about $12 million. We have a little over 6,700 customers, mostly residential. We have no industrial and no real big commercial customers either. [00:08:45] **John Wick**: We have one substation down in Oakdale right off of Highway 5. Something that I think is a really great use of technology: we utilize smart meters. When I first started here, we were still on digital readout and mechanical meters, but they weren't smart meters. Somebody had to go around every month and get the reading. [00:09:10] **Brian Frandle**: I first started working here, after disconnects, you could pay any time you wanted to. You could call in at 2:00 a.m. after you closed down the bars, and then a lineman goes out there and returns it back on and pays you in cash—it was just a recipe for disaster. So we stopped doing that. [00:09:25] **John Wick**: Yeah, I’ve heard many stories from those days. But now with these smart meters, they all communicate back to City Hall. They can send out the bills accordingly. They can also disconnect power for non-payment without sending anybody out there. I can personally say the linemen greatly appreciate them; it may have taken away some of their overtime, but their job's a lot more safe now. [00:10:10] **Dave McKenzie**: Do you go off the closest pole then and go down? Like, how does that work for underground? [00:10:15] **John Wick**: It depends. Sometimes they’re fed right from a pole; we might have an underground pedestal. We try to put pedestals at the base of poles as much as we can just to gear towards the future. If a bunch of people want to go underground eventually, we need to have somewhere to put it. [00:10:35] **Jason Nordby**: If there are other overhead services on that same pole, do we like rent out space on that pole to like cable companies and phone companies? Is that essentially how that works? [00:10:45] **John Wick**: That’s correct. They get charged per pole attachment. You’ll see again this summer plenty of fiber going in underground. They’re digging up the ground everywhere putting fiber in all over town. [00:11:15] **John Wick**: This image here dictates what we are responsible for and what the resident is responsible for. Anything in yellow is the resident's property; green is ours. We own the overhead lines, transformers, poles, and the meter itself—but we do not own the meter box, the meter socket, or the mast pipe going up the side. It's an eye-opener to people because in a storm, if that gets ripped off the house, we can’t work on that. They have to get an electrician out to fix it before we can actually energize the house again. [00:12:15] **John Wick**: We do offer putting services underground for a very reasonable price—it’s $650. But again, there’s costs on the resident end. Their meter box needs to be able to accept our underground wires. A lot of times people are real gung-ho about getting that service in, but you have to explain there’s more to it. [00:13:00] **John Wick**: We are part of an organization called MMPA—our power agency. We were one of the original members with seven cities; now there's 11. The goal was to not be so reliant on Excel. MMPA provides our power, and often times our rates are lower than Excel's. With all the mandates for renewable energy, we utilize MMPA to help us achieve the goals set for us. [00:13:45] **Mayor John Monge**: How much is it now? What percent are we at now? [00:13:48] **John Wick**: We vary based on demand, but typically anywhere from mid-40s to mid-50s. [00:13:55] **Brian Frandle**: Right now 25% is what's required, but at the last meeting I was at, it was like 56%. [00:14:05] **John Wick**: The goal is to be 100% by 2040, and 80% by 2030. That's what the state has set in place. We have the Green Energy Choice program here where residents can elect to pay an additional $1 to $3 per billing cycle to invest in green energy. We also have our own residential solar program. We currently have 19 homes, but actually we are putting in two more this week, so we’ll be at 21 homes in town. We offer rebates anywhere from $800 to $2,500. [00:15:20] **John Wick**: We also offer energy saver kits. If you guys are ever in City Hall, stop over at the Finance desk—get an energy saver kit. It's got LED bulbs, faucet aerators, and smart power strips. We just started offering air purifiers with filters, too. [00:15:35] **Dave McKenzie**: Where do I get my air purifier? [00:15:37] **John Wick**: Right downstairs! You can grab one on the way out on the Finance side. We originally purchased 500 units; we have probably 175 left. [00:16:00] **John Wick**: Challenges facing us going into the future: supply chain and material costs. We’re still seeing one to two-year lead times on critical pieces of equipment. It’s causing us to have to plan better. On the consent agenda tonight, we have those pad-mount transformers—we’ve got to make the order now because they take so long to get in. Material costs are also double to triple what they were 3-5 years ago. [00:18:00] **John Wick**: Regarding grid sustainability, our infrastructure is well-suited for increased demand like EV chargers. I did mention data centers; on a peak consumption day in North St. Paul we might see 7 megawatts of usage. An average data center might use 10 megawatts a day—that's more than our entire city. [00:19:10] **Brian Frandle**: Actually, last council meeting you guys approved updated weighted voting conditions for MMPA because one of the cities was looking at a data center that would have more than 50% of the power combined of all 12 cities in our agency. [00:20:00] **John Wick**: Long-term, I’d like to see the entire system go underground. We also want everything to be "loop fed." If power goes out, we can quickly redirect it from another direction. We want to keep offering as many incentives and rebates as we possibly can to stay competitive with Excel. Any questions? [00:21:00] **Dave McKenzie**: The only question I have would be—if I decide I want to do underground, would we talk to you first or an electrician? And do you have any electricians that work through the city for a price break? [00:21:15] **John Wick**: Talk to us first, because we can tell you if that meter box needs an upgrade. We don't have city-affiliated electricians for homeowners yet. [00:21:30] **Jason Nordby**: Quick question—can everybody in North St. Paul get their line underground, or are there certain spots where it's still only aerial? [00:21:40] **John Wick**: It’s case-by-case, but the $650 is the standard. If you have a basketball court in the way, we might have to charge by the foot, but generally, yes, it can be provided to every house. [00:22:15] **Mayor John Monge**: Now, do they drill underground then? Do you guys have an auger that goes underneath property, or do you open-cut? [00:22:25] **John Wick**: When we install, we just dig it all out. We have a walk-behind trencher and a mini excavator that fits through a 30-inch gate. [00:23:00] **Cassidy Schweer**: Now, all of the new construction on 17th and Delaware, that’s all going underground, right? [00:23:05] **John Wick**: Yep, we have the conduit in place. In February the cabinets will arrive and we'll start installing wires. [00:23:30] **Mayor John Monge**: Well, the Electric Department does a great job and we sure appreciate it. Thank you. [00:23:45] **John Wick**: Thank you. [00:24:00] **Mayor John Monge**: Next... shouldn't let him go first. Here he comes. [00:24:10] **Ron Ritchie**: Thank you. Always do the rescue, appreciate it. All right, good evening Mayor and Council. I’ll try to get through this as quickly as I can. [00:24:25] **Ron Ritchie**: Public Works positions: When I started here 17 or 18 years ago, there were two departments: Water/Sewer and Streets/Parks, with a total of 14 guys. Over time, that was whittled down to eight. Everyone on the crew now has to carry a Water and Sewer license so we have enough coverage for 24/7 on-call. We have 10 positions right now. The guys are on call once every 10 weeks, and Randy Miller and I are pretty much on call all the time. [00:25:30] **Ron Ritchie**: We have one mechanic and we hire five to six seasonals in the summer. Randy and I manage the fleet of about 200 pieces of equipment. Our goals are to maintain streets, parks, water, sanitary sewer, storm, forestry, and building maintenance. Each day with 10 people, we’re picking and choosing our priorities. Our guys have to be very flexible. [00:26:45] **Ron Ritchie**: For streets, we have a rating system that WSB does every year. We sit down with Randy and the people who do the patching to prioritize. On average, we put down 500 tons of asphalt just for potholes. In the springtime, we do the "wheel-busters" first. People might complain we patched four holes and left, but we’re hitting the biggest ones first to catch the whole city. [00:28:15] **Ron Ritchie**: Snow plowing is a huge priority. We have main feeder roads like Margaret, 11th Avenue, and First Street that we may plow multiple times before hitting side roads. Cassie lives on a main road, so she might have to shovel multiple times at the end of her driveway at 4:30 in the morning! With 10 guys, it takes nine of us to go out and plow. We can usually get the town cleared—sidewalks, paths, and roads—in 6 to 7 hours. [00:30:00] **Troy Woods**: You have routes set up then for North, South, East, and West? [00:30:05] **Ron Ritchie**: We do. We have four big truck routes. Two guys team up on each side of town because the main roads are wider. Once the main roads are open, they break off to their routes. [00:31:00] **Ron Ritchie**: For Water, we have 4,800 meters. In the next 4-5 years, we’ll be doing a full replacement of many meters that are reaching their 20-year end-of-life. We’re also working on the lead service line inventory mandated by the EPA. We have about 38 known lead service lines and another 60 galvanized lines. The goal is to replace all of them. [00:33:45] **Ron Ritchie**: In the downtown district, with the new apartments, we clean snow between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. We plow everything into the road, use a skid steer and loaders to make piles, and haul it away. As downtown develops, we won’t have places to pile snow, so we’re testing out a new leased loader to see if we can handle pushing the snow further away. [00:35:00] **Ron Ritchie**: Forestry: We received a $400,000 grant for Emerald Ash Borer. We spent $100,000 on residential private ash trees—removed 81 of them. We have about $150,000 left of the grant and plan to remove another 50 to 75 trees this year. We started with 1,500 ash trees and only have 315 remaining to do. [00:37:00] **Ron Ritchie**: I rushed through that, but if you new council members have questions or want a tour of the shop, Randy and I are happy to answer. [00:37:15] **Mayor John Monge**: Well thank you. We have a great Electric and a great Public Works department. We appreciate it. [00:37:30] **Dave McKenzie**: Have you ever thought of going to the tech schools for an apprentice to do small engine work? To sharpen blades and do oil changes to help your mechanic? [00:37:45] **Ron Ritchie**: It’s something we could look into. That job is unique because it’s everything from a weed whip to a diesel truck, but a summer apprentice for the small engine stuff might work. [00:38:15] **Mayor John Monge**: All right, anybody else? Thanks again, Randy and Ron. Can I get a motion to adjourn? [00:38:25] **Jason Nordby**: So moved. [00:38:26] **Troy Woods**: Second. [00:38:27] **Mayor John Monge**: All those in favor say Aye. [00:38:28] **Council Members**: Aye. [00:38:30] **Mayor John Monge**: Give us five minutes before the next meeting. Hi, Chief.