As an expert transcriptionist, I have reviewed the dialogue and the provided context. **Note on Names:** The provided context lists a different set of Council members (Monge, Nordby, etc.) than those present in the recording (Thorson, Peterson, Wong, Furlong). For accuracy, I have used the names spoken during the roll call and within the dialogue, while using the provided staff list to identify "Brian" (City Manager), "Ron" (Public Works), and "Jennie" (Assistant). *** **[00:00:00] Mayor Furlong:** Hello. Waiting... so Willie, you might be up sooner than later. Okay? Or do you want—I could do the city, whatever, whatever you want. We’ll go ahead and call the meeting to order for the workshop. Jennie, take the role. **[00:00:15] Jennie Kloos:** Council Member Thorson? **[00:00:16] Council Member Thorson:** Here. **[00:00:17] Jennie Kloos:** Council Member Peterson? **[00:00:18] Council Member Peterson:** Here. **[00:00:19] Jennie Kloos:** Council Member Wong? **[00:00:20] Council Member Wong:** Here. **[00:00:21] Jennie Kloos:** Council Member Cola Zapson? [No response]. Mayor Furlong? **[00:00:24] Mayor Furlong:** Here. Quorum is present. At this time, motion to adopt the agenda. **[00:00:28] Council Member Peterson:** So moved, Your Honor. **[00:00:29] Council Member Wong:** Second. **[00:00:30] Mayor Furlong:** Second by Council Member [Wong]. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[00:00:34] Group:** Aye. **[00:00:35] Mayor Furlong:** Opposed? Motion carries. We have a few topics tonight. Boy, it sounds like the microphones are working good. I’ll turn it over to City Manager, sir. **[00:00:45] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** Thank you, Mayor Furlong and Council members. Tonight’s topics are kind of all revolving around trash and recycling and similar kinds of things. I would ask that maybe we could switch up the order of the presentations tonight and do Item B first, which would be the presentation from Willie Tennis from Tennis [Sanitation] about kind of their operations in North St. Paul, how things are going, and anything he wants to clue us in on. **[00:01:10] Mayor Furlong:** Perfect. Welcome, Willie. And I always got to say it: we're going to talk trash. **[00:01:15] Willie Tennis:** All right, now you're talking my language. Good evening Mayor, Council, staff. Not sure if that button’s on or not... oh, I got kind of a loud voice. Yeah, I got a green light; I just got to turn it up a little bit here. Yeah, Angela told me I was supposed to talk about recycling, so if you want to know a lot about how everything’s going in the city, I can still manage to talk about that also. Things are going very well for us. I just got to say the coolest thing: we had a lady driver that was a recycler and she was pregnant and—I unfortunately don't know the addresses—but I know she turned in an alley and here they had a little baby shower for her. A bunch of the neighbors got together, gave her gifts. I thought that was one of the coolest things that we've ever came upon. **[00:02:00] Council Member Peterson:** Was it my neighborhood? **[00:02:02] Willie Tennis:** Was it? Okay, yep, that was fantastic. Yeah, she was coming back to the office crying, showing us the gifts and stuff, you know? And it’s just like, "What they did what?" It’s like, "No!" [Laughter]. But uh, yeah, so no, we’ve had a lot of great experiences here in North St. Paul. People are very nice and appreciate our services. My brother and I thrive on service, and so it’s nice to know people do appreciate it. And uh, so everything is working very well for us. There's no issues that I could think of. **[00:02:40] Mayor Furlong:** So I know the seven o'clock time—that they’re ready to go right at seven? **[00:02:45] Willie Tennis:** Yeah, that would be... yeah, if we could have some kind of conversation on that sometime would be nice. **[00:02:50] Mayor Furlong:** You want it later? **[00:02:51] Willie Tennis:** Yeah... no, because our company’s motto’s always been that we like to start early because we like to have our trucks off the streets before the kids get out of school in the afternoons. And so sometimes that, you know, it gets to be a little bit of an issue, but we've never had any incidences or anything. But that’s why we like to start early. And uh, so but uh, yeah we got some new drivers that—yeah, trying to push the button a little bit there and we have to pull the reins back a little bit and tell them "No, no, no." So, and I think that's probably one of the biggest complaints that we hear if it happens before seven o'clock. And I haven't heard—to be honest with you—I haven't heard anything. **[00:03:30] Mayor Furlong:** So it’s okay, you guys are doing good. **[00:03:32] Willie Tennis:** I was gonna say, I’m pretty sure our drivers are doing good. I just—I know we just recently have a new one and I know he pushed a button here last week a little bit and uh, we caught him right away and told him "Don't even think about it," right? So. But um, yeah, no I could say... Angela gave me some statistics here on recycling. I don't know if you want to know it or not or whatever, but yard waste: in 2020 there was 1,573 yards and in '21 there was 1,786. So there's an increase of 213 yards. Not quite sure if—I don't remember if we had more rain in '21 or if there was more people joining the program. And then yeah, she just talks about the recycling about the 95-gallon cart and additional bags, no problem. The recycling in 2020: our total tonnage was 974.53; that averages out to 46.56 pounds per household. But in '21 it dropped a little to 933.12, so the average dropped to 44.75 per household. But we feel what happened in '21 was there a lot more people working from home and then everybody’s doing more electronics. Even the kids' homework now with the distant learning—they wanted the kids to do everything on the computer. So there was less paper being brought home from school, and so we’re thinking that is where the difference came because we’ve noticed we have less loads of paper. So it's not that people are actually recycling less, it just happens to be people are doing more electronics versus paper. And um, yeah, and then we got... you know, people do have something that doesn't belong in the recycling cart, we have an educational tag that we leave and we mark off what's in there and uh, so that helps a lot. But other than that, everything is just going great. Yeah, if anybody else has any questions for me, but go ahead. **[00:05:35] Council Member Wong:** I was just wondering how often um, you have um, educational pieces that you're passing out? Is that a lot or... you know? **[00:05:43] Willie Tennis:** Well yeah, actually all we do as far as that goes is the... we just give people a tag if they put something in that doesn't belong in there. But what we do—and I'm not sure why we didn't do it or mention it when North St. Paul bought their own carts—but we actually have a flyer right on the lid of our recycling cart. It has a picture and the language of everything that we do accept, then it has a little paragraph of the things we don't accept. And that may be more helpful to people because it's—we feel it's right in front of their face that anytime they go to that cart it's like, "Well, is it or isn't?" It’s like, "Okay, just read the label." And so that may be something that we would want to work together on and and do something there. And otherwise too, like these figures I gave you here, we could do something yearly to the city and uh, just keep up on all the numbers on that stuff year to year. **[00:06:35] Mayor Furlong:** Have you ever worked with uh, a magnet maybe on the uh, refrigerator to show that? **[00:06:40] Willie Tennis:** Yeah, we have those also. **[00:06:41] Mayor Furlong:** That might be a—an easy fix or an option. **[00:06:43] Willie Tennis:** Sure, sure. Rather than stick it on the cart, although it'd be probably optimal to put it right on top of the cart, but sure, sure. Yep. **[00:06:50] Mayor Furlong:** I know looking at the refrigerator—look at it every day and... **[00:06:53] Willie Tennis:** Yes, yes, we have magnets too that would be—that would be an option also. **[00:06:58] Council Member Thorson:** Yeah, I guess I know this maybe isn't necessarily geared towards recycling and yard waste, but um, I know when we took on the contract there's a lot of discussion or unknowns about the tipping fees that get charged and you know, I'm sure we're kind of unique than other cities where we pay that and then we kind of do the billing as well—so something kind of different. But um, there is—I'm... I've been aware of other cities and I don't know if they're still using it or not, but the trash trucks actually can weigh the garbage and recycling when they're picking it up. And I—it seems to be that's how that, you know, they build a customer off of their tonnage because that's how the trash is dealt with tonnage-wise. Is that something that you see the future that at least coming to our area or is that something that your trucks might be having in the future anytime soon? **[00:07:50] Willie Tennis:** Well, we have some competition that has tried that and as far as working in Minnesota, it doesn't work very well come wintertime. Okay? And so it's—until they perfect that a little better, we don't feel to invest in that because you—like I say—it’s broke more in the winter than it works. And so it really it's not very useful. Okay? But as far as the city comments you made about you paying the tipping fee and stuff, then you're always aware of the increases from the county. Because uh, next year is going to be a very big one. So we’ve already got the numbers from them, so it's going to be a huge jump. **[00:08:30] Council Member Thorson:** '23? **[00:08:31] Willie Tennis:** Yes, it’s going up I believe ten dollars a ton, which is huge, huge. And I know... **[00:08:38] Council Member Thorson:** Oh, sorry, go ahead and finish. **[00:08:40] Willie Tennis:** But on the positive side of that, the county—the reason, well some of the reasons that they're charging more—is they are putting more machinery in down there and they are going to have the capability of doing organics. And so from what we're told—and maybe I shouldn't be speaking for this county—but um, supposedly you’re going to be able to put your organics bag right in your trash cart and then they're going to have machinery down there to separate that. **[00:09:05] Council Member Thorson:** And that was going to be my other question. I know we have the presentation information and—I'll say—the representative just walked in, but they basically were saying they're going to have a separate bag, it's a green organic bag that you just put in your normal trash and you guys just haul it away. Is that... that's obviously something that you guys are ready to roll out with? It’s just a matter of the residents getting those bags and then obviously education on our part letting them know to do that? **[00:09:32] Willie Tennis:** Correct, yes. No, I think it's a really good idea because otherwise if you had it separate, you got another truck on the streets. And so this makes a world of sense as far as we're concerned. So we're just glad that the county is stepping up and doing that, and it's the most efficient way that we see. **[00:09:50] Mayor Furlong:** I'm glad you're first rather than second because then we—we know what you're going to do. **[00:09:55] Willie Tennis:** Yeah, and that it's going to work. Yes, yes. Oh yes. **[00:10:00] Mayor Furlong:** Do you see any concerns in the city that you can see that besides the seven o'clock time? **[00:10:05] Willie Tennis:** No, I haven't heard of any issues with any of the drivers that—no, everything's running very smooth on our side. **[00:10:11] Mayor Furlong:** And I have heard many, many positive things from your company and how you've gone above and beyond sometimes by getting out of the truck and actually physically taking the dumpster out to the street or whatever it is. I've—I've heard that many times. So kudos to your company and your what you guys do for the—for the city. So great. **[00:10:30] Willie Tennis:** Yes, like I say, we promote recycling as much as possible and like I say, we tell them you can put your cardboard boxes next to the cart, we can take them like that too instead of trying to cut them all up and get them to fit in your cart. Whatever—we just try to make it as easy as possible for people to recycle more. And so that's something that we do that other companies don't. **[00:10:52] Mayor Furlong:** That's good information to... yes. There, I think our communications person can add that to our website. **[00:11:00] Council Member Peterson:** With our population boom, you know, we’re going to add more residents. Is that going to impact your company or are you going to be able to do the service the same, you know, efficiently or... **[00:11:11] Willie Tennis:** Yes. Okay, not a problem at all. We like to see growth. **[00:11:15] Mayor Furlong:** Any other questions for Willie? **[00:11:18] Willie Tennis:** I always like to talk trash, so it's only just a little uh, I don't know, pun for our company. Whatever... it's on dang it, I don't know my computer stuff very well. I don't know if it's on TikTok or what it's at, but there’s a kid out of Hastings, it’s called "Take a Hike Mike." It’s on YouTube—that’s what it is, YouTube. If you go on there and punch in "Take a Hike Mike Tennis Sanitation," you'll see the cool little thing. He came out and spent half a day with our company and our one driver did an excellent job and then I got to show him around our facility and in our recycling center and stuff. And we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on that, so it was a cute little fun thing. Kids really like watching that show. So when they see the trash and recycling, you know, you just try to make a little education out of it but he still makes it funny too. **[00:12:05] Mayor Furlong:** And I suppose it went viral? **[00:12:07] Willie Tennis:** People—I’m sure. Yeah, I forgot how many hits he said he had on it or whatever, but yeah, he was happy himself that it went very well for him too. **[00:12:15] Mayor Furlong:** Cool. Well good. Anything else? If not, uh, thank you very much and... [indistinct] filled about this much higher than the container itself with the top open. So you’re filled with water and you give tickets to those people saying "Hey, the container is this big, it’s not that..." **[00:12:35] Willie Tennis:** Um, actually no we don't. We try to be a little lenient and I know some of our competitors, if the lid’s open they charge extra, but we—we try not to be that petty. **[00:12:45] Mayor Furlong:** Good. Thank you, Willie. Appreciate it. **[00:12:47] Willie Tennis:** Thank you. Thank you for your company and uh, great service to our city. Well great, we appreciate everything and uh, any time you need our help with anything just give us a holler. **[00:12:58] Mayor Furlong:** We’ll be working on the spring cleanup, I believe? **[00:13:00] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** Oh yes. **[00:13:01] Willie Tennis:** I think staff’s been in contact with your—with your crew about the spring cleanup? **[00:13:05] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** Yes. **[00:13:06] Willie Tennis:** Yeah, my brother actually handles that part, so I know he's on top of that. So yep. **[00:13:10] Mayor Furlong:** Good, good. All right. **[00:13:12] Willie Tennis:** All right, take care. Have a nice evening. **[00:13:14] Mayor Furlong:** Yup, you too. And we have City Manager... Brian, turn over to you. **[00:13:20] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** And thank you. Yeah, the next presentation is uh, about the um, recycling the energy food scraps pickup program that was mentioned here. Um, and the presenter is Filson Ibrahim. I believe your title is Recycling Coordinator for Ramsey County? So I will just pass it along to you. Thank you. **[00:13:40] Mayor Furlong:** Welcome. **[00:13:42] Filson Ibrahim:** So my name is Filson Ibrahim. It's similar to Wilson, like the volleyball, but it's—it's Filson. So kind of like Wilson, but Filson. Um, and I have a quick presentation on what to expect with the food scraps program that's going to be coming up at the end of this—at the end of this year and then early 2023. Um, I also have it on my phone. We never have technical difficulties. It's good to be in person though and not on Zoom. Um, if you don't mind we can get started and when it just shows up, it'll show up. And I think you have these slideshows in people's pockets? That's correct. Perfect. Oh no... yep. Thank you, Sally. So the food—food scraps pick-up program, um like I mentioned, is going to be starting at the end of this year. Our pilot uh, phase launching onto 2023. A bit of background with the R&E Center and Ramsey and Washington County: both counties have over 820,000 residents with over 70,000 businesses across both counties. That makes 17 percent of the state population. Um, Ramsey and Washington—Ramsey and Washington County in conjunction with the R&E Center have been working jointly together since the 1980s to manage trash responsibly. The organization has been collaborating with Washington and Ramsey County under the joints power leadership that includes commissioner from both counties. Staff at the R&E and Washington and Ramsey County have been working together to build and start a ton of initiatives across both counties. The mission of the R&E Center is vibrant and healthy cities without waste. And speaking about the food scrap pickup program, it is developed with the R&E Center in conjunction—in conjunction with both of the counties. Um, so why—why the food scrap pickup program? So the foods—food scraps in the garbage makes up 20 percent of the waste, and removing that is a way to kind of get us all closer to the state recycling goal. And it is um—notification came up—and it is a way to help residents to reduce their greenhouse gas—gas emissions and for all of us to conserve our resources. Prior to the program launching, both counties have initiatives to educate and inform residents of what the food scrap pickup program is all about, and it is more so to collect all the food waste that's going to be generated in our households instead of thinking of it as a program where extra food kind of just goes in the trash. So the program is to be rolled out at the end of this year and at the beginning of 2023 it would be available to all Ramsey and Washington County residents that live in apartments, condos, and single homes—single family homes. And the program is going to be—participants are going to participate with putting their food scraps in a food scrap bag that is compostable with no additional fee or cost to them. And the—the next slide is kind of like the infographic of the food scrap process. So as you are at home and you're generating all the food scraps, all that will go into the food scrap pickup program. You’ll just um, take that out as you would your regular trash. The haulers will pick it up—Willie and his—one of his peoples—um, and then take that to the transfer site where um, and then it will come to the R&E Center where it will be sorted by machines. And then the—the compost would be sold to compost facility sites. And our end goal is to have anaerobic digesting sites at the R&E Center where we can kind of create that process. Nicely done, team. Um, and I think we are on Slide 11. Um, so why um, are we... the way that the foods pickups uh, program is designed is to have all the um, the food scrap collected in the trash bins that are already at residents' houses. And our um, thinking behind that was for the environmental—environmental purposes and to decrease greenhouse emissions. Um, and then to reduce the—the hauler trucks that are already out on the—the road. Um, and then lastly the equity piece, so more folks can participate, mainly folks that live in condos or apartments can also be a part of this program. So the food scrap bags are designed to withstand the whole trip as we pick them up from the house all the way up to the transfer stations. They’re going to be two—two sizes. So the first size is six—six gallons; the second is 13 gallons. And the way we’re thinking about it is the six gallons would be similar to your bathroom trash bag and then the 13 would be the—your kitchen trash container. And some of the—the details of the bag: it's going to be three times thicker than a regular trash can or the trash bag; it’s going to be BPI certified; and it is um, in the color green to help kind of folks differentiate that this is compost and it is going to a compost site. And then all the—all the trash that is collected at Ramsey and Washington County goes to the R&E Center where all the metals are recycled from the—taken away from the trash and are recycled. The remaining refuse is taken to, I believe, Red Wing where is... before it goes to Red Wing, it's shredded on-site and it’s taken to Red Wing to burn for um, for energy and electricity. Um, that way the remains—the trash that remains goes to the limited trash that remains goes to the landfills. One exciting thing about the food scrap pickup program is that it's going to be mechanically separated from all the—the trash that comes to the site. So we have machines that I believe are going to be installed soon at the R&E Center that will pick up the green bags that kind of come down the line. And if you guys ever want to see the R&E Center, I believe tours are back up, so please do check it out. It's a beautiful process that they have in place and seeing everything in person kind of just helps you make sense of, you know, like when I throw—throw my trash away I'm just thinking it's only me, but when you see the collective it really helps put everything in perspective. The project is, as I mentioned, the construction is happening at the R&E Center. We're working to wrap—wrap up and find end markets and folks that can help with the compost that is going to be generated. The vendors that the R&E Board has approved so far are the food scrap manufacturer, the warehouse where the bags are going to be stored, fulfillment and shipping vendors, website developers, and a customer service call center. And I can—I think I can pull up the number of the slide that I'm in... so Slide 15 is in funding for this program. Um, I think three more slides maybe. Um, funding for this program has come on three different ways: the first way is we received a grant from the MPCA in 2020; a bonding bill; the second is the county environmental charge; and the third is um, tipping fees from the haulers that are set to deliver the trash at the R&E Center. Now the more kind of the meat of the presentation: so the program is going to be launched in phases. The first phase is the pilot, which is in the process of happening as of right now. We had an ask for residents to kind of sign up for the program and I think we had over—over 600 residents sign up, but unfortunately we could only pick 40 folks. So the interest is definitely there. Um, so our goal is to work with those folks, see how the—the program works in a small scale. Our—our first launch is going to be happening at the end of this year where we’re going to be um, phasing out and working with selected cities. And our end goal for Phase 2 launch is to have the program be available to all residents in both Ramsey and Washington County. So we’ve done a few community engagement throughout the years, and we're working... one of our biggest um, thing that we are mindful of is to have a diverse pool of participants every time we do engage the community. So we did um, a general survey in 2020—2019 and then 2020 just to gauge interest and see what folks are considering as barriers and some concerns that they may have and to help us kind of identify the bag preferences that folks are thinking of. And overall we had 90 percent of the folks that we gauged that were excited and looking forward to the program. And we had another survey that—that we asked the residents in 2020, which kind of helped us see what folks are collecting as their food scraps and then to help kind of further determine which food sizes would be ideal for their—for each household. So upcoming community engagement: we have the child focus group that I mentioned. We're working with them to kind of shape our education materials um, to provide kind of feedback for us on what worked and what didn't. And our—our goal as I mentioned is to have a diverse pool, whether it's race, age, household types or geographics in both counties. We have a pilot focus group that’s going to be building off the trial focus group, which will include demographics from—from the pilot from the trial focus group. And then lastly, we’ll end as the program builds out in 2023; we’ll have ongoing community engagement and education provided to all residents. Um, our—our communication plan is to um, share our promotional kits for cities, district councils, haulers, community leaders, and all the stakeholders that we are engaged with. The kits will provide talking points, social media messaging, and other possibly engaging in short promotional and information video clips. We are going to provide mass mailing to all residents and then have a press release for the—for our local media once the program is launched. Our goal is to um, share communication in all—various channels. Um, we're working with a consultant team um, to have a large-scale ad campaign so more and more folks are aware of what's being rolled out and then relying heavily on social media to share all that information out. So I think this might be the second last slide, but we hope to be in—to have concise messaging to all of our residents for both Ramsey and Washington County. Our goal is to work to provide information to all of our cities so all the information kind of comes from us on what our cities should share with their residents so there isn't a ton of confusion. Um, we have residents that are super engaged in food scraps that are already doing this and are utilizing our drop-off sites, and we have residents that are on the opposite spectrum who are really not looking forward to it or may have a lot of concerns and questions. So just to kind of eliminate any confusion, we’re trying to have all the information come from us shared out um, to all of our cities and the residents. Last slide. Perfect, that is it. Thank you. **[00:26:15] Mayor Furlong:** Thank you. A couple questions I have is uh, are we one of the select cities that’s going to be kind of the pilot program? **[00:26:24] Filson Ibrahim:** To be determined. I think we have a list of cities that we met with in both counties and some of the cities were super engaged—they’re like "Please sign us up"—and some of the cities were not. I’m not—I’m not sure if North um, Saint Paul was one of those ones that were excited or not excited. **[00:26:42] Council Member Thorson:** Yes. **[00:26:43] Filson Ibrahim:** But I could definitely find out and I can get that information back to you. **[00:26:46] Mayor Furlong:** Okay. Yeah, and then you've mentioned uh, six and 13 gallon bag, you have the choice, and then you get 60 of each of those bags? **[00:26:54] Filson Ibrahim:** Yes, you can select. Our goal is to have a website or phone line where residents can kind of call in and ask for their bags of their choosing. The first 60 bags are free and as—as you order more, I think there’s a small fee that residents are expected to pay. So that kind of... their plan is every year they would get 60 bags in for free and then whatever is beyond that they would get that is quick... have to pay for whatever. **[00:27:25] Mayor Furlong:** Uh, so I'm assuming—I've never done organic, you know—I'm assuming that you don't want to use your garbage disposal? That's kind of the goal is to get rid of the garbage disposal? **[00:27:34] Filson Ibrahim:** Yes. **[00:27:35] Mayor Furlong:** Uh, I know the little strainer that I always catch everything, it goes into the garbage and sometimes goes in the garbage disposal. But so I'm just thinking: six gallons and 13 gallon? That's a lot of organic waste. **[00:27:48] Filson Ibrahim:** It is. And you don’t—you don’t have to fill it all the way. If you have a family of two or if you’re a single household, you can use the six-gallon one. And even if you fill it out halfway and take it to the trash container, it will still be picked up. **[00:28:02] Mayor Furlong:** Okay. Yep, and just for convenience purposes for the kitchen, how do you... does it go where... do you... what do you do with it? Um, do you... is there a container that you can, you know, another trash container? I suppose it’s the size of a small trash container or whatever? **[00:28:20] Filson Ibrahim:** Yes. Currently we have caddies that are smaller than the six-gallon sizes. **[00:28:25] Mayor Furlong:** Caddy—so that’s yes, that’s the word. Okay. **[00:28:28] Filson Ibrahim:** But our containers um, as the bus—as the program rolls out is going to be discontinued. So residents are kind of expected to find something that works for them to kind of collect that, whether it’s the six-gallon or the—the 13-gallon. **[00:28:44] Mayor Furlong:** Is a t-bone steak with the bone in it—is that organic? **[00:28:48] Filson Ibrahim:** It is, yeah. **[00:28:49] Mayor Furlong:** The bones? Okay. Um, eggshells? **[00:28:51] Filson Ibrahim:** Yep, yep. **[00:28:52] Mayor Furlong:** We go through a lot of um, fruit. So a ton of like cantaloupe. And if I feel like if you peel a cantaloupe or like half a watermelon, that should easily fill that up. It might be easier in the summertime than the wintertime but sure, yeah sure. Good. Any other questions? **[00:29:10] Council Member Wong:** Thanks for your presentation. Um, my question is: will the drop-off sites also be discontinued? **[00:29:17] Filson Ibrahim:** They will—nope, they’ll still be in—in business. And folks are going to be... because I—I feel like um, the decision that was made was to kind of give that extra support to have folks already rely on what they're doing on top of this program that's going to be rolled out. So both are going to exist simultaneously. **[00:29:38] Council Member Wong:** Okay, thank you. **[00:29:39] Filson Ibrahim:** Of course. **[00:29:40] Council Member Thorson:** I guess this is kind of a question for Willie back there. Uh, so residents will put into the trash container—how do they—how do you separate it? Or it just gets dumped and that bag gets separated somehow? **[00:29:55] Willie Tennis:** [Off-mic] Yes. **[00:29:56] Filson Ibrahim:** That we don't know—cool, now! Yes, and that the way I think it’s going to identify is through the color of the bag. So the greens—the green bags will be separated from the regular trash that's coming to the center. **[00:30:10] Mayor Furlong:** I do see a drop-off in Maplewood Community Center. How does that... does that work good? **[00:30:15] Filson Ibrahim:** Yeah, I think it’s one of our busiest sites. I know people that have reached out from Oakdale want to know where, and so they go over there to drop off. Our goal as of right now is still to kind of build more of their drop-off sites. Yeah, they're—they're in popular demand, really. **[00:30:32] Mayor Furlong:** Okay. Good. Thank you for the presentation and good luck with uh, the roll-off—for the rollout. **[00:30:38] Filson Ibrahim:** Yes, exciting time at the county. But yeah, thank you so much for your time. **[00:30:42] Mayor Furlong:** Thank you, appreciate it. Another getting more greener, greener, which is good. City Manager Brian? **[00:30:52] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** Thank you, Mayor Furlong. Yeah, so next up, communications consultant Carrie Erpenbach is gonna update us on the spring cleanup—where it’s at, what it's going to look like. **[00:31:04] Carrie Erpenbach:** What's it going to look like? It's going to be a lovely sunshiny day. Yup, we’ll have our sunscreen on and we’re going to line up our residents and we're going to get them in and out of there even faster than we did last year. Wow. So um, this year’s date is Saturday, April 30th. We did make some changes. Um, we’re only going to go from 8 to 11 this year. And fortunately our road construction’s under control, we have a simpler route for people to get in. We’re going to take everybody off 7th down 2nd and then wrap them around Public Works. So last year we had too many turns and we had some issues um, trying to manage traffic. So we’ve streamlined that this year, we’ve got some plans in place. We... there's a lot of residents who take care of... who really appreciate the electronic recycling on this, and so we’re going to have... use our staff radios to... if people are truly just coming in with a—with an electronic piece, we're going to try to zip those residents around faster so they don't have to stand on the line. Um, so we're on Saturday, April 30th. We're going to have all the same collection that we had last year. The only piece we did pull out was the paper shredding; it just wasn't utilized. And that's part of what we kind of like to get some direction from Council—that may be better as a standalone event at another time of the year. You know, maybe we could pull a shredding truck at Casey Park someday or something. But so we’re kind of interested in seeing what you might like for another recycling event for the city. Um, so we’ve got the list. It’s been out on our website, it's on the Casey sign, we’ve gotten our news, we’ve got all of our kind of criteria as to what we’ll accept, what we can't accept. We will be... um, we have to validate residences, so we're looking for driver's license or utility bills that prove that they're a North Saint Paul resident. I did had to shake a few people out of line last year. Um, they—they weren't happy, they didn't love me as much as North Saint Paul residents with their valid ID did. So we’ve got that going and um, in addition to that um, you know, the Public Works team has, you know, we—we kind of got the kinks out of this last year. We’ve got the route, so they'll pull in. Public Works staff will direct them around to the various drop areas; they’ll be identified by signs and then out they'll go. **[00:33:45] Mayor Furlong:** Good. I mean, I think we should do the shredding at some point. Uh, usually right after tax season I think is a good time to—good time to do it. What do you think about Casey? I was thinking that might be easy in and out of 17. **[00:34:00] Carrie Erpenbach:** Yeah, I think anywhere in the city would be... you know, if—if Casey's better or whatever... I mean, you got the circle or whatever. But yeah, I think we should have that event. I don't know what to do. Yeah, there was just—it just... I think there was some people were so excited to get rid of the big stuff that paper kind of took a seat on that, so. **[00:34:20] Mayor Furlong:** Right. Good. Any questions on this? **[00:34:25] Carrie Erpenbach:** In addition to what we've got going on April 30th for the cleanup event, we're working with the parks. We had a meeting with the Silver Lake Improvement Association last night and they're going to be doing their cleanup event on Saturday the 23rd. And um, we have parks commissioners who are going to be at Casey Lake on April 22nd. And what we're doing—I’ve got a draft that’ll go out in the City News tomorrow—is we’re going to bring in bags and gloves at City Hall and encourage residents who want to adopt their local park, clean up their neighborhood... you know, come up to City Hall and we’ll provide the bags and the gloves so we can kind of get a good spring cleaning throughout the city. **[00:35:10] Mayor Furlong:** So park cleanup is April 22nd? **[00:35:13] Carrie Erpenbach:** 22nd at Casey. **[00:35:15] Mayor Furlong:** And just at Casey or all the parks? **[00:35:17] Carrie Erpenbach:** We're encouraging all the parks. We actually have a host—one of the parks commissioners will be at Casey on the 22nd, 5:30. **[00:35:25] Mayor Furlong:** What time? **[00:35:26] Carrie Erpenbach:** 5:30. Typically we would have park... so it’s a Friday—Friday night. And then Silver Lake wants to do theirs on Saturday. Typically we would have a park cleanup, you know, on a Saturday eight to noon; all the parks would be cleaned. We're not going to be doing that. When I checked with um, the Parks Commissioner, the secretary this morning, that wasn't the plan; they were still pulling stuff together. That’s not saying that we can't pull that together, we’re just trying to look as staff as how can we make it as easy as possible for residents to come in, you know, get some bags, their gloves, and help clean up the city. **[00:36:05] Mayor Furlong:** And the other cleanup we got going is the citywide garage sale May 5th through 7th. So after that we should have no excuses for having any unwanted items in this city. Uh, it’d be nice if we could also do uh, you know, this type of recycling in the fall too? Maybe spring and fall cleanup—prevent spring and fall just before winter. Would you love watching that? Because we don't have the bulk pickup anymore. I mean, so before we’d have the bulk pickup and then... yeah. **[00:36:40] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** Well, if I may, just—we still do have bulk pickup. **[00:36:43] Mayor Furlong:** No, I mean... I'm sorry, free bulk to pay for it. **[00:36:45] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** And you still paid for it too before. It was just on your bill monthly. It’s a mis—miscommunication on that to—to continue to say it was free and we took it away. So just wanted to clarify that. So I think staff is open to a fall cleanup. I think we wanted to evaluate the spring cleanup and see how that goes, what aspects—you know, maybe there are some aspects that go better than others. And uh, you know, we'll as we evaluate and uh, every time we do the cleanup, we’ll do it a little bit better, maybe a little bit differently. So would you be interested just for planning purposes in a full cleanup again in the fall and a separate recycling? So possibly three events? **[00:37:35] Carrie Erpenbach:** Say that again? So we’ve got our spring cleanup, and it sounds like Council would be interested in us pursuing something in the fall? We've also talked about how paper shredding kind of is a different event on itself. So if I'm hearing correctly, you would prefer to have possibly three events: a spring cleanup, some kind of a paper shredding event, and then something in the fall? **[00:38:00] Mayor Furlong:** Yeah, again, I think it’s—it’s um, based on participation. You know, we’re all assuming that there’s going to be a good turnout and um, if that’s like last year, they beat us—we were there early and they beat us. **[00:38:15] Carrie Erpenbach:** Oh yeah, I saw two-three people coming through. Uh, yeah, we have a much better route this year. We really had some issues. **[00:38:22] Council Member Peterson:** And this is a shorter time too? **[00:38:24] Mayor Furlong:** Yeah, I think we went to one o'clock last year. **[00:38:26] Carrie Erpenbach:** Yeah, and it was busy up until one—busy up until one. Um, you know what, and we’ve been able to—the Public Works guys, we work together and get a little better map so we don't have as many turns for cars, we can kind of get them straight in and straight out because we did have some traffic issues. I mean, at one point I was in front of the um, the VFW; that's how far the line was. And the reason we’re not going to win is because of—I don't know if that was a vendor issue or if that’s just how they put it together. **[00:38:55] Council Member Thorson:** The question is, why aren't we going to one? What—so it was—it was very busy last year, eight till one. I mean, it was constant all day. And this is a shorter time frame. I mean, we'll see how it goes, but 8 to 11 seems pretty—pretty quick. **[00:39:15] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** Yeah, and I don't know—I wasn't part of the, you know, the staff committee that worked on this, but I’ll check into it and find out why that's... **[00:39:23] Mayor Furlong:** That’s my only concern is that if it—if it’s busy, we’re gonna shut it down then and people are gonna... **[00:39:28] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** Sure, I’ll check in. I think yeah, that’s something we could possibly, you know... Tennis is our partner on this event and maybe, you know, we still have time or if we need to have a plan. **[00:39:40] Mayor Furlong:** Ron, can you come up? Can you come up and... thanks. **[00:39:45] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** We kind of talked about that. There was a time there—was like an hour and a half of time where there wasn't like anything going on. So we figured— **[00:39:53] Mayor Furlong:** Well really? **[00:39:54] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** Yeah, there was. So we figured we'd shorten the time, see how it goes, see what we, you know, can do with that. So okay. **[00:40:02] Council Member Thorson:** Just some questions. Uh, I wasn't at the event last year but from my understanding, just of some comments there made that people observe people coming multiple times. So there’s—there was no limit on how much items you could bring? I could in theory roll up there with my dump trailer that’s 14 feet long... **[00:40:22] Carrie Erpenbach:** That came through six times! It got to be a big joke because he’d flash me his license every time and I saw the numbers by the end of the day. **[00:40:30] Council Member Thorson:** I mean, and that could possibly be a reason why so many people kept coming later in the day. I mean, you got to put a... this is a Saturday and, you know, we’re asking people to come and work and volunteer. I mean, ideally you’d probably say, "Yeah, we open at 8 and we’ll stay open until the sun goes down," and I'm sure people would still come. Which would make sense to have multiple—to me, like at multiple events. You have spring cleanup, fall cleanup; maybe advertise it to where it's, you know, this is... you know, put a limit on items. Like, you know, this isn't something where you’re going to, you know, clear your house out then you go to your friend’s house in Oakdale and clear that. You know, I mean, it stuff’s gonna happen. But the goal here is that we’re trying to cut down on clutter and and recycle stuff and whatnot. But if we had multiple events and maybe we separated... we used to have a trailer across the City Hall here in the parking lot where it was just drop off electronics like for months, wasn't it? All the summer. And that—that was successful and that there was constantly stuff there, but it was also difficult because it became a dump site and it took staff time to, you know, basically physically hand stuff up into the trailer and fill those pallets, boxes and stuff. But uh, so I don't know if that makes sense to have a separate—like a separate shredding event like what you’re talking about? A good—a good time to do that probably would, you know, make sense like around—at the tax time or something like that. Maybe have an electronic... separate electronic event so where if someone’s just coming with, you know, a computer or some single item they don't have to wait in line for people that have a trailer full of stuff. Um, and then I don't know—I know... I don't know why the Public Works building was chosen but is it... is it just because it had a convenience or how is it laid? Do you have multiple dumpsters laid out and then when they’re full you’re—you’re hauling them down right away? **[00:42:24] Carrie Erpenbach:** We have multiple dumpsters and then Tennis is pulling dumpsters out as they’re full. So there’s a lot of truck traffic that’s in there. I’ve got some really cool video on my phone of how fast those dumpsters got up and pulled out. So that’s about the best place that we can really um, stage the event. And last year we had some stuff that needed a little bit of staff attention—I think there was tires that came on rims that we needed the Public Works guys to kind of do some work on before we could haul them out. **[00:43:00] Council Member Thorson:** Because I'm just trying to think of a... if we could choose a place it would be somewhere there’s like a large parking lot with multiple entrances and exits. Uh, and the only place that really comes to mind is Target, and that’s where that’s private property but they did let us stage all those trash bins there. But I don't know if they’re still willing to offer up that space or not. But uh, I don't know if that’s something too we’ve looked at. You know, the next kind of large areas would be like elementary school parking lots on the Saturdays is probably not being used unless there’s events or sporting events or something. But I don't know if that was ever any thought of that instead of having it add up because that Public Works is kind of... it's not ideal to have a line of cars because you’re just—you’re they’re bends and curbs and going down one row and down another. So I don't know if there is any thought about having it at a different place or not? **[00:43:52] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** Yeah, we—we talked about having it, you know, someplace else, but we can really kind of control what goes on there. And I think with this new route that we—we have proposed for this year... like you said, last year was the first time that we did it, so we just kind of "wang it" and set something up and, you know, it worked pretty decent. But I think we worked out some kinks with it and we’ll try it this way. We’re going to close down that frontage road, you know, coming in off of 2nd Street, and we’re going to have two lines. So that’ll be closed, they’ll both be going into Public Works. We’re going to have an electronics line and then electronics or just regular bulk pickup. So like Carrie spoke of where we can get the people with electronics in—because that was really the most that we, you know, the electronics was just crazy how much, you know, people brought in. So we’re going to try it. We think we, you know, the layout that we had in there, we could work it out, we could get trucks in and out of there quick, we could get people in and out of there quick. Um, and we didn't have to use any—any other property—um, you know, anyone else's property for that. **[00:45:00] Council Member Thorson:** Okay. You know, it’s kind of a work in progress. We’ll see how it goes and it worked out pretty slick. I thought you guys... you guys did a great job. **[00:45:08] Mayor Furlong:** I mean, I think it worked out, you know, decent. And it's on our property and, you know, we didn't have to handle things twice. Like we were talking about tires come on rims; we had to... they wouldn't take the tires with their rims, um, so we had to take them all off. You know, that had to be taken off. All the lawnmower stuff that was dropped off, all the fuel and oil had to be dropped out of them. So, you know, we had a staging area by our mechanics' bay there where that happened in the next couple days in order to take all that stuff out. So instead of, you know, the least amount of handling of that stuff is... you know, I don't know, I think it worked out pretty good. And we can always improve on it, look at different ideas. But I think a lot of people too had smaller cars, you know? So they're coming through many times. **[00:45:52] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** Yeah, and that was another kind of the reason we wanted to shorten the time or try to shorten the time a little bit is because it gave people the opportunity—I mean you can’t say for sure but like you said they’re, "Hey, my buddy in Oakdale—hey, I can get... we can go through there again, it's open again." You saw a lot of people multiple, multiple times. So it kind of just made you wonder where the stuff was coming from. **[00:46:20] Mayor Furlong:** Can you remember on the—the pickup event that was done? Had there not been one for some time prior to that? **[00:46:28] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** Yeah, there... not since I had been working at Public Works. So that was like 15 years. So I don't know when it was done. I know that there was—it was done prior, I don't know when that was. **[00:46:40] Mayor Furlong:** Behind Sandberg's Mercury? **[00:46:43] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** Okay... we had that access and there were dumpsters. That’s right. **[00:46:47] Mayor Furlong:** But so that's... that's not 15 years ago, it was... I think there was electronic—electronic? **[00:46:53] Council Member Peterson:** Yeah. **[00:46:54] Mayor Furlong:** Yeah, and like Scott or Council Member Thorson said, you know, we had the trailer across there where people could just drop it off anytime. It ended up being... you really have people—everybody dropping everything. **[00:47:04] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** No, every day we were picking up whatever it might have been dropped off. **[00:47:08] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** Well, I think that something we're curious about is whether the last event was meeting a long pent-up demand, you know? For years all this stuff was accumulating in people’s homes. Uh, and then if we have it annually, uh we may not need to have it twice annually. I—I think that's what we want to see is how the demand changed. **[00:47:32] Mayor Furlong:** Even if you do it twice a year, I mean it's—yeah. **[00:47:36] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** And we’re—we were thinking, you know, for if we did two different events, you know, if we did this one in the spring and then in the fall if we did electronics and a shredding... you know, something like that. Maybe not a full-blown, you know, pickup. But I guess we just have to see. I mean, we’re just kind of figuring out how this works and what the demand really is. **[00:47:58] Mayor Furlong:** Are the electronics going down, or no? **[00:48:02] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** Nice! I don't know, I mean... I—I don't know the TVs now. I—I don't know if they last as long as they used to, but I mean people would come in... I mean there’s people that brought in 30 laptops, you know, at a time. Or they brought in a dozen TVs. So I—I don't know, there's a lot of electronics, right? **[00:48:22] Carrie Erpenbach:** We have actually pretty detailed records as to what came in last year. So it’ll be really interesting to compare last year versus this year. **[00:48:32] Council Member Thorson:** And I know Ramsey County, they offer, you know, the hazardous, you know, waste over at Aldrich Arena, and that—that’s helpful. I think they offer, you know, some other... I don't think they do electronics, but they do more hazardous stuff, which is also good to promote for our area. **[00:48:51] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** We looked into getting hazardous waste here and just—we weren’t able to get that accomplished. **[00:48:58] Mayor Furlong:** Say it again? **[00:48:59] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** We looked into seeing if we could get hazardous waste at this event; it just—it just didn't work out. **[00:49:05] Mayor Furlong:** No, I think it’s good to keep it over at Maplewood. I agree. Uh, good. Yeah, I’m excited for this. Any Council members want to help that day? We have lots of yellow vests. **[00:49:17] Carrie Erpenbach:** Yeah, we're good. **[00:49:18] Mayor Furlong:** All right, they fit Council members really well. We—we had fun last year talking trash again. Thank you Carrie, Ron, appreciate it. So yeah, I think that’s a—a great event, you know? Spring cleanup, especially if it’s a nice day and people are out in their yards and cleaning up and getting their garage and house and... yeah, it’s fun. And it’s fun to see what they bring in. Sometimes it could be very interesting, I suppose. Willie, you must see a lot of weird stuff too that people—so what is the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen come through, or do you have any good stories on trash? Oh, okay. Are you saying you know where Jimmy Hoffa’s body is? **[00:50:00] Willie Tennis:** [Off-mic] As far as these cleanups go, since Tennis is kind of partnering with the city, if you wouldn’t mind asking my brother to come to some of the meetings? We do quite a few of these and he’s really, really good at setting up to make things very efficient. And he wouldn’t mind working with the staff. I think he does—does he already work [with] Ron? **[00:50:23] Ron Ritchie (Director of Public Works):** That’s a good—good resource. **[00:50:25] Willie Tennis:** Yeah, like I said, I don’t want to step on any toes or anything, but as long as we’re kind of there anyway, right? I know he’s got a lot of ideas and he’s the one that goes in most of these cleanups. If he could uh, put his two cents' worth in, it may help everybody. **[00:50:40] Mayor Furlong:** No, it’s good information. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, anything else? **[00:50:46] Brian Frandle (City Manager):** That’s all we got. **[00:50:48] Mayor Furlong:** It’s all we got, and we can’t talk about anything else. So uh, if anybody’s got any questions for anybody here... if not, a motion to adjourn. **[00:51:00] Council Member Thorson:** So moved. **[00:51:01] Mayor Furlong:** By Council Member Thorson. Second? **[00:51:04] Council Member Wong:** Second. **[00:51:05] Mayor Furlong:** Council Member Wong. Any discussion? Not. All those in favor signify by saying aye. **[00:51:11] Group:** Aye. **[00:51:12] Mayor Furlong:** Opposed? Workshop is adjourned. And thanks, Filson and Willie, for coming.