e e e e e e e all right we don't let me get to the right one Workshop all right thank you at 5:15 we will start the work sh roll call please council member nordby here council member Woods here council member McKenzie here council member schweer here mayor mongi here thank you can I get a motion to adopt the agenda please I'll make a motion I'll move council member McKenzie second second council member Norby all those in favor say hi hi hi thank you very much see maner Randle please thank you mayor uh two topics this evening we're going to have uh Department updates the first one is going to be the electric department and we'll have Public Works to follow I will turn it over to John Wick our electric director thank you can you can you hear me good yes so I'll do uh uh just a little bit of background about myself uh the department um and then uh kind of dip into a few different topics uh if you have any questions along the way feel free to stop me uh and uh and if you have any at the end uh I'll leave a little bit of time um and then I got my contact info on there if you're uh if you think of anything later we can always uh talk on the phone or you guys can come visit whenever you want so I don't have a mouse okay uh so uh the first few topics talk about myself um what it is to be an North St Paul electric worker um how you become an electric worker uh a little bit about our department and then uh I have some pictures of the guys doing what they do so um myself I was hired in 2009 as a seasonal um I've been basically every position in the electric utility uh was a seasonal I came on as a utility locator for a while um then I was an apprentice lineman journeyman uh and then superintendent and now director all under Brian um I think I mentioned before that uh you know I all out to Brian he definitely uh taught me a lot coming up um I completed my apprenticeship through the city uh the we offer apprenticeship through Northwest Lineman College that's what all our apprentices go through it's a four-year program uh we give them all a credit for a year if they go to an accredited uh training program I'll touch a little bit more on that in a bit um I grew up in the metro area I'm from Forest Lake um I currently live there now with my wife and my two kids so what is uh uh North St Paul line worker they uh service the electrical distribution system uh that entails a lot of things there's um you know installing and maintaining the high voltage lines uh your tree trimming clearing uh trees away from any overhead power lines uh they're putting in new underground high voltage lines service lines um we're Chang all poles equipment um working on live power uh the guys all wear protective rubber gear when they're they're working on the the high voltage I have some pictures of that here um you're on call 24/7 U there's always at least somebody from our department um ready to answer the phone um and real realistically um if anything happens you know there's needs to be two to three people ready to come in at any given time uh they operate equipment uh the kind of the bread and butter for um any electric workers our bucket trucks and our Digger Derek Trucks for setting poles and and working on the overhead lines they also work um everything for for moving Earth too um pretty much anything in our shop uh minus some of the water and sewer equipment uh those guys operate uh you also need to be able to climb the guys uh all learn how to climb in school and then uh we still uh fairly often practice that uh we do have equipment to kind of get around it sometimes but um it doesn't work all the time you got to climb so uh and then anybody that's uh been with us uh that's now a journeyman is expected to have completed that uh any sort of apprenticeship there's there's different kinds out there we do like I said Northwest Lineman College and we found that to be very effective in in training the the young apprentices grabbing that Mouse so it's important to you know stay Physically Active uh you're your your your rle is calling for you to do anything from dig in the ditch to you know climb poles or dragging brush uh need to be able to work outdoors and enjoy it um complete a High School GED you have to have a commercial driver's license and uh like IID said before you need to go to um an accredited program Dakota County Technical College and uh mate wadina have the are the kind of the two most popular in the state and then after school uh once you've become alignment you need to complete a fouryear apprenticeship program and it's good to note that not all utilities offer apprenticeships um some only want a hir journeyman so that we offer an apprenticeship is uh very appealing to guys out of school or just with a little bit of experience that just haven't had that opportunity so I think we have a good draw for um if we are in need of employees uh you know that we offer that it's uh very appealing but not that we need them that often I think we have a good crew guys that uh I first see them sticking around our current department does have seven line workers in it and then a utility worker or a locator and of those linemen we have two apprentices uh we did have three up until uh last week one of them passed his final test and uh be getting his certificate in the mail here in the next month so uh it was uh it's kind of a big deal the guys you know they they take a test um one test a month for four three to four years um just to to pass the program uh and they got to pass it with at least an 80% they're better on every test so they put a lot of work into it and studying on their own time uh you know we expect them to be at work and and putting in the time here and then putting in the time at home as well so it's a big achievement when uh they they finally get through that program uh we do have uh I have there that uh we have a variety of years of service um 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 um and it's hard to say how much longer he'll be there I hope he sticks around cuz he's really good to work with so and then myself the director and uh the electric superintendent uh East Andale he would have been here today but had a family um a death in the family so he couldn't attend uh here's some pictures uh guys working uh you know on the left there we got our um we call it our backyard lineman uh that's kind of one of the pieces of equipment that's gotten us um saved us from climbing more than we have in the past um it's able to fit through a 30-in gate so everything retracts in we can drive it into people's backyards and set it up and it's uh fairly um uh doesn't cause too much damage to the yard it's a lot of stuff that we can we can fix pretty easily uh and then you can see all the guys working with like their their rubber gloves um working around energized lines um and just working in teams uh it's uh very common that you'll have two to three bucket trucks in on one job just because uh you need to be accounting for every situation situation uh there's uh you're working around stuff that's um hazardous to your health and could potentially kill you you need to have people you trust up there and and people that know what they're doing so here's some pictures of the guys climbing uh 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 and I could uh stand on a cross arm uh but you can see like that the other two pictures are uh some of our guys on the crew um you know they're it's very common to have two people on the poll at once sometimes three um and uh you know they use ropes and stuff to haul equipment up I'm not going to like go extent there's a lot of information in here so I won't go through all of it uh you guys have the presentation but uh you can kind of read what you you like from that but uh the a little bit of the history we we started in 1898 um was purchased from private investors and uh there was at one point in uh the late 1950s that uh XL Energy NSP at the time tried to purchase us um and I guess I appreciate that they didn't sell the utility at that time um uh just because they kind of cited that it's it's providing more funds for you know Public Safety and uh uh roads and uh road construction and just uh another income source for the city so um and then uh like I said there's a lot of information on here and we actually have a um a brief history summary at the shop so if anybody's interested I can send them that too it's got a lot more information than I put on here um but currently in 2009 the building that we're in now the Public Works electric shop that's when it was constructed is the second building on that site and the third in the immediate area it was the old the community center there was a building there before that was the the public workshop and electric um street car maintenance garage I say there's a you you guys might know more about it than I do um but um yeah we have uh roughly 74 miles of lines overhead and underground high voltage uh we sell roughly 71,000 megawatt hours a year and Revenue equates to about $12 million uh we have uh it that number actually is off by about 89 because we just added the article 7 building but there's um a little over 6,700 customers mostly residential on our system we have no industrial um and no real big commercial customers either so lot of residential and you know it's kind of that I think the small town feel in Big City so uh we have one substation it's down in Oakdale um right off of Highway 5 kind of by the fire training center there I don't know if you're familiar with that area we're on the opposite side of 120 from that and there's a vaulted duck line that runs from the substation all the way to the public Workshop uh there's three feeders in there that Branch out uh kind of like a wagon wheel from the shop and that's kind of like our the central location we also have a Feer that runs overhead along 120 from the subhe heads North up to um kind of by uh Silver Lake up in that area uh something that uh I think is a really great use of Technology um we utilize Smart Meters um when I first started here we were still on uh we had digital readout and mechanical meters but they weren't Smart Meters so somebody had to go around every month and get the reading um if anytime there was an issue we would have to send alignment out to pull the meter disconnect it um if you know for non-payment if they in the winter that we had to put these bulky limiters on the meter so that it would cycle the power on and off uh you're were just putting people In Harm's Way uh by putting them in those situations now with these smart meters they all communicate with each other and then they commun communicate back to City Hall uh we have um a Gateway collector back at the shop that or at the city hall here that they all communicate back to get the readings back to the billing department and they can send out the bills accordingly they can also disconnect power for non-payment from without sending anybody anybody out there and they have programs on them to limit the power as well in the winter so we don't have to put those bulky devices out anymore uh it's uh it's been a I can personally say from experience and then I think I can speak for all the linemen that they greatly appreciate them it may have taken away some of their overtime but they are their job's a lot more safe now cuz they're not put in that situation anymore um at least not very often um we do yeah go ahead I first started working here um after disconnects you could pay any time you wanted to you call in at 2: a.m. after you close down the bars and then linan goes out there and returns it back on and pays you in cash and there was just a recipe for disaster so yeah we stopped doing that yeah yeah I've heard many stories from those days but uh and then we're also completely LED uh that was boy it's probably 2009 2010 U that we went completely to LED on all the streets and Roads and and the parks uh here's just a little overview of our territory uh we got a little bit of map wood a little bit of Oakdale um not not too far outside of our the city proper uh big thing that when uh we're working with residen is uh i' like to reference uh this image um it it it dictates what we are responsible for and what the the residents responsible for anything in yellow in that image is the resident property and anything in green is ours we own the overhead distribution lines the Transformers the poles um the services to the home overhead and underground and the meter itself if you can tell on there is a little green meter on the front but we do not own the meter box or the meter socket and the uh the mass pipe going up the side and any wires and that those aren't ours so um it's definitely um an eye opener to people because in know the middle of a storm that all gets ripped off the house we're not uh we can't work on that stuff we don't own it so they have to get an electrician out to fix it before we can actually energize the house again luckily most electricians out there though they're not cheap um they will temporarily hook the power up we'll hang it back in the house so that when they're done uh you know they can get the power going right away again but uh maybe one of the advantages of Going Underground with your service and uh we do offer putting Services underground for I think a very reasonable price it's $650 um but again with that there's uh cost on the residents end that sometime aren't seen um their meterbox needs to be able to accept our underground wires and we only run 200 amp Services underground so if you have an old 100 amp meter box a lot of times it won't take those wires they're too big and you have to have an electrician upgrade your meter box so that costs more than having come in and put the wire in so a lot of people are real gung-ho about getting that service in but you have to kind of explain to them there's maybe more to it and an electrician is good at you know they're sometimes a good salesman too and they might talk you into upgrading your panel at the same time and you're saving money but you're spending a lot of money so we always kind of go into it with a little bit of uh caution just um people are very excited to have that done and we want to do it for them because um you know uh having the services underground while there's advantages and disadvantages um those storms just don't really become an issue anymore so we just want to see it happen yeah yep if you have you know everybody's got the phone and the cable lines going too and a lot of times if you can coordinate it with your phone and cable provider they'll drop off wire we'll put it right in the trench with them so get it all all buried at once so do you go off the like the closest pole then and go down like it depends um you know uh sometimes they're fed right from a pole uh we might have um underground pedestal that is down in the at the base of the pole or or mid middle of the backyards or front yards wherever they are and that's where you have a Main feed going to it and and there might be three or four houses coming out of that that pedestal we try to put pedestals at the base of the pole as much as we can just to kind of gear towards the future like if there's a bunch of overhead Services coming off that same pole well people are going to want to go underground eventually we need to have somewhere to put it we can't just keep going up the same pole and just clogging that pole with services so that's one way to kind of mitigate the the Clutter on that pole so if there are other overhead services on that same poll do we like rent out space on that poll to like cable companies and phone companies and stuff like that is that essentially how that works that's correct yep they get charged uh per pole attachment okay you know and they're for like Quantum they just installed our high speeded now so is that far enough I've got I've got a Quantum fiber now M yep yep they they all close yeah yeah that's I mean you'll see again this summer um plenty of lumen going in underground uh I'm sure you drove around the town last year maybe even the year before and saw they're digging up the ground everywhere they're putting fiber in all over town so I don't remember what their uh we had a conversation with them I don't remember what their ultimate end date for it all was but everything was going they're going to do the entire city so oh the Copper's failing so they got to do something I suppose yeah all right uh and I just have I don't have to go into all these but this is kind of some common stuff when you're driving around um that you might might see um everything new we put in is typically in the underground it's the green Transformers on the top a smaller ones more of a residential singlephase pad Mount and then to the right of that that's more of you'll see that by like apartments and commercial buildings it's it's supplying three-phase power so if they have big motors or you know rooftop units that need that that three-face power that's that's what's supplying it um and then uh some of our Bigg cabinets like the switching equipment um that's a it's called a switch gear uh there's that's a way to switch main circuit feeders and to fuse lines coming off them and protect them and to feed you know other parts of town off of that piece of equipment uh they're all over the city uh we're slowly working to um they have what's known as a live front configuration on them uh so when you open that door there is live equipment right in front of you and we're moving to dead front on everything so you now you can't you could I'm sure you could get creative and shove your hand in there somehow but from the outside when you open the doors everything is deenergized there's energized equipment within the switch but it's all encased inside of it squirrels haven't figured out a way to get in there yet uh I've seen possums really they haven't got into the lines but you open it up and they're just laying down by the warm wires down there that's happened but definitely less squirrel stuff when you got to go underground so um real quick uh we had already kind of touched on the the pole connections but you can see in the middle there you know the top lines are us the next one down is us and then everything below that the bigger stuff that's the phone and cable companies big misconception we get a lot of call outs for low hanging wires um you got to take them all seriously but a lot of times you can kind of tell by the call but you still got to go investigate so if power is not out and a line's almost touching the ground it's usually an indicator that it's not ours um again there's a lot of information here that um that I could spend a long time talking about but we're part of uh organization called mmpa uh it's our power agency uh we're we were uh one of the original members uh with I think it was seven total cities now there's 11 uh the goal of that was to um not be so relying on EXL for that's who we purchased our power from now mmpa is who provides our power we can compete with XL we can often times our our rates are lower than XLS uh it's all dependent on you know um if they have any big rate adjustments or uh you know the time of the year but uh that was the goal of that uh but now I mean it's even evolved to um you know with all the the mandates for renewable energy and state statutes for um going for conserving energy um we utilize mmpa to help us manage those programs and to achieve uh the goals that have been set for us I'll touch a little bit on it um but uh definitely I think it's been a great benefit since we became part of that uh not only are we um dependent from not relying on EXL but um were able to network more with other municipals all those 11 they're all great utility leaders in those those cities and people that have you I feel like I've been at in the utility for a while but I have not seen nearly the things that some of them have and to be able to rely on some of them for for um for information and just experience has been a great Boon to us uh we have many sources for uh electricity um obviously we have our uh we have the fossil fuels um that the goal is uh well the the Mandate is to be 100% by 2040 um all Renewables I don't know how um realistic that is but uh the the by 2030 we need to be 80% and I think that's a a realistic uh Target and that's achievable uh I have links in here for uh mmpa site uh there's descriptions of what we currently utilize for solar and and wind um and well there's Hydro but it's not really for us it's for other communities and then there's the last thing there that biomass that's kind of a unique thing um that I think our organization is kind of on the Leading Edge of it's um utilizing um Anor robic digestion on fossil fuels and or not fossil fuels um uh food processing waste and agriculture waste they they collect the gases that are produced off it and they burn them in engines to produce power and then there's um again there's more information on mmpa but they they it produces uh nutrient-rich byproducts too and those are all captured as well uh it's something that mmpa has been working towards getting that as a credit towards the renewable and the carbon free um it's just something that it's pretty unique to us and and there's not a lot of places that are doing it yet so uh just getting that accepted along those lines as well is i' like wind and solar again like I said 100% by 2040 80% by 2030 I believe it's 90% by 2035 that's kind of what the state has set in place um how much is it now what percent are we at now uh we are currently uh uh it it varies based on um demand but and and then the production from the solar and the wind but anywhere from mid-40s to mid-50s typically yeah yeah right now 25 is what's required but yeah we're at least the last meeting I was at it was uh like 56% nice and they're in the process of the biggest thing for hitting these goals is acquiring the land and um the interconnection application process the with the Public Utilities Commission um just having that transmission readily available and having um the space to put it in and there's a lot of utilities competing over this now you know that's everybody's working towards this goal so getting it in place as soon as you can and that's right you know we have the the green energy Choice program here um where residents can elect to um pay an additional dollar to three $3 per billing cycle and that goes towards um us being able to invest in more green energy but it also guarantees that you're getting 100% we're we're at least covering you 100% so as many people that are in the program we are guaranteeing that we're we're getting enough Renewables to cover them at this time um see if I got anything else there and uh again that's uh I have a link here for the sustainables uh but we also do have our own residential solar program uh we offer rebates for that based on the size and the um the cost to install the solar for the customer we currently have 19 but actually we are putting in two more this week so we'll be over 20 20 21 homes yep residential homes in in town uh by the end of this week and the rebates kind of vary uh based on the side like I said uh anywhere I've seen them anywhere from On The Low End like $800 all the way up to you know $2,500 rebate they're expensive to put in it's a high cost High investment may take a long time to recoup it uh but you know anything anything helps and and there's uh you know often times there's other um state and federal uh grants and and money that you can get we're not affiliated with that but we can at least offer our rebate y uh conservation Improvement program uh that's I kind of touched on uh just a briefly but it it's requiring it's a State statue uh it requires us to um put it give rebates and and put into saving energy on our system 1.5 1.5% of our annual uh consumption or kwh usage yeah that's the right word um and then uh and then we also have to have a hit a low income spending uh again that's managed through mmpa but uh there's different things that we offer besides just we have rebates for solar we have rebates for LED lighting uh retrofits new construction um appliances uh there's AC tuneups uh AC installs uh just most recently started adding the vfds for it's residential but we'll be utilizing on the city Wells they're going to get new vfds and we have uh was it 10,000 I think or something bfds like half the cost I think okay was it was it I can't remember exactly yeah I don't know off the top of my head but I think we were covering I thought you guys yeah I thought it was at least half um and it it you know when it comes to City infrastructure too then you know we have a little bit more leeway to to put more money in towards it um but some of the things we offer we have energy saver kits I mean if you guys are ever in City Hall and you stop over at the finance deck desk or Community Development get an energy saver kit it's got LED bulbs fuc airers smart power strips in them um we give those out to any North St Paul residents uh yep uh we got uh we just started now they're down there so should grab one on the way out uh air purifiers with filters uh they're just more energy efficient air purifiers and then in the holiday season we do the holiday lighting strings um LED holiday lighting where do I get my air purifier right downstairs and grabing on the way out yeah on the finance side yeah there you go yeah there's uh we have saw I think we originally purchased 500 units and 500 filters uh we have probably 175 left um they have probably 80 of them downstairs so um we do have uh energy saving tips on our website if you ever on the city site and uh there's a tab on the electric for Energy savings we recently added um there was a great resource from City of Elk River had a um uh a good flyer that had breakdowns of you know what an average Appliance is doing what rooms in your house are costing you what in power things you can do to sh up uh you know having better insulation value or um uh you can track your consumption it gives you a a way to calculate your consumption based on how much you're using and how how long it's been it's a kwh calculator um but uh basically you know I think the main thing comes down to uh utilizing some of the stuff that we offer you know and those Eco kits you know replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs um the Foster airators are a nice addition you know they're saving you on not only how much water you're using but uh Heating the water um and then these smart power strips kind of uh good and bad there's you know they're they're meant to and certain parts in the plug will shut off if you turn the power off to that unit it'll just kill the power to that so you don't have any like parasitic draws um but now with all the smart technology out there Smart TVs it all needs to be running all the time anyway so there's give and take with that all right I'm going almost done uh some of the challenges that are facing us um going into the future here got supply chain material costs they're kind of hand inand uh and then your grid sustainability um I think that's pretty prevalent with you know the E vehicles and I mean I'm sure you've seen in the news and in recent years the data center is popping up everywhere I'm not sure if we're that concerned about them popping up here but they affect everybody so um just a little bit on that um the supply chains we're still seeing one to two year lead times on critical pieces of equipment uh it's just causing us to have to you know uh plan better to that's you know on the consent tonight I've for those padmount Transformers that's just uh they still take a while to get in so we got to we got to get them in we got to make the order now so um and and it's causing us to you know sometimes reach out to Distributors we haven't worked with in the past there's goods and bads with that might be making a good connection for the future but you're also taking a risk with something that you know you might be getting a product that you just haven't used that brand before and you don't know really what you're getting there we're also seeing a lack of bids and quotes on certain items and um like you know we have contractors that come in uh put our conduit underground um you know they they won't even bid it because they know their price won't compete with um another company's um some people just kind of have it cornered so you get the one bid and then a few more that just say I'm not even going to going to try and unfortunately I think that's the new Norm I don't see it going back to uh the way it was anytime soon um but you know that's just you it just causes us to have to try and plan better again with material costs it's the same thing I think it's kind of the new Norm uh they're still high on crucial piece of equipment you know double to Triple the cost they were uh 3 to 5 years ago um and but the prices have kind of stabilized they haven't uh been hiking back up uh from the last couple years uh but then again how are the you know how the tariffs and all that impact that stuff I think in speaking with other utility um heads it's it's um they all have kind of different approaches to it some are saying they want as much as they can get on American soil now um or even before you know these went into effect uh but you know what what will it lead to will it lead to you know more local manufacturing will it lead to more Partnerships from overseas I it's hard to say at this time but uh I think for for us for our size and for and for what we plan each year I think we're we're still doing good and and the way we're operating can continue um but some of them bigger utilities that's definitely something something that they have to take into consideration so I do have on here uh let's see here try to I had something on grid sustainability yeah um so the our current infrastructure in the city I think is well suited for um increased demand for you know EV Chargers we have extra conduits in place for adding in the downtown area um I think the biggest thing is looking at site by site basis does does a Transformer need to be upgraded in that location and how often is that going to happen going forward um and and you know it's a it's not a huge cost time and time again but it'll add up uh just you know being prepared for that um we let here I I did mention data centers um you know something I just doing a little bit more research myself on them but um you know on a on a peak consumption day here in North St Paul we might see 7 megaw of usage and on an average like 100 megawatt uh data center they don't typically run at 100% capacity you might see 10 megawatts a day I mean that had data centers more than our entire city mhm uh that's that's just the reality and uh you know you kind of look at the they've got Maps out there for um the United States where um you know I think it was with Northern Virginia kind of leading the way where everything kind of started in there uh there's I don't know 10 to one all the data centers are there but Minnesota is kind of on the laging edge I think but uh even some of the communities that we're with for uh mmpa they're they have data centers and they have data centers going in or there's talk of them going in again I don't know where if one could ever go here but uh add to that the uh actually last uh council meeting you guys approved we updated the weighted voting um conditions that we have through mmpa and that's due to there was one of the cities that was looking at a data center that if they were to move in they would have more than 50% of the power combined of all the 12 cities that are in our power agency I mean these are sizable loads so yeah they're out there yeah I think with the current weighted voting uh the biggest city is just over 25% uh Shaka is in our organization but yeah if if one of those like I said one of them data centers more than just us so Rosemont they're looking at that one for Amazon I think it's Rosemont they're looking at putting that one down there yeah I think the one in chasa was uh Cloud HQ M and it all kind of there's I could talk about them too uh for a while but it all depends on you know the what's the risk to the utility what's the is this a reputable company coming in a lot of times they're building it and they're not the ones that are they're just you know leasing it out to other companies to come in there are they going to fill up are they going to use what they say they're going to use and how much are you investing towards how much risk are you putting into it so there needs to be you know there's a lot of it's a it's a big process I mean they've been working on that cloud HQ one for six or seven years now um just to try and get everything in place to mitigate risk to the utility and when it gets to that size mmpa kind of steps in as it's not just the city working toward it's the organization working towards that but yeah like I said I could we can have conversation about it all we want uh if you guys want to call me or stop by the shop anytime uh uh just to kind of close things up I got are short-term and long-term uh at least my own personal for the Department uh shortterm I I'd like to start looking into utilizing new technologies um we we have digital mapping currently um it's it's something that we're working on with WSB to improve uh I want it to be something that the guys can utilize in the field um with uh use of like iPads and stuff like that right now we do paper it's good the guys love it they can read it good uh but it just it leaves there's there's so much more information that could be at your fingertips you know if we if we had good digital mapping you could click on a poll and see everything you need about what's on that poll you know um something that we've uh recently looked into is drones um utilities utilize them for uh like we do poll inspections every year we send a crew out they're checking the poles on the base but they're also anyone they can set up and go up on they're going up and they're visualizing the entire anything rotten on the top is there anything broken needs to be fixed with a drone we could set up at the end of the block and drive the entire block checking out the top of every single pole um they also have thermal imaging where we could check out hotspots at our substation or on a poll Toole basis just see if we any bad insulators or anything that uh could be a critical failure in the future we we do have one at the sub or for using at the sub yeah yeah yeah uh just something that uh like I said it's it's all stuff that I think would be cool to you know Venture down time of use metering is something that I've seriously considered that's um other Utilities in our U power agency they utilize it it's um essentially for people uh mainly for with uh e vehicles uh it's dedicated service for that vehicle and they get lower rates in the middle of the night we don't have a program currently for that um but definitely something that uh I've done some research on it and we have like I said other Utilities in our our organization that uh that utilize that program currently um I want to keep appros exposing our apprentices to New Challenges just recently we sent um some of our guys down to Florida to work at the the tropical storm Melton uh it was the first time um in quite some time we've done Mutual Aid we've done Mutual Aid within the state uh in the past uh but I think this is the first time that I can recall that we've done anything out of state the guys went down there uh they're down there for uh about two weeks and they got to experience a lot of things that I think um you know you don't get to every day working in our small utility I do think a big thing for us is trying to retain quality workers um and when a guy can become a journeyman uh he has the ability to if he wants to go work somewhere else it's it's pretty easy for them to move laterally um so I I'd like to have that as kind of a you have an opportunity here to to get those experiences I even attached a little video if we had time to watch it Ava put this together with the she's our ni yeah this is on the the Instagram I'm Cole Tanner I've been with North St Paul for three years now my name's Holden I've been working for the city for around six to seven years now Sunday the 6th uh our boss John he uh messaged us and asking if anybody was available to go down and do a a line work down in Florida for the storm Milton I responded right away and then so did Cole next morning we came in the shop loaded up the truck with everything so we got this uh new alltech bucket truck it's a 55 foot it's our first time bringing this out of town we got dispatched on to um CMI the storm actually didn't hit CMI very hard so we ended up having to sit on standby but then CMI reached out to us and they said that they're going to release us and send us down to Orlando and we immediately started working fixing down phases and blown cutouts everywhere um a lot of trees down on power lines too the sent us out to just investigate so no idea what you're going to come into and stumble across a lot of lightning broken wires down wires so a lot of the power lines that we stumbled across there was um crystallization and you could see where the line was burning on the ground especially on the drive down to Florida there was a lot of people recording you know all the bucket trucks going down the road giving us thumbs up clapping stuff like that some thank yous saw people with thank you signs I'm just really grateful that um city of North St Paul was able to send us down there not every opport opportunity that we get we were're able to go out because we're so busy here grateful for the experience that's for sure it was great to hear a lot of their stories when they came back just uh stuff that they got down there um and definitely uh just look forward to you know we're busy here and if we can't send people we can't send people but you know sometimes we get opportunities like that I think it's a great great thing to do so um a real quick last thing here uh longterm uh and I think these are things that you uh you're constantly striving for I don't know what the timeline on something like it is or if it's something that's even possible in my lifetime but it's something I think when you're planning projects or you're working each year you're always keeping these in mind to try and Achieve that goal eventually entire system underground there's a lot to that uh but that's what we do each year we're replacing old underground but we're also installing new to replace the overhead um that kind of varies year to year and and just you know what the age of some of the old cable is and and what's realistic for us to go after um and with that having everything Loop fed um having the ability to if the power goes out we can quick redirect it from another Direction um that's the case for almost almost all of our underground uh but everything we put in it's just that that has to be a priority is just the reliability this you know needs to be there mmpa and us working towards 100% uh Renewables again like I said that's a very steep goal and we can have conversations about that but uh I think the 80% and potentially the 90% are achievable um and then I I'd just like to uh keep offering as many incentives and rebates as we possibly can uh you know we have we're surrounded by XL that's what we compare to and I think people they're a big company they can partner with different uh different companies and different products that's not really something we do but they're able to offer these programs to people and that's and that's what we compare to so I I think anything we can do to try and um offer whatever we can to try and stay competitive with them I think is is a great thing so um obviously within our means but anything to help people uh programs for residents and then just to help people save money so uh that's that's really all I have um again if you have any questions you can always we can talk now uh we can uh definitely have phone call or email in the future and then you guys can always uh schedule a time to come down and tour the shop so great appreciate it any questions thanks course the only question I have would be like if I decide I want to do underground would we talk to you first or electrician or how how would we I think a good path to go would be to talk to us cuz we can go out there and tell you if you need to have that meter box upgraded or not okay so start with that because sometimes even electricians will charge you just for their time to come up sure no we will not let me ask you this and do you have any electricians that work through the city that would be a price break for the homeowner do not not yet kind and quick question with the underground too so can everybody in North St Paul get their line underground or is there certain spots where it's still only areal I mean it's it's possible it's a it's kind of a case by case the 650 is the standard underground install now if you have a basketball court attached to your house and your meter box is there um that's not a normal install we have to either rip up that basketball court or you got to find a way to go around it and relocate things so it it it goes there's there's times where we do charge by the foot sure but the standard 650 that's for for anybody but there's underground that can be provided every house with in North St Paul I me there might be some you know in between things but you know we can do that and then when you said it which I was very interested in because if you lose it on the wire you're down but this they feed from two directions each one of your boxes then so it's Loop so is there a way to grab power from somewhere else then I mean I can't guarantee everywhere but typically any of our underground has some sort of loop feed what gives somebody a peace of mind if they have a medical issue or they have different things where you know it might be able to I should say that I mean we have the capability with overhead to do the same thing you do okay for the most part yeah but that's not built in like underground underground it's it's more critical because when there's failure on underground we can't just put the wire together go underne yeah now do they drill underground then do you guys have a augur that goes underneath property in that or do you open uh when we install we do not we dig you just dig it all out yep we have uh we have a couple different pieces of equipment for that uh walk behind trencher uh is probably the least invasive M we also have a little mini excavator that that'll fit through a 30-inch gate as well just you know when they're talking about Loop feeding that's more the high voltage that is the loop feed it's not the lower voltage yeah you wouldn't have two lines going to your house but it can help the other one so we grab on something happened on the high voltage we'd be able to back on from another Direction which there's a lot of we have an older community and there's a lot of you know people that have machines they need so and it's it's definitely there's a said I can talk for a while but there's a process to you know the people that have medical needs like they need to stay updated on our we keep track of that but it's it doesn't once you apply it's not like it's there forever so you need to keep I didn't know we even offered that so that's good information we do have that y okay so and there's a balance to that cuz there's stuff like if we can get the power going in 15 minutes we're not going to go straight to that house it's going to get on in 15 minutes so sure yeah you guys done a great job with that so it's much appreciated you know that's where today especially day like today you know we're liable like you said the different sources but you know we don't think when we turn on a switch or something is it going to happen or not we know it's going to happen so I hope we keep that in mind when it comes to some of this new stuff that it's works yeah now all of the new construction on 17th and Delaware that's all going underground right yep we have the conduit in place where uh in February the cabinets will arrive and then we'll be able to start installing the wires we installed wires there too early and we had um a um whittler try to steal the wire they cut they cut one of the pieces and they we have these ground rods in there they look like they're copper they're just copper plated and they tried to cut that and broke their tool so we're lucky that they broke their tool feel bad for them yeah well electric department does a great job and we sure appreciate it because you know you look sometimes and it takes quite a while around town for other towns and us we it's really greatly appreciated thank you appreciate the feedback thank you thank you thank you so much yeah next some speed shouldn't let him go first yes here he comes thank you always to the rescue appreciate it all right good evening mayor and Council um I'll uh try to get through this as quickly as I can uh stop if you got in or stop me if I you got any questions but I got a lot of subjects to talk about here so I'll try to go through them as quickly as I can and like I said stop with uh stop me with any questions that you have um so uh Public Works uh positions at Public Works uh when I started here I suppose it's like 17 years ago 17 18 years ago um there used to be two departments there was water sewer which where was four guys and then streets and parks which there was 10 guys so there's a total of 14 guys over the course of I don't know maybe uh 10 years uh that uh working group was Whitted down to about eight people people retiring uh just uh not replacing people you know for whatever the reasons uh were um with that what we ended up doing is um you need to carry a water and sewer license to work in the Water and Sewer Department um so everybody on the crew had to go out there and get their water and sewer licenses so we just had enough people for coverage um for um nights weekends again like the electric Department um 24/7 there's always someone on call um we have an on call guy that's on on call that switches weekly uh we do have 10 positions right now um we had added a position I believe last year um you guys approved for us to get at additional position which you know helps out greatly um so the guys are basically on call once every 10 weeks it's a rotating schedule and then Randy and I are pretty much on call all the time um one of us is usually around if or one of us is always around um you know at work or after hours um so it's just we're covering 247 kind of no matter what happens um said we have up there we have one mechanic um in the summertime we hire five to six seasonals depending on who you know if the kids want to work we've been having trouble getting people to work but I think the last two years we've had about five seasonals and then a horticulturist um myself uh and then Public Works director and then Public Works supervisor uh Randy um fleet manager um we do that with a program Randy and I manage the fleet or our Fleet of vehicles um I believe we have about and some pieces of equipment 200 that's cting weed whips and all the small all the small stuff um but managing all that keeping all that going uh with one mechanic it's sometimes can be a challenge but um the the program that we have uh helps us with that uh engineer consultant that's WSB uh you guys I think most of you guys have met Morgan Morgan helps us out Morgan knows a lot more about some of the stuff than I do or Randy and I do just because he's got a little more background you know in some of the stuff but we're getting up to speed with his help on on a lot of that stuff um and construction inspector that's when we have our big road projects uh WSB has an inspector that's on site basically every minute that the contractors on site watching keeping track of everything that they do um our Public Works goals are uh main uh to maintain you know the car services to the highest level that we can um streets Parks water uh sewer sanitary sewer storm forestry um Building Maintenance um so each day with the 10 people that we have that's on our best day we have 10 people we're kind of picking and choosing or prioritizing what we're going to do and what we're not going to do for that day um most of the days uh we make we have a meet morning meeting every morning to kind of Dole out the work and uh make a plan and there's a lot of days we go in a totally different direction an hour into the day depending on you know what happens so our guys have to be uh very flexible with what they do again with the 10 people we don't have separate departments we're one department and everyone has to have their water and sewer license um you know to to work there um basically you don't have to have that um when we hire you uh you have you you have to actually work in the water sewer department for three years before they'll let you go take the classes and then take the test for that so they have to have some experience and that's a state requirement that they that they require um we T try to take you know great pride in our work uh get the work done in a timely manner and then we try to be more proactive then reactive to stuff but a lot of our job is reactive to weather stuff um our streets and again I could talk probably all just for a whole session on the street part but we basically have a street raing that we do that WSB does every every year to raate our streets to give us a guide to where we're going to look at spending our pavement management money where road projects are going to be or where we're going to go um along with WSB and the engineers going out and doing their surveys of the road once they have that information we sit down with uh they sit down with myself Randy and then a couple of the people that go out and actually do the patching of our road so that actually walk every step of these roads and then we come up with a kind of a conclusion or an area that we feel is um you know highest priority a lot of our roads are bad uh you know so we can go all over town you can kind of throw a rock and people could say hey M my road is you know terrible in a lot of different areas but we have to there's a system that we use to try to prioritize it the best that we can and stick within the budget that we have um on a yearly average we put down about 500 T tons of asphalt that's our guys basically shoveling asphalt then that might be a little uh little heavy because we go and do some uh skin patching with the skid steer towards the end of the year but basically on average 4 to 500 tons is what we sh out for potholes um to fill our roads hopefully with that the extra pavement management money that we got we're going to be covering up a lot of these roads that we patch multiple times maybe in a spring season um and just for patching so you guys know the new council members um in the springtime the freeze thaw that's when the potholes really come out we go out and Patch some of those potholes multiple times in the spring and what we do kind of how we work in in the springtime when we can go out and get hot mix um is we go out we do the wheel Busters we do the big ones first so you might hear people say hey a public works came they patched four potholes on my road and then they took off well we did the wheel Busters because there's a bunch of them all over town we will come back once we get our summertime crew in to help with a patching uh patching takes about four to five minimum of four people but five five to six people to go out and fill the Pooles roll them and do it properly so if you do get some of those complaints why Public Works fill in a couple holes and leave we're filling the biggest holes that we can or and then kind of moving on to try to catch the city and then we do kind of our patching once we get help in in the springtime um yeah I I'll move on here so I don't run out of time uh snow plowing uh snow plowing is a huge priority for us in the in the winter time we take great pride in you know getting our our uh roads cleared as quickly as possible again quick overview of our snow pong you we have main roads we have a map I should have included in here I made some notes while John was talking but um we have some main feeder roads that are in town Margaret uh 11th Avenue uh First Street so there's some main roads that we may plow multiple times um we may not go out and do the side roads until it's done snowing so we may go out if we get depending on when the snow is and the timing of it we may go out just open up the main roads leave the side roads just so people can get to the main roads and kind of get out of town um but again people are saying hey the Paul went by my house three different times in a snow event you might live on a main road that is why Cassie lives on a main road so she might have to shovel multiple times at the end of her driveway in the morning but again I could talk quite a bit quite long on this also um yeah and basically like I said with our 10 guys um it takes takes nine guys to go out and plow or nine people to go out and plow um and on an average snowfall we can usually get Town cleared out this would be sidewalks pass uh roads in six to S hours we can on an average event that's barring no breakdowns or any equipment breaking down or someone having to go you know fill in on another route um have routes set up then for Port North South East and West we do yep um and basically the breakdown of that is we have four big truck routes and which is the city's brok into quarters and our main roads basically what happens is Two Guys team up on each side of town north and south um so you'll see two trucks together on the main roads because a lot of those roads are wider so you we make one pass with two trucks so it takes about an hour and a half hour and 45 minutes to get through the main roads and then those guys break off and go to their routes after we get the main roads open um street street sweeping um it's I never knew how important street sweeping was until we started working for the city and working with the Watershed District um for how much they want you to sweep the roads um just all the debris that that cars leave behind and just sand and the salt and everything we don't put sand down we put straight salt down um but the leaves and everything that they don't want going down your storm sewers and into the Lakes um we are fortunate we average average we get out about six to eight times a year which a lot of cities get out maybe just a spring and a fall sweep um meeting with the Watershed districts um they are they offer grants to cities for an extra employee uh for the sweeping season um extra equipment or to contract someone out because they want these cities to be out more uh sweeping the streets and with that gets into the storm water stuff where when we do a road project now they take in Morgan would be able to way more intelligently about this than I can but um if we take up so much road or replace so much Road they have a formula that they use where we have to go and build a pond bigger to accept storm water but the the Watershed District really they end up costing the cities a lot more because we got upside storm pipes and for this calculation so um street sweeping is kind of a big thing like I said we're fortunate enough we basically have a streer sweeper out you know constantly for two or 3 months at a time sometimes so um our Parks um you know our Park many as we grow are continue to grow um so as a need for maintenance uh you know Citywide Building Maintenance and clean up after events at the parks um the desire to you know enhance uh safety and appearance of the park buildings um improving the grounds maintenance weed control irrigation playgrounds you know we're doing things we added irrigation to around um Casey last year you know to try to make that look nicer because there's no irrigation or just to get grass to grow there and you know just make that more appealing um and Parks mowing we have two people out mowing minimum every single day of the growing season um in the spring time depending on what time type type of spring it is uh we have to mow some of the stuff twice and the the hard part is if we let it go um it's all to go and B Casey Lake Park it would take us forever and we don't have the equipment really to beg a whole park like that so it is something that we have to go out I know I talked last year about it it was so wet in the spring we we had to get out and mow and they spent as much time toning each other out of getting stuck you know trying to mow this but it is something that you know again we have to stay on um water um I we have about 4,800 water meters um that we maintain uh the water meters replaced about were all replaced about 15 years ago over a 3 to five year time period in the next four to five years we're coming up on the life of the water meters are 20 years um the commercial meters are 10 years and we've reached the end of life of a lot of the commercial meters and they're going out like clockwork at 10 years now the water meters that were installed are it's a whole sealed unit so the whole water meter has to be replaced you can replace the battery um so we have just you know sporadic ones that go out here and there but uh you know on a day-to-day basis we're out replacing some of those meters but in the upcoming years we will be having to do a full replacement of it'll probably be over to 3 to 5e time span again um to replace all those um again maintenance that we uh do on our system is Flushing hydrants in the spring and fall um we try to go out and we do valve turning exercise all of our valves um that is something that gets put on the back burner depending on what's going on um on the on a day-to-day basis um but going out and exercising those we can find um you know you know if there's bolts that are rotted off if there's you know any problems with them uh you know come up with a list of stuff to um to you know for replacing those uh the ledge service line inventory I know we've talked a little bit about this but that's a big thing that we're working on um right now is mandated by federal the um the they want the EPA wants all the lead service item would be placed in the United States in 10 years which it's totally unrealistic but they started off by having to do an inventory for the city we just turned our inventory in that we did and that was where where we had residents could go online report what type of service line they had in their house but not we just don't need to find out what's in the house we have to find out what's from the curb stop or the the shut off in your yard out to the main and they're even requiring us to excavate down to find out what those are we have about 1,400 reports or that we have reported in where we know for sure one side of it but we don't know the other side we it's still a work in progress of how this is going to go how this is going to play play out in the years to come but this is a big thing that is mandated federally there's going to be grant money out there for people to get lines replaced but we still have to work on our inventory and then we also have to we do lead testing for water that we had houses like 30 houses that we have to do once every three years um with our service line lead service lines reporting what we have in so far the the 12 to 1400 that we have in we have 38 known lead service lines in homes and then we have um another additional like 60 to 65 galvanized lines which they also consider it falls in a lead category even though it's not lead because galvaniz it the corrosion that happens in that pipe um they they claim if there's anything lead ever hooked up to it that there's probably something in there it's not it's not dangerous to the people it's not like if you have a lead service line they have to stop using their water they just suggest you run your water longer but the goal is to replace all those lines and again I'm just touching very briefly on this because I'm going to try to get through I'm running up way out of time yeah yeah we' like to have you yep um so yes that's doesn't have anything to do water sanitary sewer uh we currently have about 47 miles of sanitary sewer lines we have four lift stations in town um what our goal what our policy is is we get through the city uh in we the city is divided into thirds for cleaning so we get through one um a third of the city every year and that's all documented uh the last few years we've had a company coming in that's helping us clean and uh gather information they camer all of our sewer pipes and GA gather all the information um for where service lines are and it it's it's a huge help to us because we're going to have a ton of information that's going to be connected to our um sanitary sewer that we can have gain all this information that we've never had before and having on our mapping um but basically in the summertime we have uh two of our guys minimum out pretty much every single day cleaning the sewer lines to get through a third of third of the Town each year um and again I could talk hour on that also um storm sewer again I I touch I kind of talked about that the storm stew stuff that becomes when we do these road projects like we have to increase the size of the pond that's in Casey because of the storm or because of the road project that we're going to do so that pond will be expanded and that's dictated by The Watershed of what that needs to be so they have a they have a lot of pull in these projects and it adds a ton of cost um we're just at a meeting about with the Watershed District talking about that in a lot of the cities were complaining about how strict they were with this stuff because it adds such a cost to the project so again storm sewer is Big Thing downtown district with everything with all the new apartments going in town um I I know I've touched on this before but we clean when we clean downtown we have basically from 1:00 a.m. earliest to about 5:00 a.m. 6:00 a.m. to get the snow out of downtown and we clean how we clean downtown is we don't have any banks for people to step o over we kind of plow everything out into the road um we have a a contractor that works down there with the skid steer depending depending on how much snow we'll send another skid steer down there and then we have um a loader with a 16t pusher we actually have two loaders now with 16t pushers and we go and we push that snow to each end of town make piles and then we haul that stuff away later but we only have that short time frame to do it so with the addition of the apartments and running out of places once it gets a little more developed down there we're not going to have these places to pile this snow so we're going to have to look at uh doing it differently we have a loader that we lease um we leased it last year and we leased it this year and that's to help us gauge if we're going to be able to handle it with just another guy in this loader because we have to we're going to have to push this snow further to make these piles so we're we're kind of testing the waters to see hey can we just do this with adding another guy down there and not having to haul it out immediately so um there's going to be additional work as that develops down there for us um forestry um Emerald ashbo we had the the grant that we received it was $400,000 last year um $300,000 of that was for our Boulevard trees and $100,000 of that was for residential trees we spent all $100,000 on residential trees um private as trees there's 38 applications uh that we fulfilled with that we removed 81 private trees with that um with that Grant and we basically spent all the money for that so there won't be there's nothing left for the residents for that we spent um we have about $150,000 left of the remaining grant that we have um we removed 90 trees last year with that Grant ground the stumps and planted 90 new trees uh with that uh they came out um and they do an audit to make sure and they went to every single location and because everything had to be GPS and you know just to make sure um but uh Dan just received the check just uh I think last week or the week before of over $200,000 um and they paid 90% of it they they withhold 10% of what we spent until the whole Project's done and then they they uh um reimburse you for the rest but our our goal is to do another 50 to 75 trees with this grant the rest of the grant money our plan is to hopefully have it spent down this year um we have 300 so we started off with 1500 ash trees that needed to be removed it was a 10-year plan um we have 315 of the 1500 remaining to do um SE we're treating 70 uh ash trees right now they're mostly in Parks um just to buy us some time they're eventually going to have to be removed but they're just buying us some time with that again I can speak a lot longer on this but um go quick here uh mechanic shop I talked a little bit about that we have one mechanic um 205 pieces of equipment um you know he does a great job we work you know closely with him so he doesn't get overwhelmed um but yeah I guess that's all I'll say on that um and again this is just kind of a daily worksheet that we have like I said it's we kind of pick what we're not going to do on a day-to-day basis you know with the guys that we have but at this point like I said that extra person that we got you know helped us out a ton you know I think we're in a pretty good spot you know as far as what we have to take care of and manage um but um yes I rushed way through that but um for the new council members like I said if you guys have any questions like John said uh tour of the shop whatever you know we can answer for you I'm more than happy to answer any questions that that you guys have so well thank you thank you thank you we appreciate everything you guys do we have a great electric we have a great Public Works it's we appreciate it all oh thanks and like I said we appreciate the support that you guys give us for this and you know have you ever thought of putting going to the tech schools and putting an apprentice small engine man to do all your small engine work to help your shop we talked about all these different ideas with that because we were without a mechanic for a year because we just couldn't find one um the the only the only problem with that is that that job is very unique because it's everything from a weed whip to a diesel truck and air brakes right no but I'm saying for you know the individual coming doing small engine work like your weed whips your lawnmowers doing all the oil changes sharpening blades he that would keep him busy especially in the afternoons when some of these guys come back after doing their moan in the morning that uh he would be able to get on a couple M pieces each day to get it fixed for the next morning yeah I mean it's something that we could look into you know it's kind of maybe a summer summerish type thing you know for that but yeah yeah yeah all right oh anybody else thank thanks again you appreciate it thanks all right thanks Randy thanks everybody yeah thanks for the support yeah next time you have to keep a little quiet Randy all right can I get a motion to uh adjourn so moved so moov council member Norby second second council member Woods all those in favor say I I Council need a little few minutes here before we start up yeah okay well come give us five minutes thank you hi Chief hello