What's public works up to?

Do you ever wonder what goes on this time of year with public works?  The mowing is done.  Parks are closed for the season and road construction comes to a near halt.  What you may not think about is the large amount of preparation that is accomplished with the change of seasons. 

To start with, road construction season really doesn’t come to an end until much later in the season.  Starting with paved roads they need to make sure the potholes have been filled.  The manholes in areas with sewers need to be reviewed and if they are showing above the pavement they need to be shaped with asphalt to prevent plows hitting them.  Believe it or not the roads move up and down while manholes stay in place.  The shifting creates these differences in elevation.  With gravel roads they also need to be shaped to provide for plowing.  Surfaces need to be level and areas of erosion checked and satisfied.  Plowing of gravel roads is a bit tricky in that the roads need to freeze up before plows are used so as not to remove the surface materials.  

Moving on to equipment there are also lots of little things that are done in preparation for the plowing season.  Trucks are gone through and repairs made.   Trucks used for hauling gravel need to be repurposed to plowing.  That means plows are installed.  On the larger trucks that means three plows; a belly plow, front plow and wing.  With each plow cutting blades need to be checked and swapped if required.  Each truck is also fitted with sanding and brine dispersal equipment.  

Speaking of Brine?  What is this?  As a means to minimize the use of salt and to provide for better winter road maintenance the city now uses brine on the roadways.  Brine is a saltwater mixture that is used in certain situations.  Perhaps you have seen on the roadway what appears to be a stripe of water prior to a winter storm.  Brine is sprayed on the roadway to pretreat the surface to minimize the adhesion of snow and ice.  This allows for faster plowing and cleaner roadways.  Some times with limited snow falls it eliminates the need to plow in early parts of the season.  Brine is just one tool and used when conditions allow, it is not just used for pretreatment.  By the way the city makes its brine for use and that too involves time in preparation, mixing salt and water meeting the right concentration to be effective. 

Another tool in the winter arsenal is sand and salt sand.  Sand needs to be hauled from the pits and ready and available for use when needed.  Many loads of sand are made available for public works use.  Salt sand is another tool that requires preparation and forethought.  We typically haul in a semi-trailer of salt in the fall that was ordered in early summer.  Sand is then mixed with the salt and stored for winter use.  This is done onsite with the loader and accomplished a little at a time. 

Anticipation, preparation and forethought are all needed to gear up for winter.  Planning ahead for the season is necessary and time consuming but it is all worth it when the snow files and people need to get to work or the grocery store.  This may be expected but a lot goes into the process of managing winter.  

Employee Health Insurance

The city provides health insurance benefits to employees and their family.  The cost of coverage is something that has become more and more of a problem from a budgetary standpoint.  Each year the costs for providing service increases and as such the premium cost increases as well.  Premium costs are dictated by the amount of benefit or coverage of the plan and the utilization rate of the group.  With small groups the age of the employees is also a factor.  The older an individual covered the higher the premium.  This later factor is offset in larger groups where coverage is at a set rate for single coverage or for family coverage.  Some policies also have a single plus one rate. 

 

The policies offered by the city provide good benefits.  The city wanted to maintain this type of coverage but was looking for a means to reduce the costs.  Moving from a commercial policy to one offered by a service cooperative was seen as a great way to manage costs and was accomplished.  At the time that decision was made, the city council also capped the amount of benefit each policy holder would receive.  Any increases in rates would be an employee expense.  

There are 7 service cooperatives in the state.  They bid insurance with the buying power of a large aggregated group.   Joining the City County and Other Gov’t Agencies Cooperative gave the city the opportunity to take advantage of group buying.  By being part of this larger group the age banding expense of health insurance became a non-issue.  This worked for a couple of years with limited increases but our utilization rate was increasing.  Last year employees met to discuss ways of lowering our costs.  A change in the policy reduced benefits slightly and required the employees to pay a small premium cost.   On the heels of that change, the utilization continued, and with the new rating period the cost of service over premiums was at 1.19%.  In other words for every dollar of premium we were spending $1.19.  This results in a premium increase.  

The employees met again to discuss ways of keeping the costs in check.  To lower costs the amount of deductible needs to increase or we reduce the amount of final payout.  With a higher deductible the employee would need to spend more out-of-pocket before insurance covers the cost.  With a reduction in payout the employee would be expected to pay 20%, as an example, of the costs on each billing.  Even with these types of changes it appeared the employee share of premium costs would be significant.  

Recognizing the large increase in costs the city council agreed to increase the city participation in exchange for employees picking up a larger deductible.  The cap was raised and employee’s deductible increased to $2250 for single and $4500 for a family before insurance pays.  With a larger deductible the premium increase was reduced however it is also hoped with less insurance payouts our utilization amounts will also decrease.  The cost of health insurance coverage continues to climb in general but with changes in benefit levels and other means we hope to keep things in check.    

A New Trail Option Thanks to the PLCC

The city of Breezy Point is fortunate to have a conservation minded group in a non-profit organization of the Pelican Lake Conservation Club (PLCC).  This group provides for a number of services within the community to serve not only Pelican Lake but also activities within the community.  They provide their building for various groups to meet at no charge.  They sponsor boating safety events for area youth.  They participate in the placement of the navigation buoys in Pelican Lake, as well as other activities.  They do this with gambling proceeds and fund raisers including their breakfast and dinner activities. 

There facility is located off of Thrane Drive.  To the north of the building they have established a nature trail that follows the highway, with some separation, then loops towards the wetlands with a scenic overlook and back towards the building area. Recently they approached the city with the idea of expanding their trail system to include areas to the south of their building on property owned by the city.  The city currently uses some of this property for various purposes but the remainder is vacant or wetlands.  

With this in mind we discussed with the PLCC the use of the remaining property for an expansion of the trail system in this area.  They were both open minded and excited about the possibility.  A pedestrian trail easement was written for consideration by the city council.  The easement provides for the ability of the PLCC to establish a trail in areas not used by the city at their discretion making it very flexible. The city maintains the ability to modify or withdraw the easement after giving them a one year notice.  

Making use of this property for recreation and keeping it in a primarily natural state is really a win - win for everyone.  The city maintains the property for future use.  The PLCC uses the property at no expense and no tax liability.  The PLCC expands the trail system expanding their mission of developing greater appreciation of nature with a longer trail loop.  The trail becomes another piece of the recreational opportunities available within the community.  The only cost is working together.  

The City Council considered the request for the pedestrian trail easement and approved it at the October meeting.  In the next year or so we should see an expanded trail in the area of the PLCC property that can be used by all whom are interested.