An update for the shortened holiday week.  Monday night we’re talking about snowplowing our streets and sidewalks, and about the proposal for a single hauler solid waste system in the city.  Tuesday night the Recreational Authority is talking about the South Campus Entrance to the Grand Traverse Commons, and specifically about the need for the pedestrian-bike connection to Silver Lake Road that was called for in the design plan.

Snow

This time of year the Department of Public Services works mightily to clear our streets and sidewalks.  The snows always prompt a good discussion, in particular about the clearing of sidewalks and trails and what we can do to ensure we remain a walkable community in the winter.  Issues that come to the fore each winter include wheelchair mobility and walkable routes to our in-town schools. 

We will be discussing this program Monday night – both for public education and for suggestions on improvement.  Here is an outline of the city’s snowplowing strategy, which I cribbed from a memo last year by DPS director Bob Cole:

In response to a snow event, our first priority is to clear the streets, then the sidewalks, then the trails.  (Street plowing has its own set of priorities, beginning with State Trunklines through major streets then to emergency routes then local streets and finally alleys.)  If all required equipment and personnel are available, we can take care of the streets and sidewalks at the same time.  Day shift Streets employees are generally called in to begin working at 5 AM in response to a snow event. 

Assuming that we have enough people available, we can send out 10 plow route operators and 3 sidewalk blowers.  But this year we only have 11 day shift employees – so we have pulled one of the afternoon shift employees onto days; done without the yard man; and ‘borrowed’ employees from the Water/Sewer Maintenance Division to help run the sidewalk blowers.  If we don’t have enough employees available to fill all the plow trucks and snow blowers, priority goes to the plow trucks.  In response to a weekend or holiday snow event, we call employees in for overtime to plow the major street routes, but not the sidewalks.  On a day that is not a snow event day, all of the day shift employees work from 8-5, including the sidewalk blower operators. 

On a snow event day, assuming we can send out three sidewalk blowers, here is generally the pattern.  One departs the DPS building for the east side of town by way of Boardman and Front Street to clear the routes near the high school and college along Eastern before proceeding to his Boardman neighborhood routes.  Another operator heads west along Eighth Street to Central Grade School, then down to 13th and 14th around the Montessori and Trinity Schools, then up Elmwood to Willow Hill before commencing west-side neighborhood routes.  A third blower heads down Rose to Traverse Heights, then Downtown, then to Union and Cass before completing his Central neighborhood routes.  If only one or two blowers can get out, they will split the schools up so that the areas immediately around the schools get covered first. 

 We have over 70 miles of sidewalks to clear, plus the TART and other trails.  The sidewalk blowers don’t move as fast as plow trucks, so it takes three days to finish all of the routes.  As you have heard me say before, if we have snow events day after day, then the sidewalk blowers basically have to restart the 3-day route every day in order to make sure that the priority routes immediately around the schools are cleared.  This can mean that during extended periods of daily snowfall, some sidewalks may not get cleared for several days. 

Once the snow event has ceased and priority street and sidewalk routes have been cleared, we stop paying overtime and have our folks work normal shifts.  For example, this past Tuesday, which was the second workday after a weekend snow event, our sidewalk blowers went out to continue working on their routes at 8 AM, even though some sidewalks had not been cleared.  I prefer not to pay overtime to clean only non-priority sidewalks – just like I prefer not to pay overtime to clean only non-priority streets.

So far I have written a lot about how we staff sidewalk blowing operations, but I should also mention the equipment that we use.  Streets Division has three Holder tractors equipped with snow blowers for clearing sidewalks.  These Holder tractors are used because they have narrow wheelbases and can fit on a standard-width sidewalk.  The blowers that are mounted on the tractors are equipped with shoes and rubber cutting edges to prevent steel to concrete contact and also to hold the blowers about 1-2 inches above the surface so that they don’t ram into broken or raised sidewalk edges.  Obviously these tractors are subject to maintenance issues.  I don’t think a day goes by that one of the blowers doesn’t get plugged by a newspaper, dog chain, football, or wet snow – and they shear a good quantity of pins, throw drive chains, and so forth.  If a tractor goes down with a serious problem, we can experience delays due to lack of parts availability – they are manufactured in Europe. 

Other equipment has been used by the City in the past.  I’m sure some folks still remember that the sidewalks used to be plowed by a horse – and then by a Jeep.  Some communities use blades instead of blowers – usually where snowfalls are less (blades are only good until the snow next to the walk gets too high).  We experimented with salting and sanding the walks – got lots of complaints that the salt killed the grass and the sand got tracked into houses. 

Nothing about our procedures or techniques for cleaning sidewalks is cut in stone.  We can do anything that we are asked, provided that adequate resources are made available.

I will add that there a few instances last winter of DPS making adjustments in response to specific concerns – clearing the Wadsworth sidewalk more quickly in response to comments from parents with kids at Central grade school and the Glen Loomis Montessori.  As noted, they can do more with more resources, which is a priority discussion for city residents to have with the CC. 

It is also vital to point out that each resident and business is required by ordinance to shovel their own sidewalk.  The blowers can take off much of the snow mass, but do not clear down to pavement.  I find this takes an extra 10 minutes after I’ve done the other areas at my house.  The GT County Commission on Aging also includes snow removal for seniors on a sliding fee scale, based on income.  More info at http://www.co.grand-traverse.mi.us/departments/Commission_on_Aging/services.htm. 

 Trash

The city is looking at collectively bidding residential trash pickup and recycling service to a single hauler.  The reasons to do this are to reduce costs, improve services, and/or get some of the trucks off the alleys.  A concept briefing on the issue was on this site back in May:  http://planfortc.com/2010/05/31/talking-trash-and-a-note-about-the-blue-wall-june-1/

The bids are in, and the time to make a decision is nearing.  A summary can be found at http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/agendas/Packet20101220.pdf starting at page 64 of the pdf. 

In short, there were three bidders.  Their monthly bids for the large carts currently offered plus weekly recycyling and monthly pickup of bulk items are American Waste $11, Waste Management $10.54, and Allied Waste offers the lowest price at $10.40.  For a smaller cart plus weekly recycling and bulk pickup, Waste Management offers the best price at $9.59 per month, and the same is true for budget bag plus recycling at $3.60 per bag.  American Waste is the highest cost but offers the unique single stream waste processing – more so if their new facility at the old Tower Automotive facility in Garfield Township comes through. 

These prices are better than the prices most individuals pay in the city, which are $13, $20, and $21 per month, depending on the provider.  On the other hand, 8% of TC customers are part of collective arrangements in Central, Old Town or Slab Town neighborhoods that have a 2011 price from Waste Management of $10.30.  These arrangements are paid one year up front and do not include bulk items, but they also do not include possible fuel cost adders which the city bids all do.  The city bids have set price escalators of 2.5 and 3%, depending on bidder, while it is unknown what the neighborhood agreements may look like after 2011.

Niche services, like higher end recycling and yard pickup, will not be eliminated.  Existing residential contracts will be honored until they are complete.  Commercial solid waste arrangements will not change. 

Monday night will not be the end of the discussion but it will be an important discussion.  Please let us hear your opinion. 

South Campus

The South Campus entrance is meant to connect Silver Lake road, and Garfield Township generally, to the barns, the Grand Traverse Commons, and the Munson hospital campus.  It was meant to be a traffic calmed, non-cut-through road with “strong provisions for pedestrian and non-motorized access.”  The design plan is at http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/recauthority/southcampusentrance.pdf.  It includes paths separated from the roadway on both sides of the street. 

Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, the design produced by city staff included no paths to Silver Lake road.  Rather, the one path that was included in the staff plan ended well short of Silver Lake because of wetlands.  Part of the roadway runs through the same wetlands. 

At its November meeting, the Rec Authority declined to release its $132,000 in funds for the project until staff could “provide options that fully accommodate bicycle and pedestrian access.”  City staff has since produced an exorbitantly expensive boardwalk design, with no plan to pay for it and no timetable in which it will be built. 

The Rec Authority will be meeting again Tuesday night at 7 pm in the city building to discuss the issue again.  The Rec Authority packet is at http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/recauthority/Packet20101221.pdf.  More details and a call to action are at http://mywheelsareturning.com/2010/12/16/the-south-campus-entrance-that-thinks-it-can-thinks-it-can/. 

My hope is the Rec Authority will reject the staff recommendation and hold its ground.  Pedestrian and bike access was integral to the whole concept of South Campus, not an add-on that may or may not ever be built.  The board asked for options to make this happen and has not been given any viable options.  If cost is the impediment, then a least-cost option needs to be formulated.  Then the public bodies can determine what can be funded, and how.

This is the key connection between the Commons and Copper Ridge, schools, the future Buffalo Ridge trail, Meijer, the YMCA, and the subdivisions off Silver Lake and Barnes roads.  It’s way too important to blow off, or to accept another list of excuses.  We’ve been here before, it’s time to learn from our mistakes and do it right this time.

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