[0:00] Hi, this is Edina city manager Scott

[0:02] Neil and you're watching on the job. A

[0:04] show where we take you behind the scenes

[0:06] to introduce you to the city employees

[0:07] that keep Edina going and show you some

[0:09] things you can only learn on the job.

[0:21] [Music]

[0:34] [Music]

[0:40] Welcome to the show. Today I'm coming to

[0:42] you from the streets, really not the

[0:44] streets, the sidewalks of Adina. And I

[0:47] want to introduce you to somebody who's

[0:48] very important to the sidewalks of

[0:50] Adina. His name is Matt Batty. Hi Matt.

[0:52] Good to meet good to see you again.

[0:53] Nice to see you again. Matt works is a

[0:55] maintenance worker in in a in our

[0:57] concrete streets division of our public

[0:59] works department, but most importantly

[1:01] for this show, he is our sidewalk guy.

[1:04] Uh can you tell the audience a little

[1:05] bit about what you do, Matt, for the

[1:07] city?

[1:07] My job for the city is primary sidewalks

[1:10] ADA inspection.

[1:11] I walk the sidewalks. Um, I use a

[1:13] program now and we go through and it

[1:15] evaluates all the any imperfections of

[1:18] the sidewalk, whether it be cross slopes

[1:20] or running slopes or

[1:21] So, those are those are things that I

[1:22] might trip over or something that's

[1:24] tilted the wrong way. Is that right?

[1:26] Correct. So, we're going to we're going

[1:27] to you're going to show us how how all

[1:29] that is done, right? But what what else

[1:31] do you do for the city? Do you do this

[1:32] is this your 100% job or do you have

[1:34] other things that you do for us?

[1:36] My main focus is the ADA part of the

[1:38] sidewalks throughout the summer months.

[1:40] In the winter time, I do uh plow the

[1:42] sidewalks. I run a trackless machine. Um

[1:45] I I love it. I love plowing snow. I love

[1:47] watching people be able to get out and

[1:49] use our use our sidewalks.

[1:51] Yeah. Yeah. How how long have you worked

[1:52] for us?

[1:53] Uh I've been with the city of Adina for

[1:55] 14 months.

[1:56] For 14 months. So you you must have done

[1:58] this work somewhere else, right?

[2:00] Uh I come from a commercial world and

[2:02] building highrises for 26 years. Oh boy.

[2:04] So all I've ever known was concrete

[2:05] work.

[2:06] Okay. So we're going to see a little bit

[2:07] of somebody else's concrete work. I I

[2:09] guessing today, right? And and really

[2:11] make this sidewalk better for the people

[2:13] that use it.

[2:14] Absolutely.

[2:14] So, you've seen this show before?

[2:16] Yes, I have.

[2:16] And I I've been told you're a big fan.

[2:19] I am.

[2:19] Okay, great. And uh so we're going to

[2:21] you're going to show me how that thing

[2:23] works and how how it makes the sidewalk

[2:25] better for everybody.

[2:26] Correct.

[2:26] All right, let's get to it.

[2:28] So, the first thing we're going to do is

[2:29] open up this uh app we have and it's

[2:32] called Deep Walk.

[2:32] So, what are we what are we seeing? Are

[2:35] we're just seeing what's what's on the

[2:36] street here right now. Right now, we're

[2:38] just doing the we're just looking at the

[2:40] sidewalk with it. So, it has a LAR

[2:42] camera with this. As we start walking,

[2:45] yeah,

[2:45] you'll see the green dots.

[2:46] Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What does that mean?

[2:48] And all those green dots are

[2:49] representing a point on the sidewalk,

[2:51] whether it be height,

[2:52] distance, cross slope. So, if this

[2:54] side's a 8 inch higher than this, those

[2:56] green dots are letting us know without

[2:58] without us having to uh physically put

[3:00] down a level anymore, okay?

[3:02] And measure it. And so, yeah, we just

[3:04] keep walking and it as long as we're

[3:06] getting both sides in. and you're

[3:07] welcome to hold it. And we just keep the

[3:09] sidewalk in the frame. And as we're

[3:12] doing that, it's just showing us every

[3:14] little point. Uh it's not giving us the

[3:16] data yet, but it's it's recording the

[3:17] data where we can have it.

[3:18] Okay. Okay. Come back here now. So,

[3:21] right where you had maybe shaved it

[3:23] before.

[3:24] We haven't shaved that before. We

[3:25] haven't shaved.

[3:26] No. But that's coming up and it's giving

[3:28] us a lot of a lot of extra green dots

[3:30] because it's showing all the

[3:31] discrepancies there. So, it has to shoot

[3:33] a bunch more spots to let us know each

[3:35] individual height variance at that spot.

[3:38] So, Matt, you've done you you've got

[3:40] this picture, you've got the

[3:41] information. What do you take out a can

[3:44] of paint and paint that or

[3:45] I would I would take this as we're

[3:47] walking. I would be marking the trip

[3:49] hazards. Um the cross slopes and

[3:51] everything are kind of a little bit more

[3:52] difficult because we do send this

[3:53] information away to Deep Walk itself and

[3:56] they send us back as a detailed scan uh

[3:59] into color basically. Um, black being

[4:01] the worst, yellow being the least

[4:03] affected, and green being perfect. Okay.

[4:05] Um, it's very hard to get perfect on a

[4:08] old infrastructure. Yeah. Um, but we go

[4:11] through and we utilize the different

[4:12] colors. Uh, so we can utilize our budget

[4:15] the best. So, we start out when I get

[4:16] get the data back, it pops up all the

[4:18] blacks and so I know there's severe

[4:20] cross slopes, running slopes, or trip

[4:22] hazards. So, I would go through and I

[4:24] would mark them and I would come out and

[4:25] I would focus on that first. I would

[4:28] finish those projects and then I would

[4:29] move on to the reds and then I get the

[4:31] reds done and then we work our way down

[4:33] to the least affected.

[4:34] And Matt, what are the factors that make

[4:37] a sidewalk heave or get out? Is it just

[4:40] poor construction? Is it poor materials?

[4:42] Is it trees? What what causes problems

[4:45] for our sidewalk system?

[4:47] The major issue for the sidewalks is

[4:49] tree roots. Um you can't stop trees.

[4:52] They grow roots. roots find little spots

[4:54] and they get underneath everything and

[4:56] as they grow they heave it up.

[4:58] All right. You know what needs to be

[4:59] fixed here, right?

[5:01] Correct.

[5:01] And you said you've seen the show

[5:03] before. So, this is where you show me

[5:05] how to fix this.

[5:06] Copy.

[5:07] All right.

[5:07] Absolutely.

[5:08] Let's do it.

[5:09] [Music]

[5:11] So, Scott, the first thing we're going

[5:12] to do is put some ear plugs in.

[5:14] Oh, yeah.

[5:14] Cuz it's loud.

[5:16] All right. I'm ready.

[5:17] Okay.

[5:21] All right. Scott, what we're going to do

[5:22] is just wheel this up here.

[5:25] And we always want to start on the high

[5:27] side of it. Scott, we'll just kind of

[5:29] turn the machine like this. Oh, and

[5:32] we'll line it up just like that,

[5:33] brother. I'll start it up for you. All

[5:35] right.

[5:37] Here's our throttle. We'll make it go

[5:39] fast.

[5:41] So, this is your lever to bring it down,

[5:43] Scott. Push it all the way down.

[5:48] Now, this is up and down. So, while

[5:51] we're right here, we're going to back it

[5:52] up just a touch. Like right there where

[5:54] it lines up. We're going to drop it down

[5:56] just a little bit until you start to

[5:58] hear it

[6:00] drop. It's dropping it right now. So,

[6:02] now you slowly want to go back.

[6:10] Go back about a foot. See how it went

[6:12] out and stop

[6:19] doing

[6:22] it back and forth as you do it.

[6:26] And it's doing a really great job with

[6:28] that.

[6:30] All right.

[6:34] [Music]

[6:40] [Applause]

[6:40] [Music]

[6:45] [Applause]

[6:54] Yeah,

[6:56] I don't think you should have to do this

[6:57] more than 10, 15 minutes a day.

[7:00] You get a workout, Scott. When I try I

[7:03] try to get 15 spots a day minimum. Um,

[7:07] but there's been days where I've got 20

[7:09] spots. Um, I'll go back and I'll take

[7:11] care of the rest of it. Uh, but as you

[7:13] can see, we already eliminated 90% of

[7:16] the trip hazard where you can now

[7:18] anybody can walk over that without

[7:20] worrying about it.

[7:20] So, so Matt, I've noticed that as you've

[7:22] been doing this, you've been using your

[7:23] foot to you got a good feel as a

[7:26] professional in this field about what's

[7:28] a quarter of an inch and what's a/ an

[7:29] inch and what's just fine?

[7:30] I do. Um um I I come from a family where

[7:34] a little bit of disability in my family

[7:36] um and so I look a lot everything I do

[7:39] um is if someone was walking and had

[7:41] some sort of issue with it Scott

[7:43] and so I just I know when I go by and I

[7:46] drag my foot if I if it if I can't move

[7:49] my foot it's a it's an issue you know.

[7:51] So the other thing I noticed when I was

[7:53] doing this is I expected it to be a lot

[7:54] messier right dust and rocks flying all

[7:58] over the place. So, how come that

[7:59] doesn't How come that's not that way?

[8:01] Uh, we have a super sweet vacuum. Um,

[8:03] the city purchases vacuum this year with

[8:05] this grinding setup, so we can do it in

[8:07] house. But that vacuum takes care of all

[8:09] the dust and debris that pops up, making

[8:11] it safe for bystanders and for myself.

[8:14] Um, it just sucks it up and it puts it

[8:16] into a little bag and I can throw the

[8:17] bag away without any without any

[8:20] touching any dust.

[8:20] So, it's not shooting all over you. It's

[8:22] not shooting all over the neighbor's

[8:23] yard.

[8:24] Correct. Correct. Well, listen, Matt,

[8:26] this has been uh this has been a lot of

[8:28] fun to learn this, right? I knew you

[8:30] were out here doing this kind of work.

[8:31] It's something that's really important

[8:33] to the community when you think of uh

[8:35] the various people that it affects.

[8:37] Little kids and strollers and people

[8:39] that have some kind of walking

[8:40] disability. Correct.

[8:42] This enables them to enjoy this

[8:43] community. So, that's really a noble

[8:45] calling. So, I want to thank you for

[8:47] what you do for the city.

[8:48] Well, I appreciate you coming out and

[8:49] taking a peek at what I do, Scott.

[8:50] Gotcha. You've been watching On the Job,

[8:52] a show that takes you behind the scenes

[8:54] to introduce you to the city employees

[8:55] that keep it on going and show you some

[8:57] things you can only learn on the job.

[9:09] [Music]

[9:09] [Applause]

[9:14] [Music]

[9:18] You know, I noticed that looks a lot

[9:20] like when you tried to mow a golf green.

[9:23] I know. I thought I thought the same

[9:25] thing.

[9:28] Although it's supposed to look like that

[9:30] here.

[9:30] Yeah.