hi my name is Zoe bour I am the city's new District Council program coordinator so I'm pretty new to the city started in July so I might not know all things snow management but we have really great folks on the panel to help um share information about their departments what they do um in terms of our snow management and this is a panel really for you guys and so if you have questions um we' be happy to make sure they get answered but we have a couple you know in our back pocket to you know get things going um I'm really excited to be here and I think you know moving forward District councils can play a really good role with residents to provide resources information and hopefully to maybe you know help um organize with you all if there's new folks who are new to the neighborhood and need help kind of putting together infrastructure that we kind of heard in the last panel um to organize with neighbors hopefully we can see some great opportunities for collaboration moving forward but um yeah let's start with introduction so if each one of you can start with your name um your title um and the department you work in and maybe just kind of like a high level of what your department does and then we'll go into the snow management piece good morning welcome everyone my name is Lisa Hebert I am the communications and public services manager for public works department so uh myself and uh two others when you get your snow emergencies all the communications and the website and updates around snow uh social media you know this is kind of the face and the fingers be behind all of that um handling all the media relations and Communications and uh Community engagement for public works all year round not just snow good morning Angie wec director of safety and inspections and we cover a lot of ground uh so uh Property Maintenance housing inspections constru C Services Animal Services uh rent stabilization we have the call center for the city uh business licensing I'm sure I forgot one or two zoning Administration um but when it comes to snow it's mostly regarding uh the safe passage and travel through the sidewalks um also though many of our um team does also sign on to public works' effort for snow tagging so they're also kind of seeing it um live in action as as the snow is falling and we're cleaning up the streets wow that was on sorry morning everyone uh Mark Zer uh I'm the accessibility coordinator I'm in the human rights and equal Economic Opportunity pay no attention to my name tag there is no n in my name but we're going to go with it anyways uh human rights and equal Economic Opportunity we call it hero even though that's also not how the word hero is spelled that's what we refer to it as uh my position has anything to do with uh disability accessibility Ada or language access throughout the city but the the hero Department itself is is pretty vast in what we do um it includes human rights investigators labor standards procurement contract compliance um police and uh civilian Advisory Board you know that type of stuff so it's it's a it's a pretty wide- ranging Department as well yeah and so director Kershaw mentioned that many Department departments have to work together when it comes to our snow management so can you guys kind of elaborate on what your department does or the role they play in managing our snow operations in the winter well Public Works uh we have the plow drivers the the men and women who actually plow the streets uh we have about 1,800 Lane miles uh across the city of St Paul um so it's all the snow management with plowing the streets um we do call and work in I want to acknowledge uh our part and wck Department uh the forestry division they come and plow in the winter um as well as um other folks in public works other divisions and Public Works um and we also maintain the bike trails the bike facilities bike lanes and then also a lot of the median work um also Bridge decks um Bridge sidewalks and a lot of the medians um and public stairs so I there's it's it's quite a bit so uh we we move a lot of snow uh for you know specifically for sidewalks uh people call in complaints of usually neighbors where they were not able to safely pass the on the sidewalk and those complaints can start um 24 hours after the snow ceases to fall and that's when you have 24 hours to clean up snow if you stop at a uh table downstairs there's some snow chips on on getting that removed sooner um or just keeping up with it if we get really big snowfall but uh that's how that's where our I would say enforcement starts we don't like to do enforcement what we want is compliance and I I'm sure that's what you all want is compliance you want safe passage of sidewalks and so we really start with education um but we have a pretty quick turnaround time on on snow shoveling and we'll get into a little more details of some of the other questions uh in my office um Fields uh accessibility uh complaints grievances or accommodation requests um so sometimes you know those complaints will come through my desk it's usually I'll help with whatever department is uh and I'll help coordinate the response with whatever Department would be doing more of the boots on the ground stuff so um just kind of a more of a um dispatch type of of situation when it comes to snow removal awesome so um and yeah before we kind of get into questions around you know why folks need to shovel their sidewalks and some of the different um rules and ordinances we have around that how many folks are pretty much satisfied with the sidewalk conditions in the winter in their neighborhood pretty good some complaints all right yeah well who wants to start when we kind of talk about why it's really important for residents to shovel their sidewalk um some of the rules that you we're kind of fundamental we have a lot of compliance we want as much and some of the ones that might be a little bit more iffy that we would want folks to work on too um I can start with just the broad uh reason why we want to do it is because we're good neighbors uh we're trying to create an accessible city um that's not something that we can rely on some City Department to do in its entirety that belongs to each and every one of us every homeowner every property manager every uh business owner um owns their small little piece to St Paul so keeping your area clean accessible um is just you're you're doing your part uh toward creating an accessible City and that's that's our main goal here it's honestly the most uh effective um and uh best way of keeping our city clean yeah I think um again we want we want compliance so we don't want people to slip trip or fall we don't want to create any more hardship for for you and how you're living in your space cuz any as I'm sure many of youw any sort of injury can really set you back in a number of ways maybe you're losing work time and so whether it's your sidewalk or or anothers we really want people to to keep their sidewalks clean for the benefit of everyone in the neighborhood and um something as I was talking to our police uh friends downstairs is you know shoveling your sidewalk and your walk in general also makes it very apparent that you pay attention and that you are there and you're present and so you know even working with your neighbors if you know that your neighbor is going to be gone for a week you know shoveling that sidewalk and and the walk up to the steps even or to the front door really shows that somebody is there and and is present and is paying attention which can can likely keep some Riff Raff down unexpected Riff Raff down in in the neighborhood so you know there's a host of reasons why um you would why it's important to keep your sidewalk shoveled uh last year's panel Carrie joined us and um something that I learned and I live U next door to a home where metr Mobility comes often but what I didn't know about metr Mobility is the the scheduling requirements so if somebody who thinks that they can take public transit that day can't because they can't Traverse the sidewalk they also don't have the ability to call Metro Mobility to come to straight to their house because that required them to schedule something ahead of time so it really is important because then people are missing doctor's appointments or you know not getting to work and uh it so we really just want to make sure that people can do the things that they want to accomplish in life which you wouldn't think sidewalks were so critical to that but they are yeah and accessibility is like you know it's a human right uh so well we don't think of having a clean sidewalk as an act of our you know civil obedience or whatnot um when you know when you have an unpassable space you're cutting off access to somebody to get to you know the bus stop or or the the street down you know the next street over or whatnot um so while I'm sure that people who uh neglect their sidewalks in the winter are not actively trying to discriminate against somebody um the end result is basically the same you're cutting off their access to something that they should have access to so just keep that in mind keeping your sidewalk clean is just an act of being a good neighbor and good citizen and fulfilling your civic duty I would just also add that winter is Tough Enough on everyone you know again being a good neighbor is really important and not making it more challenging for people and putting obstacles in their way but also just making sure that you understand that shoveling your sidewalk doesn't mean a little Rabbit Trail um it really means the whole width of the sidewalk um it's important for you know people with mobility issues you know people with strollers you know even just walking up and carrying some bags from your car parked down the street um you know again because a lot of people you can't park always right in front of your house you're going to have to walk down your block a little bit and again walking in the street is not ideal and it's not safe um so again just helping each other out but making sure that it is the full width of your sidewalk um not the Rabbit Trail not just shoveling a a a snow shovel width apart but again the whole the whole withd question yep and even up until your property line your steps your mail men male women really would appreciate that um Lisa can you kind of go there's a question oh there is a question yeah um so and I apologize cuz I just stepped I stepped up for a second so if you covered this already what sort of services does St Paul offer or at least connections to community services for people who maybe own homes who are Mobility challenged and therefore can't sidewalks um I mean I think people are Civic minded and sometimes they're Civic minded and don't aren't physically capable um so are there resources for folks who maybe need that help and or to connect whether it's volunteers or whatever do you want to repeat the question first because of the microphone yeah uh so the question was you know for those who are unable to uh due to age or disability um or whatever the reason might be take care of their um snow clear their walks things like that what resources are there available for those folks um on that back table and down at the alley Captain's Table downstairs I put a stack of these this was put together by our um advisory Council on Aging AOA um with numbers and resources to All Sorts or numbers to resources for all sorts of of things um including snow removal trees parking trash um on the back of it there's uh numbers for the neighborhood living at home networks so if you are uh disabled or elderly and need somebody to help um these are good places to start um if you have a neighborhood Facebook group that's also Al a good place to reach out um to see who is providing that normally you know I would hope that maybe someone on your block or the next block over would be able to offer their services when it snows take care of their neighbor have their kid Do It Whatever the situation might be um but I would say grab one of these um make a few phone calls make a connection either with your living at home network or a neighborhood um your uh what do they call the district councils or um the neighborhood Facebook groups I'll just also add that there is actually a group um here in St Paul it's called the saintly snow angels um this is a community Grassroots group that has started a few years ago and it's on Facebook um and and it's working with the city as well um and looking for two things one looking for volunteers in their neighborhood who would sign up and say you know what I'll go an extra I'll I'll just keep going down my block I have a snowblower it's easy I'll just keep going and do my whole block um or if you need that assistance you can say you know hey I I broke my leg I'm not going to be able to shovel um can I get some assistance for two weeks or the whole winter so it's it's kind of trying to connect people who need those services with a a group of really amazing Volunteers in their neighborhood who can kind of help them out whether it's a week while they're gone or while they're recovering um or if if they need it all season long so again that's the saintly snow angels and they do have a Facebook page and I believe there's a link think it's saintly City oh saintly City snow angels what did I say that's yeah that's helpful and especially with aging neighbors sometimes they aren't online yeah yeah so so if you can connect help connect them or again um again if you can volunteer in your neighborhood and and help um on your block or whatever that's really great saintly city city snow snow angels what did I call it I don't know I made up names but saintly City snow angels yeah and they're also sounds like there could be a good overlap with engagement around alley captains engaging neighbors having some of these flyers could be helpful when you're out on the doors as well um does anyone else have any questions up until this point we still have some questions that we can get to yeah yes excuse me one of my concerns is alleys mhm the alleys get plowed but then cars are coming in and crossing over and the sidewalk across the alley gets uh can often be very icy or or not just easy snow but Road crud and everything packed on it any thoughts yeah so the question was about the sidewalks kind of where alleys let out they can be challenging any thought About Management around that yeah I I'll take that for Public Works we we get a lot of questions you know can we in public works you know come back and repow at the end of driveways or at the end of alleys or um and the short answer is unfortunately no um there's just the sheer number of and the staff time we're not going to be able to get that kind of that that amount that part of that snow is left is the technical term is a windro um and so unfortunately that's not something that the city is going to be able to come back and I was thinking about responsibility um I certainly know I'm responsible for my sidewalk in front of my house who's responsible for the sidewalk across the alley I again um I don't it's still considered part of the so it's and we heard in the last session that actually one of the alley captains uh hasn't you know pays for an extra service essentially for after the city plows come by to clear that back out again which seems like a good solution if your plow driver will do it but it is part of the alleyway so they more refined they they our our provider takes care of that but um it's the clearing it to the cement which the LA plowers certainly don't do and you know what clearing it to the cement [Music] um again that's that's something that I I would really encourage the budding neighbors to kind of take a look at and maybe spread just a little bit of salt on that um to kind of get at that I don't think that that's something that the private plow contractors are going to be able to get down to that that level so I I think that might be a nice thing to kind of work with the neighbors it sucks yeah yeah it it it does um but I think that's that's going to be a hard thing because they're not going to be able to get down especially when you got some grades and some differentials that are happening too it does get to neighborhood we just there's nice neighbors that go it does get to one of our other questions which is where to put the snow because I you know occasionally somebody might just push the snow into that space thinking oh well the alley driver will will get it um so where to put the snow um that you're shoveling off the sidewalk now it would be lovely if everyone had like 8ft boulevards and a low sloping grade on the other side and that they were able to put it on either side and there's plenty of snow storage we know that that is not the case everywhere we know sometimes the the sidewalk goes right up to a we're very hilly in St Paul so it goes right up to a retaining wall and and unless you like really got the pipes you're not going to be putting that up 5T onto the top of that retaining wall and so you're working with the boulevard um the the goal is to try to keep it out of the street so either on the private property or in the boulevard but clear pavement as Lisa mentioned um you know full width clear pavement and either kind of get it in the boulevard space or back on private property because if it goes into the street then we're just creating other other issues yeah Carrie did you have a question so um yeah I don't remember if I asked this question before but when when you're getting a hold of the snow cat the um that that company um are are you making an arrangement for that for something to happen or are you can you call them like on this spur their moment hey I'm stuck can somebody help for the alley to sidewalk or for for like when like if I'm Wheeling down the sidewalk and get stuck in the snow can somebody can I call somebody and have them get me out how does that work yeah so the question was if they're if you're on the sidewalk and you get to a point where you're not able to continue to pass are there any resources or services that one can consider in that situation that's a good question that is a good question um I guess I I don't know I mean like it prior to that happening it obviously is the responsibility of whoever property you're on you know if that's a corner lot um there responsibility is clearing not just the sidewalks in front of their home but like the curb cuts and and you know whatever the the entrance to the street would be even if the plows come by and and put up a little snowbank there it's still the property owner's responsibility Whoever has that corner lot to make sure that's clear um that if they fail to do that and you find yourself stuck in a snow bank that's you know too late to to worry about that um the question about who could I call in that moment is a good one I mean I guess Emergency Services uh you know if you were to call the non-emergency number and say Hey you know I'm stuck could you send somebody to help get me out if you have if you're in a neighborhood where you know the people around there I would probably recommend calling someone who you know who might be able to come out and and help you out um you know I would I would probably first turn to to the neighbors around me um but yeah I don't I don't know if there's any official line on on the city offering a service to come help out somebody who's whose wheelchair might be stuck in a in a snow or an un unshoveled uh sidewalk that's a good question I'll have to get back to you on that car I mean if you were actually if you're actually stuck in the snow call 911 I I mean don't purposely get stuck in the snow but if you are actually stuck in the snow in a wheelchair we do not want you outside for you know in the winter and not able to to be mobile uh so call 911 they will be happy to help you get out of this not our goal is obviously for that not to happen and one of the things that I haven't mentioned yet is you know who to call or if you um have or see or routinely see um unshoveled sidewalks it doesn't even have to be a routine we like people to actually talk to their neighbors so you know my my first thing would be do little education yourself hey I see the sidewalks not shoveled it's really easier to get to that before it freezes or gets trampled on by 600 people um and and maybe you might be able to say find out like they're out of town or maybe you find out that they you know blew out their knee and they can't they're not able to get out there so it also just Fosters some good um communication amongst neighbors but start with education also 651266 8989 uh number is everywhere on the city's website but 266 8989 and that's the number for reporting these things we also have a web form so if and that phone is answered during the day but also we pick up the voicemails every morning and it's not uncommon for us to do you know 500 snow complaints in a day so our goal is obviously to reduce the number of those so that people are more actively taking care of their sidewalks and part of the thing with you know saintly City snow angels um or some others that you know if you went to this house and find out that um the resident is just not able to shovel their sidewalk maybe you adopt that person for the whole season and you just make it part of your routine that that after you shovel your sidewalk you get to theirs and it's our hope that that kind of neighborly thing can happen um because really if the city sends out the contractor to shovel your sidewalk realistically you could have afforded to pay for somebody the entire season so it's we we charge what it costs to recover our costs we're not making money off of this but um the it's not cheap to send a contractor out to shovel the sidewalk especially if it's several days is later and we've had some freeze and thaw and so it is usually cheaper faster easier to either do it yourself or uh hire a nice neighbor kid to get it done during the or somebody who's looking for a side hustle to get it done for you in a timely manner yeah I think those are all you know great resources obviously you want to avoid that situation I know this is live streamed and recorded so again why it's important to consider folks who live in your neighborhood neighborhood or are passing through your neighborhood are you close to a major through fair near Transit like those are considerations you want to also have on your mind when you're doing your duty and shoveling your sidewalk um so I know questions yeah do you have a sense of how many alleys go unplowed in a season and given the safety concerns around that what recourse does the city have so the city has about 20 500 alleys um they are uh dead end alleys or t alleys or S alleys or C alleys they're pretty much all different different widths and different sizes so um we've got about 2500 about 330 miles of alley is what the city has unfortunately we don't have a good estimate of um how many alleys are plowed um because of the you know with alley captains doing that um again this is why we're trying to connect with alley captains and get a better understanding of where they are and how we can connect and work with uh neighbors and residents to to kind of bring their neighbors together to get their alleys plowed um because we know that that is a real barrier for people all winter long and the access is really important for our emergency responders and obviously um the utilities of getting your garbage and recycling collected because if you have an alley you pretty much um I don't know if it's 100% but that's where your garbage and recycling collection is every week as well so unfortunately we don't have a good estimate of how many alleys like what percentage I'm I'm kind of eying I'm eying my colleagues in the back to see if they have any any good estimate and they don't I don't know if DSi has right so again the importance of why we need to connect with um and wanting to work with our our resid and our businesses to to again really form this team and and cohesive work together all winter long good question yeah yeah I have a question about sidewalk maintenance sometimes as good as you can do with the sidewalk is hilly or cracked or whatever I mean it may still be pass but it's not great so how often does the city check for that or I assum you get complaints about that or you know how often is that something M first like replacement schedule so yeah I'll address a little bit of sidewalk maintenance first so um again we have I think it's almost like 1,400 miles a sidewalk and so the replacement of some of these cracks and kind of unevenness where that water can pool and freeze that gets really really tough so we only end up uh doing a really about a mile or two of um actual replacement panels um but in the mean meantime what we'll try to do is do asphalt patches so if you've got any issues you know definitely reach out to Public Works and our sidewalk team let us know where they are so we can get them on the list and if they're really small we can we'll come and grind some of that down but otherwise it's it's patching um and we have done that in the alleys every now and then too to where it's there but that has to be a really big ponding pooling issue of it running into somebody's garage or something like that um but again for the sidewalk um again let us know so we can get that on the list so we can kind of try to maintain that during the year to help during the winter um and then I guess throughout the winter I the best advice is um is to you know just kind of getting out there as soon as you possibly can and and getting a little bit just kind of keeping at it um salt products will work um you do not this is my you know Environmental pitch on this is be very very judicious don't you don't need a ton of salt to have it start melting the ice in fact when you kind of Clump it all together it it doesn't help at all and it actually will cause a little bit more refreeze and some more problems so be very um you don't need a lot of a little salt goes a long way and just as a reminder for people using salt all of that runs off into our storm sewer system and into our lakes and rivers so it is a pollutant but it is important for us in Minnesota especially with our Winters to make sure our sidewalks are safe so that was that was a lot but I'll just add that we know the sidewalks aren't perfect and so the our folks um do put eyes on every single complaint before we order the it to be Abad by a contractor so what we usually do is send out what's we call a blind letter essentially that says here are the requirements if you haven't shoveled your sidewalk do so otherwise we're going to come do it and charge you for it so we cover a lot of ground all in that one letter and some people get upset because we send letters and they're like I just you know because of mail they might have already shoveled their their sidewalk by the time they got the letter which is fine that's what we hope for um but you know before actually sending out a contractor we put eyes on it and if it's the best it can get because of the circumstances then it's not going to get written up as a as an abatement order do your best that is annoying to get one of those letters though I got to tell you cuz I did my neighbor's house and my house and to other neighbors house last I got a letter they didn't and I cleaned it it was cleaned to the side I called I called you guys and they were like well we haven't seen it yet well there's nothing to see so those letter are uh can we supposed to be I mean the comment was that the letters are annoying yes um when you're done the work the I will say that uh we are complaint-based and so sometimes uh they get the address wrong which means the letter went to the wrong place maybe they didn't report the east or west or the North or South and we got the wrong the wrong one uh but we are for sidewalks in particular complaint-based and uh but we also monitor the the complaints too because because we know that our complaint-based system can be utilized to harass Neighbors which is not something that it was designed for and that we don't want to occur best case scenario you get a letter you look outside you have a clean sidewalk you throw the letter away you recycle it you recycle the letter thank you and uh problem solved there's another question I have a question and a comment um my first question is I want to give the Department of Public Works and basically all of you guys a great deal of appreciation uh last winter I ran into a pothole right and it dinked my tire I got a flat tire I had to get a new tire and I was told that the city is thinking about or is actually starting to reimburse people uh for damage to their cars if they run into a major pothole so I sent my letter in and I said I'd like to know what you can do for me and within two weeks I got a letter back from the Department of I'm not sure who came from but they said well we looked at our records and that pothole had not been reported yet you were you were the first complaint about that particular paddle and they said unfortunately unless it had been complained about we would have 72 hours to cat it and you ran into it prior to the 72 hours or it hadn't been reported yet so we can't help you but we appreciate your letter and we would have helped you if we could have based on the rules so I got to give the city of St Paul kudos for uh helping general public here that doesn't see a pothole in the middle of the night and uh it happens and so every time I drive through that intersection I think of that I go yeah okay I learn something there but the city really did respond and I I thank you guys for that now my question is in our alley we don't have a street light or an alley light in the middle of the alley and it's a typical Al I don't know how long a city block is but it's just regular city block and that alley is just as dark as can be and I was told it's going to cost it a huge amount of money to put a Aly light in there when a lot of alleys in my neighborhood have lights in the middle of the alley so I don't understand I was told that there was one there once at some point in time and it's not there anymore maybe somebody ran into the lake pole I don't know but I was told it's going to cost us like 70 bucks a month each to put a light in there what's the deal with City lighting and a there we go I can kind of just echo in general first that comment was appreciation of Public Works around communication around the PO pothole complaints and reimbursement process if you see one um uh reported and then the question was about alley lighting Lighting in the alleys your alley doesn't have lighting it could be costly to get a light in the alley what is kind of a city response to that situation great question uh I'll start with a Ali lights so Ali lights are provided by and installed by XL Energy so if any Ali has a light in it it's because the you know usually usually usually a long time ago um all the abing people on the Alley came together and asked Exel energy to put in that that light so any alleys or any lights in the alley are owned and operated by XL Energy and that is a separate bill that you then pay to Exel energy so if you've got if your alley light is out and it's dark um You can call the city but we're GNA we're going to give you XL Energy number for that one to change the light so um so just know that if you do want a a light in your alley you can do it but again they typically will charge it to you have to kind of have all your all your um Neighbors on the Alley agree to that because and split the cost of what that's going to be to install and then maintain and and my understanding is you will get an extra charge from XL Energy for the energy for that that alley light so and so that's that's kind of alley lights okay um so don't give up on it just kind of chat with your neighbors and and see if that's if that's something you want to do um you can you can do that it's just not through the city and we can we can make that connection and give you the number for XL Energy as well on that one and Kevin there's a neighbor in the back who might be able to give you more information after this yeah yeah you want to I can help you it's not $70 a month yeah it I it's it's not installation is going to be the the biggest piece of all of that of course the cost for that and then your comment about potholes um potholes are something that we our Street Maintenance division patches all year round um so and the mix that they use in the winter is different it's a cold mix versus a hot mix so it doesn't have quite the the adhesive power as the the Summer Mix does um and again we do appreciate when people call in potholes um and report them because as you as you've learned Kevin it's we we track that so if somebody says that there's a pothole here and here um we you know get the cruise out there we get it filled as quickly as possible and um and then that gets gets addressed because of the claim process because if we haven't been notified and had the time and opportunity to feel that and correct that then that's where the city um where people can file a claim and and maybe receive some compensation so again reporting these potholes to us to make sure that we know where they are is important um and again we'll get to them as soon as we can but if if if you're the first one to have a issue and it wasn't reported yeah you you might get some compensation back from from the claim and that there is a whole form on the website um at St paul. go/ claims as um you can access that form as well um and and I do want to just make it very clear that we do appreciate people reporting that and also know that our crews when they're not out plowing in the winter they're po hole patching so they are constantly working on the street one thing or another they're either dealing with the snow preparing for the snow or dealing to fix what the snow and ice have caused more damage I mean that's literally what our crews are doing the entire winter um in public works we also shift to a winter schedule so we have more people overnight and more people on the weekend to again deal with all the weather elements um all season long so again you know thank you for the thank you for calling in that pothole and and letting us know that we're we're on it so thank you yeah are there any other questions right now yeah I just have it's kind of a comment cu we already called the city of about our issue but um a couple weeks ago our whole block went dark because you know the coper was taken out of every light um and I don't know if it's like a 6: situation in our neighborhood but it's really dark um has the city considered like solar um I know you know some blocks around us have their lights on all the time now the plant posts are on all day and all night but uh it's had a consider a so copper doesn't have to be utilized cuz I think if it gets fixed it's just going to be taken out immediately again but yeah so the question and comment was about copper wire theft and street lights and the potential for solar being used for street lights do we have any thoughts about that and director Wheezy you can jump in here as well um so I'll I'll talk about what we're we're working very closely as an entire city to kind of address the the continuing challenge of copper wire theft throughout St Paul so this has been an effort again with all departments working very clo closely with the department of safety inspection with our Police Department um parks and wreck um we in public works we have 38,000 street lights that we maintain um in the public right away and Parks has another several thousand so there are literally um tens of thousands of street lights and and it is frustrating for our residents and it's really frustrating for our crews so first and foremost you know we are working to um do lots of different techniques to try to prevent and deter the wire theft and we're starting to see some successes with some of the things that we're we're doing it is pushing the copper wire theft into other parts of of neighborhoods um that maybe don't have some of those protections yet um and so first and foremost we we are trying to do everything we can and and I would just say our electricians are really skilled and coming up with ideas again working very closely with the police um and catching um some thieves as well um so again a Citywide effort on that have we looked at solar yes um and the challenge that we have with solar right now is that again we have a very beautiful tree canopy which is not ideal for solar lights um and we we value and protect our our tree canopy here in St Paul so there is that uh the winter with some of the batteries and things like that it's it's not as as efficient and then especially for the street lighting um we we really need to make sure that there's a a continuous output and it doesn't dim like a lot of solar lights so so right now we keep looking at at different um products out there and different techn techologies but right now for our street lighting solar is not an option uh that we but we continue to to look at that um and again we are we have crews out in especially right now we are doing a lot of weekend work before the weather freezes and our conduits freeze and then they can't they won't be able to repair the wire so um please continue to report it to us and and know that it is a pretty extensive list but they're out there working uh weekends to get that wire replaced and then we can talk a little bit do you want to talk about the legislation yeah it's it's Snow Summit but I will say that um Lisa is right this is like an all City thing um and uh Department of Safety and inspections does business licensing and one of those licenses is um metal scrapping and so we partnered with parks and public works and police to go to the state legislature this year and pass a law that uh essentially requires you to have a license to scrap metal copper so um if you want to bring in copper wire and you don't have a license that scrap metal dealer cannot give you money and so that is hopefully going to really curb the the theft and and that's going to that's Statewide and that's why we went to the state one the city didn't have the um the actual legal ability to do it just for the city and also if we did it for our city well they would just steal it from St Paul and go to you know another city to scrap it so it really need did need to be Statewide um but we know that that street lighting impacts safety and that's really why it's an all an all City all hands issue and the legislation goes into effect January 1st of 2025 not to mention catalytic converter theft which happened to my partner was almost $2,000 by the yeah so yeah and I want to make sure to get one of these questions in before we see if there's some final questions but okay that one too so I have two questions um we kind of talked about pedestrians getting on the sidewalk accessibility um can you guys share who's responsible for shoveling bus stops and then bike trails bike paths so folks know uh well the bus stops are maintained by Metro Transit which is outside of the city of St Paul you know Enterprise um and they would be responsible for that bike trails are I'll just add the the bus stops are a little bit more complex because sometimes you just see a sign and there's no sidewalk pad or anything it's just like at the grass right so uh and so the Metro Transit isn't clearing out grass patched areas um and I would just say they they clear out essentially like inside their bus shelter and that might be it so um getting really around there so that people can actually get to the the bus shelter is imperative um the bike trails and bike lanes are maintained either by public works or parks depending on where they are so they they split the work and it really depends on where the the uh lane or Trail is so like a trail that goes in the middle of ko Park is going to be Parks but sometimes it's not as clear you know to you and I on Whose responsibility is that so I just ask I don't know either so I just ask whose responsibility it is and and for your for the general public if if it's a bike trail or a bike lane you know you can certainly just call Public Works um first um and because we work very closely with Parks if it's in the park or is a trail in the park that is absolutely Parks it's it's the trails along the roadway you know Mississippi River Boulevard um along KOMO or Johnson you know those type of places we do split that with parks and so some of them are maintained by Public Works some of them are maintained by Parks so certainly if you're seeing issues or having issues just give us a call you don't need to know where it is we'll we'll figure out who it is and get it where it needs to go um so and I just wanted to add to the bus stops metro transit also takes care of all the access to the Light Rail stations as well that is Metro Transit um and then also again bus stops are super tricky because if there's a bench there that area is not metrotransit and it's not the city it's actually supposed to be the who the bench owner um is supposed to be taking care of that space too so if you're having issues in those areas um certainly again can call call us and let us know and we'll try to work with the bench company to get that out and get that cleared but I I can't stress enough if you just have the sign that's kind of on your corner as you're kind of clearing that corner if you can kind of make a space for people to exit and enter that bus that's really helpful um again especially with people with that need a little extra Mobility space or you know carrying a child things like that that's really important as well so bus stops are tricky yeah a lot I didn't know about bus stops management but a final question we had just from our prepared questions are can you put garbage and recycling carts out in the street during winter no no so again your garbage carts and most people have them in the alley um I think that's like 75% or thereabouts get their collection in the alley uh for garbage and recycling carts even if you're in the alley please make sure that you're kind of shoveling a space for it um because if those get kind of locked down and they can't lift them up they may skip you because they can't get to it and they'll say it's inaccessible so it again if you get access in the alley make sure you're shoveling it and that it's not sticking and getting icy underneath it on the street they absolutely positively cannot go in the street I cannot say this enough they cannot go in the street which means that yes it has to go on your Boulevard and I know that that's where we're we're telling you to also put your snow there we're telling you know we're telling the private plow contractors to put their snow there there's a lot that we're trying to get especially in the winter on those that Boulevard area and some of those boulevards are really tight or or not not a lot of space for all of this but um yes please do not put them in the in the street we are working with both the um all of our garbage and recycling Partners to make sure that when they do um collect your garbage and recycling that they're putting your cart back on the boulevard so again if if they're not doing that please let us know um as well because we we want to keep as much as as much as we possibly can out of the street so our so our snowplow drivers can get that snow up and off the curb and onto the boulevard for you awesome are there any final questions we have about a couple minutes so I'll give it to Lisa to close out if we don't have any from the audience yeah OD ball question that's not really related to snow but related to garbage and recycling I've been anxiously awaiting when St Paul will do compost pick up and I've seen Flyers teasing me about it and I haven't happened yet so I'm wondering if there's any update yes so the question is about potential compost um waste pickup from the city yes um we're anxiously awaiting it as well um so right now I just want to remind people that there are compost um and organic drop off sites throughout the city um they're wonderful please utilize them um they're a great resource to help reduce waste and in the and help our environment a lot um the composting is on its way um this is done not by the city but it's done by the county so for us of our our waste goes to the ramsy Washington um energy facility there and so they've put in some equipment and um and and what she's talking about is where you can have special bags that you can put in with your garbage so it's not an actual cart is what's coming you can actually then put it in with your garbage and then when they dump the garbage at the facility the the Machinery sorts it out and if it's in that special compost bag it gets pulled out and gets composted so it's not adding another cart it's about that process um so the C that is all being done by the county um we will be the last City for that to roll out just because we are the the biggest city so they're they're piloting it my understanding is they're piloting it in um some different cities right now but so it is coming um but we we don't have a date whenn awesome well do you want to close us out with that I just want to say thank you to mark thank you to Angie thank you to Zoe and thank you to all of you for coming and we'll be around so you can certainly ask us whatever questions weird and wacky things you want to know about the city we'll try to try to answer it if we don't have it we'll try to get you an answer but just wanted to say thank you so much for coming um make sure you grab a snack and otherwise join us downstairs at the Snow Summit and check out the vehicles check out all of us have booths down there with some more information and resources so again thank you for coming and um enjoy the rest of the Snow Summit thank you