Clearing bus stops: Something doesn’t add up . . .

8 new streets workers, and some of the bus stops will be cleared in 3 days, the rest in 5 days. Shouldn’t they be able to do it faster than that? I’m all for more streets workers, I think they have been shorted in several budgets and I’m glad they can use the staff to do other things the rest of the year . . . but this doesn’t quite see right.

CLEARING THE BUS STOPS
According to information sent out by Chris Schmidt yesterday:

With the additional staffing, Streets Division commits to clearing the High Priority Bus Stops (yet to be determined) within 3 days after the plowing of all City streets is completed and all bus stops within 5 days. Major storms of 8” or greater or back to back storms would be exempt from this commitment but the additional crews would be working on bus stops while other City crews are dealing with the after effects from the major storm. Crews will be responsible for maintaining Bus Stops at all times except for major snow events when plowing of all City streets is required. Crews will remain assigned to Bus Stop clearing even during snows of less than 3”, referred to as salt spreading snow events.

The bus stop crews would be on duty from the First Sunday in December until mid-March when Spring cleanup begins – Sunday through Thursday nights from 11:00 pm until 7:00 am. This represents a third shift for Streets Division staff, which saves on equipment costs. For the rest of the year (mid-March until the first Sunday in December) they could be on duty Monday through Friday from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm.

The additional staff would be:
– 2 Streets Leadworkers (position currently does not exist)
– 6 Street Machine Operator II’s

Tasks for these crews when Bus Stops are cleared:
– Focus on plowing and sanding Alternate Side Parking Ordinance areas on regular time rather than overtime and perform it more frequently than what is currently done
– Anti-icing in preparation for impending snow events, including anti-icing on concrete bus pads
– Continue working on snow removal of vision hazards and street widening for emergency vehicles
– Fill sand barrels and fill public sand sites more regularly
– Continue with winter maintenance such as left hand winging and right hand winging back of snow from boulevards and open areas to create space for future snowfalls.
– Transfer/haul winter salt supplies from the S. Point salt storage facility to both the Sycamore and Badger Rd. Operations Facilities.
– Perform much needed vehicle maintenance and vehicle washing of the salt spreaders and other
equipment.
– Perform potholing duties especially during late winter during the freeze/thaw cycle.
– Late winter main arterial street sweeping.

OTHER WORK
What will they be doing the rest of the year?

Spring/Summer:
In recent years the City has changed brush collection policies and made other changes to priorities to accommodate lower staffing levels. However, some issues have emerged that support adding staff back. A stump removal backlog has developed, and while it could be cleared over time, we are facing the impending loss of around 40,000 City-owned Ash trees due to the Emerald Ash Borer invasion. We are also losing terrace Maples at an increasing rate, Maples that were planted to replace the Elms and other trees lost during previous arboreal crises. There is need for additional “stump-grubbing” capacity and that need will grow in coming years. A backlog in stump removal causes delays in the planting of replacement trees.

With additional staff, damage from winter plowing as it pertains to concrete curbs would be repaired in a more timely fashion. Currently, most curb plow damage cannot be repaired by Streets crews until August due to sealcoating preparations by the Street Repair Crews. While sealcoating is being dialed back in 2011 to create some budget savings, that is a temporary change.

Finally, additional staff would be available for non-scheduled facets and emergencies such as storm clean-up related work, island weed removal, additional graffiti clean-up work, student move-out, special projects, and so on. The wild weather of recent years has shown how quickly our capacity to handle emergency clean-up can be overwhelmed. These tasks relate to the appearance of our city and general quality of life.

Fall:
In the fall:
-Stump crews who currently stop removing stumps by October 1st due to leaf collection responsibilities could continue to work on stump removal until the end of November.
– Crews could be assigned to brush collection during October and November when current brush crews must be assigned to leaf collection.
– Additional and necessary winter operating training would be performed.
– Toolcats are much better suited for leaf collection. They result in less damage due to equipment driving up on the terraces and thus fewer complaints and fewer needed repairs, saving on costs.
– These additional staff could be assigned to assist with leaf collection if necessary.

WHAT WILL IT COST?
I’m glad they’re not privatizing this work, and I’m glad they’ll be able to do some of this other work, but really, can’t they get the bus stops cleared sooner at this price? This is going to cost $221,203 when they start in September next fall, plus “a Capital Budget amendment of $303,000 is also needed to fund 6 additional
“Tool Cats” for use in the bus stop clearing as well as the other tasks. Tool Cats are better for leaf
collection than most of the equipment we use today. Total annualized operating costs are $663,608. An
additional $442,405 will therefore be required in 2012.” It just seems like with this much resources we could do better than that.

The Board of Estimates will be discussing and voting on this amendment tonight.