Laserfiche WebLink
Item No: 6 <br />Meeting Date: November 7, 2011 <br />Type of Business: Work Session <br />Administrator Review: ____ <br />City of Mounds View Staff Report <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />To: Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From: Nick DeBar, Public Works Director <br />Item Title/Subject: Review Snow Plowing and Ice Control Policy <br /> <br />Background: <br />Public Works is responsible for snow plowing and ice control operations on all city-owned streets (40+ <br />miles), trails and sidewalks (15+ miles), and public facility parking lots (11 lots). This service is <br />performed with City employees and equipment. Prior to the 1988/1989 winter, the City contracted with <br />Ramsey County to provide these services. The decision to perform these services in-house was due to <br />concerns with cost effectiveness and timeliness of the service that the City was getting from Ramsey <br />County. <br /> <br />As part of taking on snow plowing duties in-house, a snow and ice control policy approved by the City <br />Council on December 27, 1988. This policy was adopted by ordinance (451) which added Chapter 901 <br />(Snow and Ice Control Policy) to the Municipal Code. The Code, however, does not include the policy <br />but indicates that the policy is on file and available for public review. <br /> <br />Discussion: <br />City staff has drafted a new policy for the snow plowing and ice control operations. While there has <br />been some review of the policy over the last 23 years, there has not been any revisions to the original <br />policy. The League of Minnesota Cities (LMNC) has model policy language available for city snow and <br />ice control operations. LMNC develops these model policies for guideline purposes only since each <br />city has unique and specific circumstances that may dictate a different approach than what the model <br />recommends. These recommendations focus on risk management, amongst other challenges that <br />face cities. City staff utilized the LMNC model to develop a new version of the policy and tweaked it to <br />reflect our city-specific operations and needs. <br /> <br />Attached to this report is a draft of the new snow plowing and ice control policy. Also attached is a <br />marked-up copy of the existing (original) policy. These mark-ups include new policy references <br />associate with old policy language (right column) and explanations for deletions of old policy language <br />(left column). The new policy is broken into four general sections: 1) Description, 2) Standard <br />Provisions, 3) Rules, Regulations, and Property Damage, and 4) General and Administrative <br />Provisions. <br /> <br />Recommendation: <br />Staff recommends that the City Council review and provide feedback on the revised policy. If the City <br />Council is in favor of the proposed revisions, City staff will prepare a final version of the policy for <br />Council consideration to approve at their next regular meeting. Staff (and the City Attorney) further <br />recommend deleting Chapter 901 from the Municipal Code since the Code’s purpose is to regulate <br />people and private property and establish penalties if these regulations are violated. Snow plowing and <br />ice control is a City-provided service and does not fall under these categories. <br /> <br />Respectfully submitted, <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Nick DeBar - Public Works Director <br />Attachments: <br />• Draft Snow Plowing and Ice Control Policy <br />• Marked up Copy of Current Snow and Ice Control Policy