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TUNE INTO Government Channel 16 for community updates and to watch City meetings Hugo City Hall 14669 Fitzgerald Avenue North Hugo, MN 55038 651-762-6300 • www.ci.hugo.mn.us Fire Department 651-762-6362 Washington County Sheriff’s Office Non-emergency: 651-439-9381 In this issue... A Word From Public Works ..........2 Diamond Point Park Upgrades ......3 Glacial Hills Trail Update ...............3 Northern Yard Waste .....................4 Washington Cty. Recycling ...........4 Construction Updates ...................5 FREE Paper Shredding Day ...........5 911 Response Center....................6 Updates from Fire Chief ................7 General Election Information .......8 Butterfly on Purple Cone Flower Letter from the Mayor As the summer winds down and cooler weather is around the corner, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge an important piece of the City that touches every corner: our streets. Hugo residents are fortunate to have a reliable network of roads that serve as conduits for daily activities, getting people to work, school, and everything in between. City streets can often seem like part of the backdrop, a permanent fixture in everyday life that you don’t tend to think about, except for the occasional construction project occurring on your daily route. Providing a street network that is contiguous, safe, and reliable involved a lot of behind the scenes collabora- tion with multiple agencies, all of whom are dedicated to providing a high-quality public service. The City Council is committed to keeping Hugo moving forward, literally and figuratively, by investing time and energy into the street network. The majority of the roads in Hugo are city streets, mean- ing that the City owns and the Public Works Depart- ment maintains them. These streets can be surfaced with asphalt and gravel in rural areas, or built into full urban streets with curb, gutter, and paint striping. As the City’s road network grows, so does the cost of maintaining and repairing them. New streets are typically constructed by private developers with their residential, commercial, or industrial projects, but must be designed to City specifications. This makes it so that when the City takes ownership of the street, the Public Works Department will be able to use the same equipment and procedures to maintain every street. Additionally, it ensures that all city streets are constructed to a high standard of quality and will be able to handle the esti- mated traffic volumes. Each city street is individually surveyed and rated every summer, giving the Pub- lic Works and Engineering staff valuable data to de- termine which streets will have upcoming needs for reconstruction or replacement. As helpful as the data can be, mother nature can always throw a wrench in the works. During a particularly bad winter, some streets will experience extreme damage from fluctuating temperatures, moving them up higher on the list in priority for repair. Due to these factors, the City Council has the difficult task of budgeting for costly repairs -- prioritizing the streets that need it most, but ensuring that the entire network is functioning smoothly. In any case, the City Council works as a team with the engineering and public works staff to ensure that city streets are plowed, clean, and ready to meet the needs of a growing community. The spirit of teamwork reaches over into the City’s partnerships with the county and state to serve Hugo residents on a larger scale. Washington County and MnDOT have their own network of roads to collect and transport traffic at higher density than neighborhood city streets. Washington County operates three high- ways within the City of Hugo. County Road 8 is the major east-west thoroughfare operating (continued on back page) “all city streets are constructed to a high standard of quality and will be able to handle the estimated traffic volumes.” If you have a question you would like to ask the Mayor, send it to info@ci.hugo.mn.us Your question could be featured in the next newsletter! FALL 2024