I found this link on the city web page yesterday afternoon, after our power came on.  Apparently Public Works had already gone through our neighborhood by the time I (or any of the neighbors I've talked to) learned about the debris pick-up, but the city may reconsider the "one pass" idea.  After all, yesterday evening Xcel was still working to restore power to some parts of my neighborhood, and my neighbors and I weren't even able to start clearing debris before Xcel's tree crew had cut the fallen front yard tree off of the power line on Sunday evening.

If you have downed branches and trees, keep an eye on the city web page for updates, or call public works to see if they've gone through your neighborhood already.

Labels: public works

Posted by John Nephew on 6/25/2013 08:42:00 AM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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The League of Minnesota Cities staff has posted a legislative update explaining the new Organized Collection statute, which Gov. Dayton signed into law on May 7th.

Labels: organized collection

Posted by John Nephew on 5/14/2013 07:05:00 AM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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Just got word...reform of the organized collection has passed both houses!

Labels: environment, organized collection

Posted by John Nephew on 5/02/2013 07:44:00 PM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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Remember how a few years ago, when I was on the City Council, we banned the use of coal tar asphalt sealants in Maplewood?  There's more evidence that this was a very good idea.

Labels: environment, public works

Posted by John Nephew on 4/14/2013 09:36:00 AM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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After Maplewood organized its trash hauling, and anti-organization haulers demonstrated their willingness to spend a lot of money on political races to punish would-be organizers and defend their own profits, the outlook seemed dim for other cities to follow our lead.

But apparently not that dim -- I just heard about Sauk Rapids choosing to go with a plan for organization, as reported in the St Cloud Times, with some council members who had opposed organization changing their mind on the issue when they saw the savings and benefits for residents.

I haven't seen it confirmed, but a rumor I hear is that the haulers' political group that has been backing anti-organization candidates (as they did in Maplewood and Roseville) was involved in Sauk Rapids, too -- and the candidates they backed, once in office and caught up to speed on all of the facts and pros and cons, sensibly changed their minds and decided that organization was the right path for their city.  If this is true, it's a very interesting wrinkle in the story.

Labels: organized collection

Posted by John Nephew on 2/18/2013 02:41:00 PM Email to a Friend | Permalink | Comments
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