by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
Sartell has 96 miles of public streets, 27 miles of bituminous trails, 40 parks, 1,112 fire hydrants and three water-pumping plants.
Those are just some of the interesting fun facts within the 2013 annual report of the Sartell Public Works Department presented to the city council at its March 24 meeting.
The report gives an outline of all of the factors – often taken for granted or out-of-sight –that keep the city up and running. The Public Works Department is headed by Brad Borders; the assistant director is John Kothenbeutel, with 12 other employees.
The following are some of the statistics from that report.
Streets
There are five full-time workers and three seasonal street workers for the city (two in the summer, one in the winter).
The total mileage of city streets is 96, with 5.6 miles of private streets. Alleys total 4 miles.
Storm-sewer pipes total 67 miles. There are 98 storm-water ponds (four added in 2013), and there are 85 rain gardens.
Plowing
The average time it took to plough city streets in 2013 was 6-8 hours for a 4-inch snowfall and 8-10 hours for an 8-inch snowfall.
The cost for plowing 6 inches of snow (8 hours) was $8,718 on weekdays and $9,663 on weekends. That cost includes salt, fuel and labor.
During the winter of 2013-14, the city contracted with a company to help with plowing due to the massive amounts of snow. The contracted company plowed the lots by the police department and fire station, as well as lots at city hall and by the outdoor ice rink at Pinecone Regional Park.
Seal-coating
There were 110,084 square yards of pavement seal-coated in 2013.
Last year was the third year of a joint-powers agreement to share seal-coating work with Sauk Rapids, Waite Park and St. Augusta. The seal-coating is done by the ASTECH Corp. with public-work crews completing all crack-filling duties.
Composting
In 2013, Sartell’s compost site opened April 27 and closed Nov. 6.
There were 1,795 compost-site permits sold by city hall in 2013, including 179 to non-residents and 34 to township residents.
During the Christmas season, 290 trees were dropped off by people who brought a total of 748 pounds of food for local food shelves.
Parks
Sartell’s 40 parks are maintained by two full-time and three seasonal summer workers, plus volunteer gardeners.
Many do not know that parks are often rented per day by groups such as community education, the Police Activities Leauge, Bible camps and athletic leagues.
During 2013, there were 132 park rentals at Val Smith Park, 52 at Watab Park, 14 at Pinecone Regional Park, seven at Northside Park and two at Lions Community Park.
Community gardens
There are 106 community vegetable gardens in the city, 96 on the west side, 10 on the east side.
Trails
In Sartell, there are 27 miles of bituminous trails for hiking/biking and 22 miles of sidewalks. In the winter, 16 miles of bituminous trails and sidewalks are maintained.
Cross-country skiing trails were added to Pinecone Central Park in 2013.
Water
Four full-time employees and one seasonal summer employee take care of Sartell’s water needs.
The city has 10 wells at its west, east and southwest water plants. There are three water towers with a total capacity for 1.3-million gallons and three in-ground clear wells with a capacity for 1.7-million gallons.
On a brutally hot day, Aug. 27, 2013, the city used a record amount of water – 5.8-million gallons.
There are 1,260 residential-city water connections in Sartell and 232 commercial/industrial connections. There are 1,112 fire hydrants in the city.
There are 104 miles of watermains in the city and 82 miles of sewer lines. In 2013, there were 13 miles of sewer lines cleaned. The League of Minnesota Cities recommends clay-line sewers be cleaned every three years and PVC sewer lines be cleaned every five years.
There are 10 lift stations for wastewater located throughout Sartell.
Sartell Public Works utility operators Aaron Hauser (left) and Jeff Bemboom discuss the giant pumps that pump treated water to an outdoor, underground holding tank, ready for use by city residents. The pumps are located in one of the city’s water plants – the western one.
Utility operator Aaron Hauser (right) pours a bucket of sodium permanganate into one of the treatment tanks at Sartell’s western water plant. The solution helps regenerate the sand-filter cells that remove iron and manganese from well water before it’s pumped to the city’s water supply. With Hauser are two other utility operators – Jeff Bemboom (left) and Ryan Jendro.
