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Update 3: Most power back on

UPDATE: UPDATE:: RPU Working to Restore Power – Call (507) 280-9191 to Report Outages/Tree on Wires
Issued By:  Rochester Emergency Management Division Issued On:  5/3/13 11:36 AM Affected Jurisdictions:  Olmsted County
THIS IS A Routine Press Release
As of 11:00 am, Rochester Public Utilities is currently responding to 2500 1400 500 120 customers who are still without power.  Most of these are individual customers. Crews are still working on restorations.  At the peak, over 12,000 were without power.  Crews are still repairing downed lines and restoring service.  To report a power outage, call (507) 280-9191.
Your safety is important. Never touch a downed power line.  If a tree or branch fell on a power line, contact RPU Electrical Outage Center at (507) 280-9191
This report is current as of 11:00 am .
Follow outage reports on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rpuoutages  (“https://twitter.com/rpuoutages“)

THIS IS A Routine Press Release

Update 2:  Where to bring those trees and branches.

TREE DEBRIS – HOW TO HANDLE; WHERE TO TAKE LIMBS
Issued By:  Rochester Emergency Management Division Issued On:  5/3/13 12:31 PM Affected Jurisdictions:  Olmsted County
THIS IS A Routine Press Release
May 3, 2013
The record heavy snow (“http://www.crh.noaa.gov/arx/?n=may0213“)  that fell on Rochester impacted trees throughout the city. Work on fallen trees continues in the days and weeks ahead.  While some tree debris is the responsibility of the city, other tree debris removal falls upon individual owner.  How can you tell the difference?
Public trees are along the curb in the public right-of-way, in a boulevard, or in park land.  Private trees are in yards (behind the sidewalk), or other “non-public” sites.  Homeowners often handle their own tree debris.  If help is needed, be sure to contact a licensed tree professional (see Parks website for a list (“http://www.rochestermn.gov/departments/park/forestry/index.asp“) ).
Homeowners who handle their own tree debris are responsible for removal.  Here are two locations that will accept woody/vegetative debris from the May 2 Historic Winter Storm:
Hathaway Tree Service, 2555 50th Avenue NW, Rochester.
Logan’s Tree Service, 4026 70th Avenue NW, Byron
Park and Recreation Forestry crews will be working for several days and weeks on the removal of downed limbs.  The priority for downed tree and limb removal is:
Trees or branches in roadways   Public trees that block driveways   Trees or branches over sidewalks   Other tree debris locations
If a public tree is down in the City of Rochester, call Parks and Recreation Department at (507) 328-2525.  Safety factors to consider:
Use a tree professional licensed in Rochester   Wear eye and hand protection   Use hearing protection   Beware of partial tree limbs, or trees under stress – a wrong cut can bring a tree branch down and cause injuries or death.  If in doubt, hire a licensed tree professional – don’t take a chance
If a tree is contacting a power line, report to Rochester Public Utilities at  (507) 280-9191  Never take a chance with a tree on a wire – consider it to be charged with electricity and call RPU to handle.
For more information, contact Ken Jones, City of Rochester, Deputy Emergency Management Director at 507-328-2824 or kjones@rochestermn.gov.   ###

Update #1:

RPU Working to Restore Power – Status Report
Issued By:  Rochester Emergency Management Division Issued On:  5/2/13 3:26 PM Affected Jurisdictions:  Olmsted County
THIS IS A Routine Press Release
Rochester Public Utilities is currently responding to 2500 customers who are still without power.  Crews are still working on restorations.  Earlier, more than 12,000 were without power. RPU is planning to have crews out working overnight to restore power.  Recovery operations will continue until all power is restored.  To report a power outage, call (507) 280-9191.
Please be patient, as crews are working hard to restore power.  While much has been accomplished, remaining power outage issues will be addressed as soon as possible.
Your safety is important. Never touch a downed power line.  If a tree or branch fell on a power line, contact Rochester Olmsted Non-emergency Dispatch at (507) 328-6800.

THIS IS A Routine Press Release

I usually put out the latest data on #twitter @votewojcik follow me if you don’t already.

Emergency Operations for City Agencies
Issued By:  Rochester Emergency Management Division Issued On:  5/2/13 10:29 AM Affected Jurisdictions:  Olmsted County
THIS IS A Routine Press Release
At 10:00 am, all City of Rochester agencies report higher than normal operations due to the heavy snowfall.  Parks Department Forestry crews are busy clearing fallen trees from roadways.  Public Works is performing normal snow removal.  Police Dept. is responding to cars stuck in roadways, medical calls, and other assistance.  Fire Dept. retained higher staffing at shift change, and is responding to wires down, medical calls, and other assistance.
All city departments are responding to priority calls first, and will take care of other issues when free to respond.
If you need medical assistance, call 911
For wires down, call non-emergency (507) 328-6800
For fallen trees, call Parks at (507) 328-2525

OK cyclists, come voice your input.

The City of Rochester staff will hold a public information meeting from 4:00 to 6:00 PM, on Wednesday, May 15, 2013, in Room 104  of the Government Center, 201 Fourth  Street SE, for the purpose of receiving public comments related to the construction of  multi-use trail parallel to South Broadway Avenue between Zumbro River and 20th Street South.

I hope this guy keeps writing, this is just too funny.

hey why did u pull an idea out of… to decide to trim trees n a 20-30 feet woods haircut. it smells like opinions. just because one person makes a noise doesnt matter. no u claim desease n i will know u r lying i know those woods all too well… now i KNEW them. i have agreat video for u i made with my fone that shows how ur lawnmowers(( i mean park crew workers) r friendly folk but lazy to me. also an electrical pole on the trail side of bear creek is about 3 months from caving into water lol gimme ur email alone plz not ur secretaries or another of ur drones plz i feel u r worthy of change and awakening to the ways of nature if u so desire to gain this.

Hello Mr Wojcik,

I want to thank you for your recent support of Complete Streets and ensuring Rochester mainatins equitable access to walking and biking infrastructure.  I just wanted to share my note to my council member and two resources you may already know about, but could be helpful for future council discussion.

This is a list of over 30 cities and counties that have followed Rochesters lead by passingComplete Streets policies AND implementing them!  http://www.dot.state.mn.us/planning/completestreets/examples.html

This video was developed because communities were wondering how to replicate Rochesters policy.  How unfortunate that now we are not living up the reputation of being leaders.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZVDDwO1eho

Again thank you so much for championing active living efforts and for thinking whats best for the city in the long term.  We cannot just bend to the wills of business leaders whenever it impacts their pocketbooks, thats why we have elected officials like you to ensure equity.

Thank you for your time,

Kelly Corbin

After years of trying we are about to make some process on cleaning up the South Branch of Cascade Creek.  The Interlachen neighborhood has paid a terrible environmental price for negligent management of Cascade Creek in the past.  Its time to start the process of healing this waterway.

Please join me at a meeting to discuss upcoming work at 6 PM this Thursday, April 18 at Harriett Bishop Elementary School.

I was disappointed that the John Wade representing the Rochester Area Chamber came to Monday’s city council meeting to oppose safe streets.  I support safe streets and safe neighborhoods. Read the rest of this entry »

I actually get this question quite a bit.  Basically there is a population that opposes smart growth, land use planning, neighborhood planning, and this concept has been a rallying cry.

Here is a good look at the controversy: Agenda 21

As always I like to be very clear about where I stand on the issues:

• I support social justice.
• I support smart growth.
• I support green space.
• I support energy / water / resource  conservation.
• I support safe walking, biking, and transit routes.
• I support transit oriented development.
• I support walkable communities.
• I support quality construction.
• I support quality affordable housing.
• I oppose sprawl.
• I oppose low quality construction.
• I oppose automobile only development.
• I oppose concentrations of poverty.

I always like to ask a simple question.  Which is smarter a mile of infrastructure that serves 5 homes or 50?  Which is more likely to raise you taxes?

I expect that there will be many edits to this post as I respond to additional questions.

Today I was fortunate enough to serve on a panel with John Wade (Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce), State Sen. Carla Nelson, Gary Smith (RAEDI), and Kathleen Harrington (Mayo Government Relations).  The focus of the session was on economic development and specifically Destination Medical Center (DMC).  The event was hosted by Cube.  You can find a replay on their blog.

I always like to preface the discussion of some of the minutia with the big picture.  Here is a quote from me.

“When you talk about #DMCMN you are talking about one of the greatest opportunities of our lifetimes.” – @votewojcik

I am 100% committed to have the best medical community in the world.  It’s my job to make sure we do it right.

Here are some of the questions asked / thoughts articulated in the forum.  To summarize; the big issues were transparency, conflict of interest, public involvement, government role in infrastructure, and eminent domain.

Transparency

There were a number of questions around transparency.  I have a unique perspective on this as I also didn’t have a view as to what was going on as the concept evolved.

I don’t claim to be an attorney, but here is my understanding after questioning the city attorney.

In my discussions with staff as a representative of the public interest I asked some pretty direct questions as I wanted to make sure there were going to be no smoke filled rooms with the DMC authority.  What I did learn was that authority meetings would be subject to the Minnesota Open Meetings Law.  This ensures that all meetings are open to the public (unless closed for certain legal reasons).  In addition, emails between a quorum of the members would be illegal.  Further, emails exchanged in a serial manner (I sent to you, you send to John Doe, etc.) are also illegal.  In short you get to see the decision making process play out in public.

The DMC Authority would also be subject to the Minnesota Data Practices Act.  As such internal documents and email would be would be provided to any member of the public upon request.

Do these guarantee transparency, no, but it does go a long way.  Only honest leadership can provide true transparency.  I was the only city councilmember to insist on citizen representation and open meetings for the Downtown Masterplan Implementation Committee, and as such those meetings continue in secret.

Independent Leadership / Conflict of Interest:

One of my early concerns was conflicts of interest, but that seems to be moving in the right direction.  The initial version of the law would have had all 3 people representing Rochester on the DMC Authority actually employed by or receiving a pension from the Mayo Clinic.  I expressed some concern about this, but the city administrator told me that I was the only person on the city council that had a problem with this.  As it turns out some leaders at the state agreed with me and this is now being changed.  It never made sense to me that a Mayo employee should negotiate for the best interests of the community across the table from their employer.

Question from Travis:

Mayo has the name branding of John Hopkins and the Cleveland Clinc, but this town is not Clev or Balt, hell MPLS is not either. how does anyone think this will work? size and infra is just not here to compete at that level.

More coming…

If you will be unable to make it to the polls on Tuesday, March 19th, you can vote NOW.

We need every vote, no excuses!

Absentee ballots are available until March 18 at the Olmsted County Property Records and Licensing Office on the main floor of the Government Center at 151 4th Street SE, Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, and on Saturday March 16, from 10am to 3pm. For further information on absentee ballots and early voting, call 507-328-7650. In person voting is also available at that same location prior to the election.

If you need a ride or assistenance just contact us and we will make it happen.