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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

Wild conspiracy theories aside, I am a champion for smart growth.  The fact that we are approaching the geographic size of Minneapolis with less that 1/3 of the population speaks of our poor development patterns.  Our suburban sprawl hurts those in need of affordable housing, ties us to automobiles, and will cost us a fortune in future infrastructure maintenance.  In short, sprawl is fiscal irresponsibility at its worst.

EPA: Economic Success with Smart Growth

Fortunately we are changing.  There is greater interest in downtown living, transit oriented living, and walkable neighborhoods.  I have led a charge for years to get the city council to stop subsidizing sprawl.  Just like a smart investor wants to maximize the return on investment, a smart city leader wants to maximize the return on infrastructure.

The city council will be discussing the “Uptown” project (2nd Street West of US 52) at a Committee of the Whole meeting on February 20th.  The plan that will be brought forth is a result of a number of compromises.  It does not represent what I myself would have designed, what residential neighbors would have designed, what public works engineers would have designed, not what businesses in the area would have designed.  It is a true compromise in design. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is how the new bridge over Valleyhigh drive will connect the Douglas Trail to the new trail allong Valleyhigh.

I happen to agree with the concern, but I wanted to share this as this is a great example of how to communicate with an elected official. After reading this I absolutely would understand everything about the concern.

Good Morning,

I have a couple of short items today I thought you’d like to be aware of.

• Stonehedge / Rocky Creek Signal Light:

You’re probably aware of the work that has been going on over the past few weeks to install a new traffic signal at the intersection of Rocky Creek / Stonehedge / Circle Drive East.  That work is moving to the final stages to be completed before school starts.

Winkels Electric will be installing traffic signal poles and mast arms at the intersection on Tuesday, August 21st , 2012.  Most of the work, on East Circle Drive NE, is expected to take place in the early morning hours, with work beginning around 5:00 AM, with all roadway closures on East Circle Drive being complete before 6:30 AM.  During that time, short term roadway closures maybe encountered, while the signal mast arms are bolted to the traffic poles. Roadway closures are anticipated to last no more than 15 minutes for any direction. Various lane closures may occur throughout the day as other work is being complete.

• Forum: Working with Your City

Maybe your neighborhood has had an opportunity to work with the city as part of a larger development project.  Or perhaps you’ve read about projects in other parts of the city.  Either way, it can be an involved, confusing process if you’ve never gone through it before.

RNeighbors is hosting a community forum entitled ‘Working with Your City’ to be held on Wednesday, September 26th from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.  It will be held in the Rochester Public Library auditorium and is free.  A panel, consisting of members from planning, building safety, city attorneys office, city council and other areas, will first give a brief overview of their respective area as it relates to the process.  Then, representatives from five neighborhoods will give an overview of a project that has happened or is happening.  Included will be Badger Hills, Historic SW, Indian Heights, Kutzky Park North and Slatterly Park Neighbors.  In each case we will have some dialogue about the process – what worked and what could have been improved.  A nice opportunity to learn more about how these sorts of activities are handled in the city of Rochester.

If city government performs at its potential we will see a radically different transit system in Rochester in the next 5 to 10 years.  Technology, congestion, growth, and demographics are combining to create a new Rochester that we must adapt to.  If we are successful we will have a far more efficient, effective, and far reaching transit system.  Pedestrian, Bicycle, Park & Ride, Development, and Transit will merge into one seamless entity to the benefit of our citizens. Read the rest of this entry »

Today the city council unanimously voted (6-0 with Hanson absent) to approve the independent recommendation to select First Transit to operate Rochester’s transit system.  There were four companies competing, but everyone was interested in whether First Transit or stick with Rochester City Lines.

If we are going to be a serious player for businesses we must be fair to those that wish to compete here.  After a fair process, we had an impartial recommendation that stated that First Transit was the best of 4 choices (all capable) while Rochester City Lines came in last.  First transit also cost $2 million less over 54 months based on operating 70,000 hours per year.  To look at these facts and chose anything but First Transit would be cronyism at its worst.  I asked questions about the process and found it to be exceedingly fair.  RCL questioned if the request for proposals was fair, but the example that they raised about experience with new technologies, was actually something that I strongly think is needed.

We also secured an understanding with First Transit that they would recognize the existing ATU organization and would be offering positions to existing employees first.  If we lowered our costs by pushing working families into poverty we accomplish nothing.  I have already told these workers, that I will continue to have their backs.  I respect how good these drivers are.

Dan Holter continues to threaten to run a parallel transit system that he implies will cause harm to the city’s system.  That kind of entitled behavior leaves me shaking my head.  That said, if he can run a successful system that will only help transit in Rochester, but to do so he will have to follow rules pertaining to franchises.

There is no love lost between me and Dan Holter, given his lobbying antics, belief that he is “entitled” to a profit, and his holding us hostage for that profit.  But we lose credibility as a city if we don’t have a fair process to choose our venders.  We did have a fair process, and made a decision based on facts.  We did not make any sort of decision based on spite or revenge.

This should have no negative impact on Dan Holter’s business since in a statement to the city council he stated hasn’t made any profit in 44 years…

It will be interesting how long the wasteful lawsuits continue.  We will see tremendous improvements in transit between now and 2016.  We are going to see better access, faster service, and more hours, and we can best achieve this by working with the best.

This is a tough situation where pandering would be easy, but fiscal stewardship hard. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is one of many county roads in Rochester which fails to account for pedestrians, cyclists, businesses, transit users, the young, the old, or the disabled.