The Municipal November 2020

The Premier Magazine For America’s Municipalities

November 2020

Technology

INSIDE: Rubicon’s Smart City Technology Planning for digital inclusion Bolingbrook, IL Permit No. 1939

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The search for greener deicers

People Helping People Build a Safer World

FIRES.FLOODS.STORMS. EARTHQUAKES. www.iccsafe.org

In recent years we have been reminded often of the important part building codes play in ensuring our communities can weather catastrophes. Around the world, our people, our economies, and even our health rely on the latest building and safety codes that incorporate innovative technology, best practices, and learnings gained from our diverse communities.

Strong, resilient communities start with adopting the latest I-Codes®, the most trusted and adopted building codes in America.

WE INVITE YOU TO GET INVOLVED! Work with your building and fire departments to be sure your community’s construction codes are current. Encourage them to participate in code development hearings, in person or online (cdpACCESS.com). The time to get involved is now as the code development process continues for the 2021 I-Codes.

Visit iccsafe.org today to learn more about keeping your community safe.

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Contents

November 2020

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VOL. 11 No. 8

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www.themunicipal.com

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17 Focus on Technology Focus on Technology: 42 Public Safety: A Florida 22 18 sheriff ’s office adopts Scottish Municipalities prioritize digital inclusion for all ages

22

Focus on Technology:

Preparing for inevitable celestial hazards

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42

Focus on Technology:

Coastal Resources of Maine offers waste innovations

30

Focus on Technology:

WSU looks to produce environmentally friendly deicers

34

Focus on Technology:

Citizen solution will help Brook Park navigate technology

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tactics to de-escalate high-stress situations

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Streets, Highways & Bridges: Creative use of CARES Act funding for road improvements

50

Water & Energy: Pawtucket focuses on placemaking, green infrastructure

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Parks & Environmental Services: Winning the lottery: Grant gives Fort Morgan’s Brenda Joy Bike Park a needed upgrade

ON THE COVER Rubicon, a software company that provides smart waste and recycling solutions for businesses and governments worldwide, has a vision of a smart city that includes advanced technology to deliver city services proactively. Its RUBICONSmartCity™ transforms city-owned sanitation and recycling fleets into roaming data collection centers, enabling municipal solid waste fleets to collect valuable data to improve core operations and monitor city quality of life conditions. Learn more on page 10.

The Premier Magazine For America’s Municipalities

Technology

INSIDE: Rubicon’s Smart City Technology Planning for digital inclusion

www.themunicipal.com

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THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

November 2020

The search for greener deicers

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 5

Departments

Meet our Staff publisher RON BAUMGARTNER rbaumgartner@the-papers.com

editor-in-chief DEB PATTERSON dpatterson@the-papers.com

editor SARAH WRIGHT swright@the-papers.com

publication manager CHRIS SMITH chris@themunicipal.com

senior account executive REES WOODCOCK rees@themunicipal.com

graphic designer MARY LESTER mlester@the-papers.com

business manager CARRIE GORALCZYK cgoralczyk@the-papers.com

8 Editor’s Note: Way of the future 10 From the Cover: Rubicon empowers proactive municipal waste and recycling operations

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Unique Claims to Fame: Ghost Town, Jerome, Ariz.

14 40

City Seals: Hinsdale, N.H.

56 57 60 65 66

Conference Calendar

69

Advertiser Index

City Profile: Coeur d’Alene embraces growth by expanding opportunities

Product Spotlights News & Notes Holiday: Veteran’s Day Top 10: America’s fastest growing cities

director of marketing STEVE MEADOWS smeadows@the-papers.com

mail manager KHOEUN KHOEUTH kkhoeuth@the-papers.com

from all of us at The Municipal

WWW.THEMUNICIPAL.COM PO Box 188 • 206 S. Main St., Milford, IN 46542 866-580-1138/Fax 800–886–3796 Editorial Ext. 2307; Advertising Ext. 2505, 2408 or 2489

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THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

The Municipal does not knowingly accept false or misleading advertising or editorial content, nor does The Municipal or its staff assume responsibility should such advertising or editorial content appear in any publication. The Municipal reserves the right to determine the suitability of all materials submitted for publication and to edit all submitted materials for clarity and space. The Municipal has not independently tested any services or products advertised herein and has verified no claims made by its advertisers regarding those services or products. The Municipal makes no warranties or representations and assumes no liability for any claims regarding those services or products or claims made by advertisers regarding such products or services. Readers are advised to consult with the advertiser regarding any such claims and regarding the suitability of an advertiser’s products. No reproduction of The Municipal is allowed without express written permission. Copyright © 2020.

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Editor’s Note

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Way of the future Sarah Wright | Editor

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ıtıes have long been saddled with a reputation of being behind the technological curve. Following COVID-19’s interference with daily operations, cities were left to find technological solutions on the fly, some more easily than others. Since the start of the pandemic, we have featured many cities that have adapted to circumstances by using technology to hold transparent meetings, engage their communities with recreation options and live events, work from home and so much more.

In my experience, cities and their employees are embracing these newfound avenues.

Prior to 2020, most of my contact with city officials and workers occurred through email or phone calls, but in the spring, I received my first request for a Webex video meeting. It was a novelty being able to talk “face-to-face” with city officials clear across the country. This was followed by my first Microsoft Teams video chat with another city, and after that meeting, it really sank in: This is not a novelty, this is the future. The technology is there, and cities will use it, especially when it adds a personal touch. Personally, I look forward to the video conferences of the future.

For cities still seeking the best technological fit for them, take a look at Andrew Mentock’s article about Brook Park, Ohio, which launched its Technology and Innovation Committee.

Citizens experienced with technology will make up the majority of the committee and help the city navigate technology. This committee has come in handy during the pandemic.

Communities, as a whole, need to be tech-savvy nowadays. Leading up to the

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THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

pandemic, many municipalities had begun to prioritize digital inclusion, ensuring all of their citizens have not only access to digital devices and the internet but also the knowledge to use them. The pandemic has further emphasized the importance of digital inclusion, particularly as buildings were forced to close, decreasing the availability of free Wi-Fi locations in some cases. Writer Amanda Demster shares three municipalities’ approaches to digital inclusion, including Norfolk, Va.’s, efforts to increase Wi-Fi locations where the internet can be accessed outside of a building.

Besides accessing technology, we’ll be sharing new developments in the recycling industry with a spotlight on the innovative Coastal Resources of Maine facility.

Washington State University is also making breakthroughs in the pursuit of more environmentally friendly deicers.

Finally, Hennepin County, Minn., is practicing foresight by keeping an eye on solar storms and seeking solutions to protect the power grid when another Carrington-size event hits Earth — which is likely inevitable.

When the 1859 Carrington Event struck, we did not have all of the electrical equipment we have now, making it imperative to take preparative steps rather than leave things to chance.

We are blessed to have the technology we have. It has helped keep the gears of

life moving for the most part, even during shutdowns.

As always, stay safe and well. Happy Thanksgiving!

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From The Cover

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RUBICONSmartCity™ enables sanitation drivers to report issues along a given route, from blocked or overflowing containers to contaminated recycling bins and illegal bulk waste. (Photo provided)

Rubicon empowers proactive municipal waste and recycling operations

By MICHAEL ALLEGRETTI | Rubicon Chief Strategy Officer

By 2025, the world’s urban areas will be producing 2.2 billion tons of waste per year. By 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s residents will live in urban areas. Our waste challenge is increasingly an urban challenge, meaning that we can have the greatest chance to create lasting, positive change by working with our partners in city government to end waste, in all of its forms.

This all means that we will see major demands on infrastructure, not to mention the natural environment, in the coming years. Cities need more efficient and circular practices to meet these demands — and we are ready to put our technology into action to help meet these challenges. That begins with our work outfitting the cities of the future with sanitation and recycling systems that are responsive, in real-time, and enabled with smart technologies that help to drive proactive government service.

The term “smart city” has become synonymous with visions of an urban environment redesigned and reimagined with a vast network of interconnected systems of roads embedded with traffic sensors to reduce jams; power grids that both feed electric vehicles and are fed by the portable batteries of those same vehicles when not in use; and systems to track public health indicators in real-time. In the face of the COVID-19 public health pandemic, the need for smarter cities has only become more and more clear to leaders and citizens alike.

Rubicon, a software company that provides smart waste and recycling solutions for businesses and governments worldwide, has a 10

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

vision of a smart city that includes advanced technology to deliver city services proactively, rather than reactively, and now — in the face of this global health pandemic — remotely. Every mayor is ultimately judged at the ballot box on his or her ability to deliver basic necessities to citizens — necessities such as public safety and education, clean streets and, most importantly for us, getting the trash picked up on time. Yet most cities are always behind, caught in an endless loop of reacting to citizen complaints instead of proactively addressing broader quality of life concerns before they become crises. Rubicon sees a better way.

Rubicon’s mission is to end waste, in all of its forms, by helping our partners find economic value in their waste streams and confidently execute on their sustainability goals. Cities need more efficient and circular practices to meet these demands, which is why we customized our technology to create an action-oriented data collection platform for municipal governments and city leaders to better run their operations.

RUBICONSmartCity™ transforms city-owned sanitation and recycling fleets into roaming data collection centers, enabling municipal solid waste fleets to collect valuable data to improve core operations and monitor city quality of life conditions. This “two for one” approach means greater efficiency, taxpayer savings and better community outcomes.

The results speak for themselves. After the city of Montgomery, Ala., installed the RUBICONSmartCity technology suite in 80 sanitation vehicles servicing 67,500 residential and commercial customers, Rubicon uncovered potential savings of $375,000 each year — recurring savings that represent tangible taxpayer dollars. Rubicon’s data showed that while the city’s current routes were well organized and efficient, the city might be able to reduce the number of routes that it runs overall.

Similarly, Rubicon’s data showed that just 10 trucks were responsible for 75% of critical fault codes. In addition, a single truck was responsible for 23% of all critical fault codes fleetwide. These truck fault code insights can be used to improve the city’s truck maintenance program by providing diagnostic information that was previously unavailable, again leading to significant potential taxpayer savings over a longer time horizon.

Through its partnership with Rubicon, the city of Montgomery earned a coveted Smart 50 Award, a program that annually recognizes the 50 most transformative smart city projects across the world.

Or consider the city of Norfolk, Va. After implementing the RUBICONSmartCity software to reduce missed garbage collections, the city saw a 58% reduction in citizen calls relating to missed garbage collection compared to the prior year. This reduction translates into cost savings of up to $17,000 per year, solely in 311 operator costs.

Once installed, municipal drivers use the RUBICONSmartCity suite as they drive their routes. The technology tracks data points, such as vehicle location, route completion and service confirmations for waste and recycling vehicles, without the need for radio-frequency identification devices. Additionally, the technology enables drivers to complete a fully electronic pre- and post-trip inspection for every trip they make.

The technology empowers drivers to relay issues along a given route, simply by tapping a button on the in-cab interface’s app. The list of potential issues includes blocked or overflowing containers, contaminated recycling bins and illegal bulk waste, among many other possibilities. RUBICONSmartCity also monitors key metrics related to truck condition and driving behavior, including tracking thousands of fault codes, as well as idle time, hard braking and speeding instances.

In the city of Spokane, Wash., the solid waste collections team was struggling under the weight of running a large, complex operation of more than 100 heavy-duty vehicles and 150 people almost entirely on paper. City staff filled two full boxes of paper records each week, requiring them to store these records in a separate storage facility, adding another line item to the budget. In all, the city was spending a staggering $25,000 a year in printing and paper costs to print paper route sheets.

“A great deal of time was spent on manual processes, which was creating a strain on our resources,” said Erica Jacobo, senior continuous improvement analyst for the city of Spokane.

Rubicon helped to transform Spokane’s Solid Waste Collection operation from a paper-based solution to an entirely digital one.

“The savings in printing and paper costs alone are in the thousands

Municipal drivers use the RUBICONSmartCity suite as they drive their routes, with the technology tracking data points, such as vehicle location, route completion and service confirmations for waste and recycling vehicles, without the need for radio-frequency identification devices. (Photo provided)

RUBICONSmartCity™ turns city-owned sanitation and recycling fleets into roaming data collection centers, enabling municipal solid waste fleets to collect valuable data to improve operations and monitor city conditions. (Photo provided)

of dollars per year, plus we’re reducing our environmental footprint,” explained Jacobo. The city’s operation is leaner and more efficient, while also providing improved customer service to its residents.

Rubicon is currently looking for local government partners to pilot its next-generation technology for improving public works departments and their municipal waste and recycling collection fleets, street sweepers, snowplows and other vehicles. For more information, visit www.rubicon.com/smart-city/.

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 11

Unique Claims To Fame

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Jerome’s welcome sign touts the town’s designation as a National Historic Landmark, a status conferred in 1976, exactly 100 years after the first mining claim gave birth to the original tent settlement.

(Shutterstock.com)

Ghost Town Jerome, Ariz.

By RAY BALOGH | The Municipal

No matter which way you look in the former mining town of Jerome, Ariz., you’re likely to find something fascinating.

Dormant remnants of one of the town’s prolific copper mines stand in mute tribute to Jerome’s heyday as a boomtown. (Shutterstock.com) 12

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

Gaze up past the Earth’s atmosphere on a cloudless night to enjoy a stunning star show against a velvet sky unsullied by light pollution.

Stand on a glass platform and peer straight down a mine shaft whose length dwarfs that of the Empire State Building.

View a town once bustling during the salad days of copper and gold mining. Look uphill to where the town’s jail sat before mining explosions dislodged its foundation and caused its slide 225 feet to its current location.

Now a popular tourist destination as a ghost town, Jerome’s population peaked at about 15,000 in the 1920s, when the local mineral mines, the town’s raison d’etre, yielded 3 million pounds of copper per month. Before the mines finally closed in 1953, they produced nearly 33 million tons — 66 billion pounds — of copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc ore.

After the resultant exodus of residents plunged the town’s population more than 80%, the 50 or so remaining inhabitants

determined to put Jerome back on the map as a tourist attraction. They founded the Jerome Historical Society the year the last mine shut down and nominated the town for status as a National Historic Landmark, a designation granted in 1976.

The residents courted artists and other bohemian counterculture types, who gravitated to the kitschy milieu and converted abandoned storefronts into galleries and boutiques to sell their wares. A preponderance of the town’s present population, which has stabilized at around 450, consists of writers, artisans, musicians, historians and hospitality workers involved in businesses welcoming visitors to the area, such as craft stores, lodging and dining establishments, wineries, breweries and coffeehouses.

Jerome, elevation 5,066 feet, located near the top of Cleopatra Hill on Mingus Mountain in Arizona’s Verde Valley, is only accessible by a vehicular climb along a switchback highway.

On a clear day, visitors to Jerome State Historic Park can view Humphreys Peak, the highest point Arizona, more than 70 miles distant just north of Flagstaff. Another attraction at the park is Little Daisy Mine, which operated from 1912 to 1938. Its museum features an educational video, providing a historical overview of Jerome narrated from a ghost’s perspective.

Beneath the town, which occupies less than a square mile of land area, is a complex of 88 miles of excavated mine shafts and connecting tunnels used to facilitate Jerome’s mining industry.

The first local mining claim was staked in 1876 and a railroad line was brought into Jerome about a decade later, transforming the mining settlement into a boomtown. With the prosperity came more miners, families and general debauchery. Jerome has earned every nickname it has adopted, including “Billion Dollar Copper Camp,” “Wickedest Town in the West,” “America’s Most Vertical City” and “Largest Ghost Town in America.”

The town was established on a geologic fault, and with daily subterranean dynamiting by the mining companies, tremors and a series of major fires scuttled dozens of downtown buildings and half the community’s homes in the 1890s.

The intrepid souls of Jerome rebuilt the town and weathered a subsequent roller coaster ride of economic prosperity and depression dictated by the vagaries of supply and demand for copper and other minerals. They experienced their final pummeling with the closure of the mines and now exult in the town’s resurrection as a unique tourist attraction.

The King Mine Museum, housed downtown in a former saloon, contains exhibits detailing Jerome’s seedy history, which included bordellos, saloons, gambling and gunfights. The unsavory lives and tragic demises of many of the town’s most notorious characters are chronicled on wall displays.

The town is supposedly haunted. One local company offers a twohour walking tour in the early evening, whereby participants are equipped with “ghost meters” — electromagnetic field sensors — and flashlights to capture a glimpse of paranormal manifestation at several indoor and outdoor locations.

Another attraction is Nellie Bly Kaleidoscopes, the world’s largest store of its kind. The shop opened in 1988 in a former brothel operated by the town’s madam, Jennie Bauters, who was murdered in 1905 at the age of 43. Sally Dryer, who co-owns the kaleidoscope shop, worked in her childhood providing the voices for half a dozen characters in “Peanuts” and Charlie Brown cartoons and holiday specials, most notably that of Lucy van Pelt.

For 30 years the late Don Robertson, owner of Gold King Mine, accumulated thousands of pieces of memorabilia, ephemera and other curiosities, from signs to mining tools and equipment to vehicles and farm implements to a sawmill and blacksmith shop, all haphazardly splayed, junkyard style, around the property now run by his daughter and son-in-law. Most items include a placard detailing the unique reason the object was acquired. The attraction also hosts a petting zoo and gift shop and allows kids to pan for gold.

Another curiosity is the Jerome Bible Art Museum, housed in a former machine shop that later served as Arizona’s first Chrysler dealership.

The museum contains a gallery of hand-sculpted ceramic figurines depicting scenes from the New Testament.

Separate admission fees apply to the various tours and venues.

For more information, visit www.azjerome.com or www.jerome. az.gov.

Perched near the top of Cleopatra Hill and at an elevation of nearly a mile above sea level, Jerome, Ariz., has dubbed itself “America’s Most Vertical City,” one of several fitting monikers acquired by the town. (Shutterstock.com)

Many of Jerome’s ghost town buildings have retained their original milieu, such as this schoolroom from the 19th century.

(Shutterstock.com)

Nearly 200 rusted vehicles are featured at Gold King Mine and Ghost Town, a central attraction of Jerome. (Shutterstock.com)

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 13

City Seals

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Hinsdale, N.H. The oval city seal for Hinsdale, N.H., prominently touts its singular national claim to fame: the oldest continuously operating post office in the United States.

The city of 4,000-plus residents in the extreme southwest corner of the state was founded by missionary ordained Harvard College graduate Ebenezer Hinsdale.

Hinsdale served as chaplain at Fort Dummer, a vital trading post along the Connecticut River, which serves as the city’s western border. He later enlisted in the Army, achieving the rank of colonel, and in 1742 established — at his own expense — Fort Hinsdale, which included a trading post and gristmill. The fort became the town, which was chartered in 1753.

Nathan Babbit was appointed the town’s first postmaster in 1815 and commenced building a general store that would house the post office, which opened in 1816 and initially occupied a small corner at the front of the store.

As the town grew, so did the post office, and has since conscripted the entire first floor of the former general store for operations. Though a handful of other post offices are older, the Hinsdale branch is the oldest that has operated without interruption in the same building.

Today the service window is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 7:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday, though the post office boxes are accessible from 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. to accommodate rural customers during nonworking hours. The brass postal boxes are original.

As technology and the U.S. Postal Service changed, operations in the 114-year-old clapboard building have had to adapt.

Online convenience has replaced a good portion of the firstclass mail volume, but parcel business has increased, energized by daily delivery drops from Amazon, FedEx and UPS. Hinsdale is connected by bridge to Brattleboro, Vt., is rich in farmland and serves as a significant industrial center, especially in paper manufacturing. In 1875 inventor George A. Long received one of the nation’s earliest automobile patents for building a selfpropelled steam vehicle in his Hinsdale machine shop.

The city is home to several of New Hampshire’s 93 state parks and forests and offers plenty of outdoor recreation in breathtaking settings.

• Wantastiquet Mountain Natural Area, more than 1,000 acres of rustic beauty with an abundance of hiking trails.

• Bear Mountain State Forest, with 156 acres set aside for hunting and trapping.

• Pisgah State Park, at 13,300 acres, the largest parcel in the state’s park system. Activities include hiking, fishing and aquatic recreation, mountain biking, ATV and snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, horseback riding and bird watching.

For more information, visit www.town.hinsdale.nh.us.

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THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

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Implements

Focus on: Technology

Focus on:

technology 11 Solar activity runs in an approximately 11-year cycle, and it has just passed through its solar minimum activity level between Solar Cycle 24 and 25.

Hennepin, Minn., is taking steps to prepare its infrastructure for a massive solar storm.

60 Norfolk, Va., found it had over 60 sites where Wi-Fi could be accessed without having to go inside a building, and it identified 19 additional sites where it could add Wi-Fi, furthering digital inclusion for citizens without internet access at home.

Find out more on page 22.

Learn how cities are prioritizing digital inclusion on page 18.

80% The state-of-the-art Coastal Resources of Maine facility is aiming to recycle this percentage of household trash.

27 million

The number of tons of salt the U.S. applies to its roadways annually.

Learn more about this facility on page 26.

$1.5 Million Las Vegas has awarded $1.5 million tender to Australian artificial intelligence solutions provider SenSen Networks to provide a range of intelligent transportation and smart city solutions. The company’s technology will assist the city in keeping its roads safe and congestion-free by automating the enforcement of hundreds of bylaws associated with regulating traffic and parking.

Source: www.smartcitiesworld.net/news/news/ city-of-las-vegas-invests-15m-in-intelligent-transportation-technology-5209

Read more about the development of more environmentally friendly deicers on page 30.

$500-$700 million The annual amount the federal government invests in quantum information technology. Some of these funds could be used to fund the new quantum internet.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/ 2020/07/23/us-plan-quantum-internet/

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL

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M Focus on: Technology

Municipalities prioritize digital inclusion for all ages

By AMANDA DEMSTER | The Municipal

Part of the nature of technology is to progress; however, sometimes the pace is so fast, it leaves many people behind. With this in mind, cities nationwide have come to the realization they need to be digitally inclusive.

Digital inclusion encompasses a number of ideas, from catching older generations up on technology to giving those in poverty a hand up, and each city and region has its own methods for accomplishing these goals.

Raleigh, N.C. In Raleigh, digital inclusion is an integral part of the city’s strategic plan. Four key people who serve with Raleigh’s digital inclusion team are Digital Inclusion Manager Bradley Upchurch, Employment Program Manager Rebekah Dixon, Senior Communication Relations Analyst Sheila Lynch and Community Engagement Administrator Linda Jones.

18 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

One of Raleigh’s most successful digital inclusion programs is Digital Connectors, designed to teach youth ages 14 to 18 technology and leadership skills they will need to thrive in the workplace.

Digital Connectors began in 2010 when the city received a Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant. Students take part in training, exercises, field trips, presentations and mentoring.

They also serve their community, putting in roughly 60 volunteer hours teaching computer and internet skills. As another service, they also help refurbish computers for those who are economically disadvantaged.

Digital Connectors taught a free digital literacy class to seniors in October 2014.

(Photo provided)

Participants benefit in a number of ways not only through learning to serve others but also gaining crucial knowledge and experience for both college and the workplace.

Digital Connectors’ success stories are numerous. In the program’s early days, a participant went on to become a campaign manager for a city council member’s social media pages.

When another participant was accepted to Stamford University, the admissions department made a point to mention in her acceptance letter that they were impressed with her participation in Digital Connectors.

A 2015 participant is now assisting Upchurch with various programs, such as expanding partnerships, community service projects and working with ambassadors on a virtual platform.

A Digital Connector teaches coding at Sanderford Road Community Center in February 2019. (Photo provided)

Digital Connectors is not the only program through which Raleigh youth are succeeding. Dixon oversees the Raleigh Summer Youth Employment program, which annually hires around 200 students ages 15 to 18.

Participants gain workplace experience and one-on-one mentoring from professionals. They also attend workshops covering topics they will need for future job market success.

This year’s program was unable to proceed due to COVID-19 closures, though students were able to participate in online job interviews.

The city of Raleigh Community Engagement Division offers Foster Grandparents, a national program through Senior Corps and the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Through Foster Grandparents, adults age 55 and older are paired with elementary-age students, acting as mentors and teaching them about being active members of their community. Grandparents receive a stipend for their time and work roughly 20 hours per week with their students.

Foster Grandparents is another program greatly affected by COVID-19. Many seniors do not have experience with online platforms like Zoom, making meeting with their students a bit of a challenge, though not impossible.

Dixon communicates closely with the foster grandparents and sends out a newsletter to keep them up to date. She also provides worksheets for self-assessment and dealing with worry and anxiety.

The Digital Connectors also work with the grandparents via Google Meet and other online programs and teach them basics like how to use direct deposit.

“I want to get them to learn how to use their banking sites, just kind of walking step by step,” Dixon said.

Digital literacy is not just for students. Lynch highlighted the Raleigh Neighborhood College and the Citizen Leadership Academy, both of which have gone entirely virtual due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Adult Digital Literacy focuses on computer basics, like operating a mouse and keyboard, using Microsoft Office, safely navigating the internet and setting up an email account.

Pictured are computers that were replaced from Rush County, Ind.’s, courthouse office. They were cleared and reloaded before being given to people in need of a device. (Photo provided)

Adult Technology Education is more generalized, teaching adults how to use anything from tablets and computers to smartphones and software applications for professional use.

Under Upchurch, Digital Connectors falls under Economic Development and Innovation. The rest of the programs fall under Safe, Vibrant and Healthy Communities.

“All of our programs have won awards in the past as well, so we’re very proud of the work we’ve done, and now with COVID hitting, we’re able to do everything virtually,” Jones said.

The above is just a brief overview of Raleigh’s digital inclusion programs. To learn more, visit raleighnc.gov/community-engagement.

Rush County, Ind. Urban areas are not the only places where digital inclusion is important. The Rush County Digital Task Force is the first in Indiana to have a complete digital inclusion plan.

Mark McCorkle and Carole Yeend serve as co-chairs. Initially, a survey was used to assess digital needs; however, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that most brought things to light.

With schools, businesses and government offices closed, more people turned to the internet for business, education, entertainment and socialization. For those without internet access, the shutdowns were especially difficult.

The Rush County Digital Inclusion Plan consists of four major goals.

The first is to update and improve broadband connectivity.

“We were fortunate as a community to have a decent backbone in fiber wireless, but not nearly enough, so our goal was to support that in any way we could,” Yeend said.

The second goal is ownership of computing devices. Businesses and organizations often donate used computers to The Open Resource, a nonprofit organization that refurbishes them and, in partnership with the task force, donates them to those in need.

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 19

continued from page 19

In Rush County, Ind., children participate in a program called Code in Class, where they learn how to build a computer. (Photo provided by Rush County Boys & Girls Club)

“One of them went to an elderly couple who knew the importance of it,” Yeend said. “They had a disabled son and they came in and took some training, and it has opened up new worlds for them as they became aware of how easy it is.”

The third goal is training.

“People who have not been exposed to computers feel overwhelmed, and it just feels like a big mystery they don’t want to deal with,” Yeend said.

Safety is a key component. Yeend likens this to the starfish concept.

“The ones you throw back into the ocean benefit, so if we can help a family, a group or anyone become more savvy in the digital world, we’re making things better one step at a time,” she said.

The fourth goal is implementing digital strategies.

“We have gotten the attention of our local economic and community development,” Yeend said. “As they revise their strategies, I understand they’re making technology an important goal.”

All of the above can be easier said than done for a small, rural county.

“Unfortunately, we’ve not been eligible for many of the federal or state grants that have come out because of the coverage that we do have,” McCorkle said. “We’re a small county of only 16,000 people, so that grant money is really critical to help expand and get the coverage that we need.”

The current method for calculating coverage divides the community into census blocks.

“If anyone in a census block had a 10 down, one up coverage, that was considered good for everybody,” Yeend said. “That’s pretty spotty, and I think that was one of the biggest challenges, how we’re evaluated as needing infrastructure.”

When it comes to successes, both Yeend and McCorkle credit Dr. Roberto Gallardo, Ph.D., of the Purdue Center for Regional Development.

“Albeit we’ve taken some baby steps and gotten it going under the leadership of Dr. Roberto Gallardo,” Yeend said. “We’re the first group in the state that had a complete digital inclusion plan.”

For more information, visit www.rushcounty.in.gov/broadband.

20 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

The Battleship Wisconsin is one site that offers free Wi-Fi in Norfolk, Va. (Photo provided)

Norfolk, Va. Norfolk is making internet access available to local residents through a program called ConnectNorfolk.

Much of Norfolk’s current goals were born out of the pandemic, which brought to light many areas where the city’s Wi-Fi services were lacking.

“I think about what we thought was important a year ago, and I’m not saying it’s not still important, but the pandemic seems to have pulled us in a new direction, and in a way, I’d say it’s a good direction,” Norfolk Chief Information Officer Fraser Picard said.

Residents without a Wi-Fi connection at home often depend on places like the public library and community centers to access the internet. However, when these places shut down earlier this year, many adults were without a way to search for jobs or apply for government aid, while many students were unable to attend school.

“Wi-Fi, in the past, has always been about providing Wi-Fi to visitors,” Picard said. “Now the pandemic has shifted that to be about providing Wi-Fi outside the building to anyone, so it’s a slight change there for us.”

The first step was to take internet devices to every city building and school in Norfolk to assess signal strength at each site.

“Overall, we found over 60 sites in the city that you could access Wi-Fi from without having to go inside a building,” Picard said.

Using the city’s GIS maps and factoring in residential land use and median household income, the city identified 19 additional sites to add Wi-Fi. The next step was to make the login information universal at each location except the schools, which will continue using their existing information for students’ convenience.

The city also eliminated public Wi-Fi passwords.

“So, it’s truly free Wi-Fi,” Picard said, adding that filters are in place to prevent visits to inappropriate sites.

Once the sites were mapped out, the final step was getting the word out. The city created a marketing plan using social media, the city website and the local TV news station. They also created an interactive map, where residents can type in their address on a computer or mobile device and generate a list of free Wi-Fi sites near them.

For those without a mobile data plan, the library offers a Mi-Fi mobile hot spot checkout program. Multiple family members can use one hot spot device.

Printable PDF versions of the map are also available.

“Having this website is really cool, but if you don’t have internet access, it doesn’t help,” Picard said. “So, that’s why we wanted the PDF map.”

Besides making the internet more accessible, the city is working to make itself more accessible. Again, much of this was a result of pandemic-related closings, though Picard feels the changes are here to stay, especially because it has made the meetings more accessible to the public, particularly those with mobility needs or who may be out of town.

“I think this is really something that’s come out of the pandemic that we originally thought, here’s a solution to a problem, but I think this might be something we use from now on,” he said.

A feature called a “waiting room” allows those who wish to make a comment or address a concern to do so.

Other digital inclusion goals for Norfolk include implementing improvements to the online permit system, made possible through CARES Act funding; creating an online civic hub for local businesses to communicate things like hours and special offers and updates; and creating a regional fiber ring in the Five Cities area, which will feature roughly 100 miles of fiber optic cable.

Improvements are also set to take place in a portion of downtown called St. Paul’s. A transportation grant will allow for street improvements, which will, in turn, allow for installation of conduits to bring broadband connectivity to under-served areas of the city.

“I really see the future of technology helping define what the new Norfolk looks like, and for me, I have a responsibility of not only making sure employees have computer skills, (but) there’s also a greater opportunity to make sure that gets expanded out to the public,” Picard said.

To learn more and view the interactive maps, visit https://www. norfolk.gov/ConnectNorfolkWi-Fi.

The Jordan-Newby Anchor Branch at Broad Creek opened in Norfolk, Va., June 14, 2018. The library offers public computers, Wi-Fi access and classes aimed at introducing patrons to different technologies. (Photo provided)

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 21

M Focus on: Technology

Preparing for inevitable cele

By BARB SIEMINSKI | The Municipal

Solar storms are a real possibility, according to Eric Waage, director of Hennepin County Emergency Management.

Eric Waage, Director of Hennepin County, Minn., Emergency Management 22

“I think that people who run utilities and plan for disasters really need to have this on their radar,” said Waage.

“But I think that most utilities (at least in the northern U.S. and Canada) are very aware of the solar storm threat. The issue is that all-hazard emergency responders and planners for government jurisdictions — folks like me — may not be aware, if at all, about solar storms and the level of disruption that they could cause.”

The Space Hazard Monitor project is evolving into the MagStar magnetometer array, which will involve the expansion of the network. Like the Space Hazard Monitor program, the MagStar program is funded by the National Science Foundation.

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

Presently, there are six sites around the country that are being measured besides the current Space Hazard Monitor site that Hennepin County hosts in east central Minnesota, including locations in Texas, Illinois, West Virginia, Connecticut and Maine. The new MagStar Array would add additional sites in northern Minnesota, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Vermont.

“There are two different sensors that are part of each SHM site,” said Waage. “One is a geomagnetic-induced current sensor, and the other is a magnetometer. The GIC sensor measures the surface electric field that has the potential to enter and flow through human-built conductive infrastructure, such as pipelines, power lines

estial hazards

The Halloween Storms of 2003 saw an outbreak of 17 major solar flares, which resulted in coronal mass ejections and enormous explosions on the sun’s surface. Pictured is a collage that features sunspots, EUVI wavelength and coronagraph images from the 2003 solar storm. (Photo provided) Pictured is an artist’s rendering of events on the sun changing conditions in nearEarth space. (Photo by NASA)

and communications cables. The magnetometer measures the Earth’s magnetic field at that location.”

It’s important to remember that solar activity runs along an approximately 11-year cycle. According to Waage, our sun just passed through its “solar minimum” activity level between Solar Cycle 24 and 25 and is now slowly increasing. The size and impact of solar storms varies widely. Solar storms do not cause physical damage, except to some kinds of electronic equipment.

“In fact, the thing that makes understanding solar storms a bit more difficult from an emergency management standpoint is the lack of much historical data on their frequency and magnitude,” said Waage. “Since impact reports are tied to the impacts on electronics, before humans used electricity, they would not have noticed solar storms, except for the huge displays of northern and southern lights that accompany them. So, unlike records of earthquakes, volcanoes, floods and other natural hazards that leave physical evidence and also include accounts from ancient historians, there is no such rich and deep history for solar storms.

“It was not until the invention of the telegraph and other electronic devices in the mid-1800s that solar storms really mattered. With only a small timeline of historical record, we don’t really know how bad a

solar storm can get or how often a big storm takes place. The current benchmark for the worst solar storm is held by the 1859 Carrington Event. Lots of damages and disruption of the world’s newly created telegraph network happened in 1859. Back then, electrical equipment was simple and robust compared to today’s complex and microchipdominated electronics. In 1859 there was no power grid to disrupt.”

Today, grids can be vulnerable to solar currents that would flow along power lines and damage or disrupt transformers and control systems. There have been many studies regarding what might happen if Earth were hit again by a Carrington-size event. Most predict longterm power outages and severe disruptions in modern systems that depend on electricity, such as communications, finance, energy and so on. A Carrington-size event missed hitting Earth by just a few days in 2012. The rotation of the sun itself, and the travel of Earth in orbit around the sun, make solar storm events a complex set of shooting gallery-like factors that determine whether we get hit or the burst gets harmlessly hurled out into space.

“We got very lucky in 2012,” said Waage, “and most people on Earth were oblivious to just how close we came to finding out what a Carrington-size event would do to our 2020 electronic infrastructure.”

Asked how he himself came to an interest in the topic, Waage said he has a professional interest in solar storms and the severe disruption they could cause.

“As part of my responsibility to identify, assess and monitor all hazards that could impact Hennepin County, I decided to attend a solar hazard conference in Colorado,” said Waage. “While there, I listened to a presentation that Jennifer Gannon made about the Space NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL

23

continued from page 23

Historic data on solar storms are lacking since humans have rarely noticed them, except for the huge displays of northern and southern lights that accompany them. (Shutterstock.com)

Hazard Monitor Network and noticed that there were no sensors in our region of the United States. I have a professional background in geology, and so I knew that the particular rocks under Minnesota and our northerly geomagnetic latitude made our part of the U.S. susceptible

24 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

to solar storms. By coincidence, my department (Hennepin County Emergency Management) was already developing a network of weather and soil monitoring stations to aid us in providing faster, more localized indications of imminent threats.”

Waage then offered Gannon space at one of the Hennepin West Mesonet sites near St. Bonifacious, Minn. Waage’s department won’t be forecasting solar storms, as its employees don’t have the expertise; however, they want to support agencies that do.

“Solar storm predictions, alerts and warnings come from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Space Weather Prediction Center,” said Waage. “Currently, from my vantage point, as the emergency manager for a major urban county, the prediction and warning system does a pretty good job of observing threatening activity on the sun itself and can detect solar storms as they come toward earth. The system also provides good warning of impacts to satellites and global communications networks.”

Where the system is weakest, Waage said, is in regard to providing localized impact prediction. Typical warnings today might speak of a solar hazard that may impact the “sunlit side of the earth above 50 degrees geomagnetic latitude,” for instance. The area described in such warnings is massive and does not give local authorities and utility operators much to convert into their own regional context.

“Once solar energy hits the basement rocks of the Earth, lots of local variations come into play, which tends to transmit, channel or focus this energy in ways that can’t be described in the current

warnings,” observed Waage. “The idea of networks like the Space Hazard Monitoring Network, and its followup MagStar magnetometer array, is that providing monitors across the regions that are susceptible to solar storms (will enable us to) get the data needed to predict solar storm behavior in local rocks. Such data will provide actionable information to those in a position to protect our electrical grid from damage and disruption.”

Protecting the grid is likely the best humanity can hope for given the sheer size of solar storms.

“The massive energy involved coming from the sun dwarfs any human ability to block or deflect it on a planetary scale,” said Waage. “Hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes are tiny compared to the energy in a solar storm. Similar to these Earth hazards, though, the human response is to take prudent actions to avoid harm because we are not going to be able to stop the solar storm from arriving. Unlike an asteroid, which scientists have discussed ways of deflecting, solar storm energy is a mass of plasma that is not susceptible to being physically knocked off course by a human-induced push or explosion.

“Great strides have been made in observing the sun, detecting the start of solar storms, determining arrival time and describing the regions of the Earth where the energy will strike; less attention has been paid to understanding what happens to this energy once it descends into the bedrock and begins to be channeled and concentrated in especially hazardous ways. This is how state and local emergency managers will be able to put a more defined geographic face on this hazard. This is what is needed to make specific investments or take more detailed preparatory actions at state and local levels.”

The foremost goal of emergency management is prevention and mitigation measures that enable his office to protect critical infrastructure systems from threats. Better to invest in preventing or lessening a disaster than to deal with the much bigger losses and costs afterward.

“Regarding the 2012 Carrington event, which was a close escape, scientists, utility officials and emergency managers, however, appreciated the chance to have some more time to gather more data and refine our ability to protect ourselves from solar storms,” concluded Waage. “It is only a matter of time before we will take another solar storm hit. We need to learn and prepare wisely.”

On the Web Eric Waage recommended readers go online to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., to learn more about solar changes: www.swpc.noaa.gov.

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M Focus on: Technology

Coastal Resources of Maine offers waste innovations

By JANET PATTERSON | The Municipal

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was scheduled to run in August, but days before going to publication, we noted the Coastal Resources of Maine recycling facility had closed in late May and was in the care of a core staff who are monitoring the facility. Shelby Wright, MRC’s director of community resources, said the closure “had nothing to do with the process. The plant continues to be compliant and ready to be operational again.”

The problems leading to the closure were something of a “perfect storm” when the COVID-19 pandemic interfered with recycling markets. The plant was about to close on a $14.7 million loan from bondholders for continued updates and improvements when recycling markets plummeted.

That, along with losing the plant’s operations and management provider, led the bondholders to call off the closing on the loan. The plant is now in receivership awaiting a buyer.

In a recent interview, Wright said there are three proposals from potential buyers. “Pushing the timeline, we’re hopeful to have a new owner by the end of the year and to restart operations. Right now we’re working to maintain our waste contracts” with local communities.

Prior to the closure, Wright said the plant had a marked increase in productivity in the first two quarters of 2020.

Without MRC, trash is once again going to the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. incinerator in Orrington, Maine, where it is burned for energy, and to a nearby landfill.

26 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

Coastal Resources of Maine eliminates the need for households to sort recyclables from trash through its innovative seven-step process. (Photo provided)

The state of Maine is making history with the opening of the Coastal Resources of Maine recycling facility in Hampden, a city of about 7,000 on the Penobscot River.

The plant is the first next-generation recycling facility in the country, using innovative processes to eliminate the need for households to sort recyclables from trash while diverting more than 60% of waste from landfills.

“Our goal is to recycle 80% of household trash,” explained Shelby Wright, whose job it is to “talk trash” for Fiberight, the company that created and built the processes and facility that opened on Earth Day in 2019.

“We’re now recycling materials that would go to landfills,” Wright added.

The new $70 million facility, which harbors 3 acres of belts and sorters and washers and cookers under one roof, resulted from years of thinking and experimenting by Fiberight’s team of scientists and engineers, as well as through collaboration on the part of Maine’s municipalities concerned with conserving natural resources.

The facility was built on land purchased by Maine’s Municipal Review Committee, a nonprofit coalition of 115 Maine municipalities that has overseen the management of municipal solid waste since 1991. In 2012 MRC started to consider alternatives to the incinerator that had been its answer to recycling. Wright said markets for recycled materials were diminishing and the incinerator was no longer the answer MRC was seeking. Fiberight’s technology seemed to be the way to go, and in 2016, construction began.

The communities served by the new facility range from the coastal islands of Maine to the Canadian border to the city of Bangor.

Wright explained the key to diminishing the trash that goes to waste is Fiberight’s seven-step process that takes a single stream of trash in and produces marketable materials and products at the end.

Maine’s “one bin, all in” system means households put all trash, including greasy pizza boxes, leftover foods and plastic bags, as well as recycling, into one bin. The whole conglomeration is collected by local municipalities and transported to Coastal Resources of Maine.

This way, Coastal is doing the sorting instead of the householders, Wright explained.

In addition to leaving caps on containers and bottles, households can drop items like glass, Tyvek envelopes and 3-foot lengths of garden hose, rope and tarps into their trash bins. Even needles and sharps can go into the trash if they are sealed in a detergent bottle and labeled.

Clothing, yard waste, tires, furniture, power tools and home improvement debris are not part of the “one bin, all in” system.

Getting the trash to the Hampden facility is the first step of the household trash recycling process. The second step commences with de-bagging the trash onto a conveyer belt that splits trash into streams based on size. Items that are large and bulky, as well as textiles, are High-density polyethylene plastic is moved to the baler at the immediately separated from the stream.

Coastal Resources of Maine recycling facility. (Photo provided) The recovery process is the third step and the point where high tech takes over. Technologically advanced optical sorting — magnets, electrical fields and density sensors — recover different types of glass, “It’s like a big stomach,” Wright said. The “digesting” process, which plastics, metals and cardboard from the waste stream to be recycled can handle up to 180,000 tons of trash and recycling a year, turns and reused as new materials, Wright explained. the organic materials into renewable natural gas. The water used for Even plastic bags are sorted out of the waste stream and immedi- digestion comes out clean and loops back into the system to keep the ately sent to the sixth step of the process. Wright said plastic bags are recycling stream moving. hard to remove from the waste stream so are not typically recyclable.

The renewable gas that comes out of the digester is Coastal’s source Coastal, however, is able to not only separate them but recover a clean of power for the plant. Wright said future plans are to use the natural gas substitute in the community to lower its carbon footprint. end-product that is ready for reuse.

The fourth and fifth steps of the Coastal process take the remaining This entire process takes about 72 hours from the time a load of mixture of trash and paper and treat it with water. Organic materials trash is delivered to the facility. move on to the seventh step, and paper is broken down to pulp creatWright’s enthusiasm for the new facility is boundless, because, ing a building block for new paper. she said, traditional ways of recycling have been less successful than Wright said Coastal is the first recycling facility in the United States anticipated.

“We’ve spent money to educate people, but it hasn’t worked,” she with a pulper. Typically, only clean, standard sheets of paper and cardboard have been candidates for pulping. Coastal, however, can said, referring to the ways most municipalities have handled recycling. recycle all fiber-based materials, including dirty paper plates, coffee “This recycling center deconstructs the process,” making recycling cups and pizza boxes. doable for everyone whether they know it or not. In fact, she said, The sixth step, which is where the separated plastic bags immedi- Fiberight has made it so easy for households, it’s been a challenge to ately went after step three, processes those along with plastic films convince some people they are actually recycling. and wraps, and turns them in briquettes. These are used by local busiWright said Catonsville, Md.-based, Fiberight started in 2007 as nesses for internal energy generation. an “industry disruptor.” Since then, it has built pilot plants in LawFinally, at step seven, where the organic materials go, the watery renceville, Va., and Southampton, United Kingdom, to perfect its stream that contains food leftovers, flows into the anaerobic digester.

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 27

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processes and develop new technologies. The Maine facility is its first fully operational plant serving a local community.

“We’ve redefined waste as a resource,” Wright said. In addition to producing the plastic briquettes and renewable gas, Fiberight’s processes result in products that can be used in materials, such as rigid plastics, electricity generation, transportation fuels and feedstock for cement kilns.

Wright said her own venture into sustainability began with a paper drive while a Girl Scout. From student environmental activities in college and working on policy campaigns later, Wright found herself helping to coordinate the efforts of the Maine Resource Recovery Association. When Fiberight took notice, they offered her the position of director of community services. “I never would have imagined trash could be so incredibly fascinating.”

Wright acknowledged some communities find sending trash to the landfill is the cheapest way to deal with tons of refuse. “With recycled commodity prices at historic lows, too many communities have suspended recycling programs or limited collection to a few items, and now they may be struggling to provide these essential services to their residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

She said the Hampden facility provides a “more affordable and stable pricing structure for the processing of recyclable materials.

Waste is a resource we can’t afford to waste.”

28

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

Paper is broken down to pulp at the Coastal Resources of Maine; this can then be used to create new paper. (Photo provided)

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M Focus on: Technology

WSU looks to produce environmentally friendly deicers

By MAGGIE KENWORTHY | The Municipal

According to Dr. Xianming Shi, professor in civil and environmental engineering at Washington State University, the United States applies around 27 million tons of road salt to roadways annually.

This road salt has the potential to contaminate up to 1,500 billion gallons of drinking water supply if 0.1% of the chloride made its way to groundwater.

“Road salt can induce substantial environmental risks and metallic corrosion when it washes into groundwater, lakes and rivers,” explained Shi, who is also director of the National Center for Transportation Infrastructure Durability and Life-Extension.

“Road salt poses a toxicological concern to fish and other aquatic life. For instance, chloride 30

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

will accumulate over time as a contaminant in water, as there is no cost-effective way to remove it.”

This is why Shi began his career as a chemist in 2003 by looking at ways to reduce the environmental footprint of winter road operations.

His research has covered many aspects of deicers, particularly their performance and impact. In 2001, he began developing “green” anti-icing formulations incorporating vodka distillery wastes. Since then, he has been testing the feasibility of this biotechnology in deriving “green” chemicals out of various agro-wastes, including peony leaves, sugar beet leaves, apple pomace and grape and cherry wastes.

“Compared with traditional salt brine, they contain less chloride and are less corrosive and induce less adverse impacts on the environment while featuring better performance in snow and ice control on pavement,” said Shi. “Compared with the popular ‘green

LEFT: Cities are seeking ways to reduce the environmental impact their winter road operations have. In response, researchers are turning to agro-waste to create a deicing agents with less chloride.

(Shutterstock.com)

Dr. Xianming Shi, professor in civil and environmental engineering at Washington State University, has been researching deicers since 2003. (Photo provided by Washington State University) deicer,’ a blend of beet juice and salt brine, they induce considerably less risk to aquatic species — through greatly reduced the oxygen demands — while offering comparable performance.”

The goal of the current product, referred to as the Sustainable Environmentally Friendly Deicer, is to provide safe driving conditions while also being less harmful to the environment.

“Many advances have been made to produce ‘greener’ anti-icers or deicers, which, however, still struggle to provide safe driving conditions on pavement in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner,” said Shi. “Imagine a renewable additive that greatly reduces the impacts on water quality, infrastructure and motor vehicles but maintains outstanding anti-icing — and thus safety — performance. This is the right step toward a more sustainable future.”

The university is currently working on the intellectual property licensing for the Sustainable Environmentally Friendly Deicer. The team has applied for funding to

WSU students Mueed Jamal and Mehdi Honarvarnazari are seen testing the Sustainable Environmentally Friendly Deicer. (Photo provided by Washington State University)

accelerate the commercialization process of the product.

Additionally, testing of this product will take place on a small scale in Kirkland, Wash., this winter.

“We’re going to work with the university, and they’re going to do some detailed measurements of chemical coming off the road,” said Ray Steiger, public works superintendent for Kirkland. “They’ll measure the water and they’ll measure any of the effluents that come off the road … They have parameters they’re looking at to see that it’s more environmentally friendly.”

This testing will take place on a.75-mile stretch of Forbes Creek Drive. This road was chosen because it is fairly straight with a little bit of grade. In addition, the road is located near a wetland, which will provide different weather conditions than the previous testing has seen.

Washington State University will be delivering the Sustainable Environmentally Friendly Deicer to Kirkland throughout the

winter, but city of Kirkland employees will be applying it to the roadway.

Currently, the city of Kirkland already uses an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional salt — Calcium Chloride with Boost.

The city went away from using salt, except in very minor quantities, in the early 2000s.

“Kirkland is very much like many cities, looking for things that are better for the environment,” said Steiger. “We feel the product we’re using now is probably the best you can get on the market. But there’s always something else that could be improved and so we’re interested in seeing how that will help.”

City employees will be looking at three main factors when considering whether to use the product on a larger scale if it becomes commercially available: safety, cost and environmentally friendly effectiveness.

“We don’t want to switch to a product that we then start seeing people sliding and going into ditches and (having) accidents, so it’s important that we stay safe. We don’t want people getting hurt,” said Steiger.

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 31

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“If we see that maybe it’s less expensive or helps the environment but we have double the accidents, that doesn’t really serve the community.”

Steiger sees this testing opportunity as another way the city of Kirkland can get involved with green initiatives.

“The community really values the water and the lakes and the ocean out here, and if we can move the dial in that direction toward things that are more environmental, we need to be the leaders there,” said Steiger. “I really am excited about the partnership that we have before us.”

Municipal leaders considering the use of products such as the Sustainable Environmentally Friendly Deicer are encouraged to look at the long-term effects and cost of their current products.

“The traditional salt seems quite affordable when you only look at the short-term and direct cost. Once you look into the long-term and hidden costs, the overall image would favor more environmentally sustainable, equipment-friendly and infrastructure-friendly

Shown is the Sustainable Environmentally Friendly Deicer testing area in Kirkland, Wash., which will be used this upcoming winter season. Forbes Creek Drive is.75 miles long and located near a wetland. (Photo provided by city of Kirkland) alternatives,” explained Shi. “The general public needs to be better informed about the risks of seemingly cheaper products. It is a balance between meeting our current needs (we want to drive from point A to point B at

high speed but do not want to pay for the more sustainable deicer products) and not compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (e.g., our grandkids have to drink saltier water).”

20_2098_The Municipal_NOV Mod: September 23, 2020 9:11 AM Print: 09/29/20 4:36:41 PM page 1

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M Focus on: Technology

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Citizen solution will help Brook Park navigate technology

By ANDREW MENTOCK | The Municipal

A few years ago, Thomas Dufour attended a Brook Park, Ohio, City Council meeting as an interested citizen and left with the realization that his local government needed his help.

Council members were unsure of how to discover who owned the domain names for the city council’s website and deliberated on how to resolve the issue, ultimately hiring a private investigator to do so.

“They didn’t know who had it or did the city pay for it,” Dufour said. “But all the information on it was private. So as a website developer, I’m sitting there, I’m hearing this argument, I kind of want to be like, ‘I can probably answer all these questions if somebody wants to talk to me about it.’ But it was a huge fight.

“It got me wondering, ‘Is there anything in the city where if they have a technology-related question, if technology-related issues 34 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

come up or if there’s legislation that comes up, who evaluates that?

Who is the point of contact within the city?’”

This sparked an idea in Dufour: What if there was a collection of residents to advise the Brook Park mayor, currently Mike Gammella, and city council on technology-related inquiries?

He spoke with members of the city council, drafted legislation, handed it off to council member Brian Poindexter, who made some changes and began working to get it enacted.

With an unanimous vote, the bill was passed at a Nov. 19, 2019, city council meeting, which created Brook Park’s Technology and Innovation Committee. It consists of five members: the mayor, a

Thomas Dufour, a web developer

Holly Klingler, research and innovation coordinator at the Northeast Ohio Regional Library System

James Presley, a change implementation specialist

city council member and three residents with experience in tech- easier to limit the number of eager family members in the stands nology, appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the city council. and further promote social distancing.

In the Brook Park Code of Ordinances, it reads: The committee has also embraced remedial tasks, including cre“The functions of the Technology and Innovation Committee ating an inventory for all the technology equipment the city owns shall be to review the City’s current and various technology pro- and gathering all social media and website passwords for the city.

Another responsibility of the committee is to explore what techgrams and determine those which no longer have administrative, or fiscal values to the City or its citizens, and further recommend nology the city could implement in the future. Right now, they’re other programs and/or innovations which would be of benefit to in the process of looking into municipal Wi-Fi at city parks, electric the City.” municipal vehicles as a cost-saving initiative and more.

Once their research is complete, it will be presented to the city The Technology and Innovation Committee was officially up and running by March of this year with Poindexter as the city council at an upcoming meeting. council appointee. The three Brook Park resident members of the “We’re working on putting together a memorandum of undercommittee are Dufour, a web developer; James Presley, a change standing with them to help start to bring autonomous driving and implementation specialist; and Holly Klingler, the research and those kinds of high-tech transportation technologies into our city, innovation coordinator at the Northeast Ohio Regional Library both from a testing perspective,” Dufour said. “Then we also will System. hopefully get some businesses in here that want to set up shop and The group was to meet monthly, but a few weeks later, the COVID- partner with NASA, which is right in our back door.”

19 pandemic began to greatly hinder businesses and municipalities All three committee members earn very little money from parthroughout the U.S. Instead, the committee members spoke with ticipating — no more than $100 per month — but they contribute city council members and citizens directly on potential solutions because of their passion for making Brook Park a better, more to technology problems that were suddenly much more pertinent innovative city. now that meeting in person was no longer an option.

They also believe the Technology and Innovation Committee “We were working on multiple things at the same time, and I can become a model for what other smaller cities can do to provide think that we really kind of ramped up our thought process and our technological expertise and resources to a city council. brainstorming,” Klingler said. “One of the things that we looked at “That’s one of the reasons we’re doing what we’re doing is was providing mobile hotspots for individuals who don’t necessar- because we hope to be an example and a pioneer,” Klingler said. ily have internet because we have a tremendous older population “And to let other cities know and other municipalities know that and a tremendous school-age population as well. So we wanted to you don’t have to be a huge metropolitan city in order to impleconsider options for mobile hotspots.” ment some really good ideas. I think being proactive and working With the hope of youth basketball returning at the local rec as a team and having a small but mighty group can be can be very center at the end of this year, the committee also helped imple- powerful.” ment a way for the league to livestream its games. That way, it’s NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 35

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City Profile

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Coeur d’Alene embraces growth by expanding opportunities

By LAUREN CAGGIANO | The Municipal

A city is more than buildings, roads and infrastructure. Its backdrop is also important and adds to its character and charm. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, is one example of a city in the Pacific Northwest that has capitalized on its environmental assets and experienced growth as a result.

A woman takes a leap of faith via Timberline Adventures’ seven-line zip tour. The attraction received Tripadvisor’s 2020 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best award. (Photo provided by Coeur d’Alene Visitors Bureau)

40

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

The city of 53,000 — located in the northwest part of the state — has no shortage of natural beauty. Here you’ll find timber and forest, the Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer and other water resources, including Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River, and aggregate mining.

Speaking of mining, City Administrator Troy Tymesen said he’s bullish on a project in the works that will redevelop a property — Atlas Mill Site, a defunct mill — into a mixed-use project. In 2018, the city purchased the site in collaboration with a local urban renewal agency called ignite cda, and together, they have been preparing it for future development in a phased approach. The hope is the site will hold single- and multifamily homes in addition to office and retail.

Beyond this project, which will no doubt have an impact on the economy, Tymesen said Coeur d’Alene’s largest industries include retail, healthcare, hospitality, construction, education, manufacturing, administrative, professional and government.

When residents aren’t working, they’re also taking part in the area’s robust recreational scene. According to Tymesen, attractions run the gamut. He said Silverwood Theme Park; Trail of the Coeur d’Alene’s, a biking trail; skiing; water activities; hiking; snow sports; golf; casinos; art galleries; an extensive public art collection; and Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre are on his short list.

In other words, this combination of factors makes Coeur d’Alene a hotspot for tourism and relocation, as evidenced by its rapid population growth.

Over the last decade, Kootenai County has added about 26,000 people, amounting to a growth factor of 19%. If you ask Tymesen, the city has a unique value proposition.

“The growth is due to the desirability of the beautiful surroundings, lake, streams, mountains, forests and public accessible lands,” he said. “People are able to recreate, find quality health care, excellent schools and access to a great regional airport in Spokane, Wash., just 30 miles away.”

Looking to the future, Tymesen is confident in the ability of city leadership to execute and help the municipality grow intentionally, with a forward-thinking approach.

“Leadership has continued to plan and be prepared,” he said. “The city’s wastewater plant is state of the art and able to handle the growth. We are very fortunate to have an amazing aquifer to supply all of our water needs. The city partners every chance that it can to build relationships and assist with projects.”

For instance, he said the city works with a nonprofit organization called CDA 2030, a community-based project created to develop a vision for a bright future for greater Coeur d’Alene. Over the past two years, CDA 2030 has garnered thousands of community members’ input and participation to develop a shared vision and a plan to make it a reality. Tymesen said this group has helped the city move forward and stay accountable to its vision for the future.

“This group of volunteers helps us communicate the plan for the future and checks in to make sure the objectives are being met,” he said. “This partnership has helped the city make a community plan, gain valuable input and then execute the plan over a number of years.”

That’s just one example of a partnership in action. Tymesen said plans are in the works for the development of a medical district.

The growth of the Kootenai Health Campus — the largest employer in northern Idaho — and increased demand for medical care is in response to the growth of the city and Kootenai County. Per an

Golf serves as another leisure activity in Coeur d’Alene. Pictured is The Coeur d’Alene Resort’s golf course. (Photo provided by Coeur d’Alene Visitors Bureau)

Recreation is a major draw to Coeur d’Alene, and the city and its surroundings offer a wide gamut of recreational opportunities, including skiing. (Photo provided by Coeur d’Alene Visitors Bureau) October 2017 report from the Urban Land Institute, there is a great need to invest in this community asset, especially from a mobility standpoint: “Kootenai Health has evolved to a point in their development where they recognize they cannot successfully move ahead on their own … Expansion is stymied by highways that are a barrier to expansion east and north, and the challenge of land assemblage to the west and south. While near term demands can be met, the future ability to serve at their current campus, particularly outpatient needs, is not clear. Solutions to guide their future will need the support, cooperation and partnership of others.”

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 41

Public Safety

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A Florida sheriff’s office adopts Scottish tactics to de-escalate high-stress situations

By NICHOLETTE CARLSON | The Municipal

When Sheriff Mike Chitwood was elected by Volusia County, Fla., in 2016, he brought with him some new ideas. After attending a weeklong training in Scotland in 2015 with the Police Executive Research Forum, Chitwood gained a new way of processing stressful situations through the Integrating Communication Assessment Tactics training.

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood was one of 25 police leaders chosen to visit Scotland with the Police Executive Research Forum and learn its de-escalation tactics. Since Scotland has so few firearms available, police officers have to use other methods when confronted with an armed subject. (Photo provided by Rich Herard, Police Executive Research Forum)

Scottish tactics and training tend to work best when faced with an individual who does not have a firearm and is not currently harming someone. It focuses on critical decision-making skills and emphasizes the use of time, distance and cover. (Photo provided

by Rich Herard, Police Executive Research Forum) 42

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

Training in Scotland Chitwood was one of 25 police leaders from around the country chosen to join PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler in Scotland to witness the country’s training academy methods. Since there are so few firearms in Scotland, officers are not equipped with firearms except for a speck task force. Therefore, instead of relying on a firearm, police depend on critical decision-making skills, time, distance, cover and communication. “If you don’t have a firearm, what do you do?” Chitwood asked, and that’s exactly what he learned.

Although Chitwood first entered the training feeling as if he would be unable to learn much, that opinion quickly changed.

He also realized American police chiefs would have to see such a method in order to believe it and adopt it for themselves. “They base training on the sanctity of human life,” Chitwood described.

“The values and ethics of the organization.”

The police force in Scotland has an 83% approval rating throughout the country. Due to the trust built with the community, there is no public outcry when officers do need to use force. Since it is done so rarely, community members realize that, if it is done, there was no other option.

Scottish officers are tested on their critical decision-making skills, such as an ability to reason critically as well as their reactions and decisions during stress. All training is based on the sanctity of human life. In the U.S., however, one of the first requirements an officer must pass in the hiring process is the firearms test. Both countries experience the same problems and issues. There are just two extremely different approaches to the same high-stress

situations. With less guns available, Scottish police have to use their wits and call in the right people for each situation.

ICAT training The ICAT training through PERF is based on the work in Scotland and hundreds of officers throughout the U.S. After taking over as Volusia County sheriff, Chitwood had his entire department go through the training. It has since been included in over 80 police and safety institutions around the country.

The training provides a focus on critical thinking, crisis intervention and communications and tactics. Officers are given tools and skills to defuse a range of critical situations with these new options.

Instead of leading with the warrior mentality that has guided officers for generations, ICAT encourages officers to lead with a guardian mentality. The focus is put on community policing, crime prevention and high standards of professionalism.

Chitwood believes in trying to redefine American policing and that all departments should invest in the type of tactics training that leads to more humane policing. In his department, 40 hours of de-escalation training is required.

This training is most effective when dealing with someone suffering from a mental illness or someone with an edged weapon.

The goal is to assess the situation, try to establish communication and rapport, contain the subject and attempt to gather as much information as possible before ever approaching the subject. However, it tends to not be as effective in an active shooter situations or dynamic situations where a person has harmed others.

“How do we rectify this situation as peaceably as possible?” Chitwood asks himself before going out on any call. He trains his officers to ask themselves the same question. At the end of the day, the goal is “everybody goes home safely,” he stated.

“And we have the training and equipment to do so.”

While a great deal can be done with an officer simply showing empathy, Chitwood explained, “Part of de-escalating is protecting yourself.” Police officers have been utilizing similar practices for years. There has simply never been a name for it

Police leaders observe the Scottish training during their trip in 2015. Integrating Communication Assessment Tactics training was then created through PERF based on the lessons and tactics learned from Police Scotland. (Photo provided by Rich Herard, Police Executive Research Forum)

The tools and skills learned during ICAT training help to de-escalate a situation so the use of force is not necessary. The goal is to leave every interaction with everyone involved going home safely. (Photo provided by Rich Herard, Police Executive Research Forum)

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 43

continued from page 43

before. This training and accompanying workshops put it at the forefront of officers’ minds.

In the beginning, this training was met with a significant amount of opposition and resistance, particularly from the police union. Some individuals believe police officers do not have a duty to retreat. However, Chitwood believes the results speak for themselves.

By the end of 2018, everyone in the Volusia County Sheriff ’s Office had completed ICAT training. Comparing statistics from 2016, prior to training, and 2019, after training, Chitwood found that use of force had dropped 50%, arrests had dropped by 30%, injuries against deputies dropped 50% and overall crime had dropped 40%.

With this new training, there also came a new award. The Deescalation Award is now on par with the Medal of Valor, the highest honor an officer can receive. In that year, 12 De-escalation Awards were given out. “It’s just as important as stopping an active shooter,” Chitwood emphasized, and it often takes significantly more time.

In the future, Chitwood has plans for a pilot program connecting social workers and mental health professionals with police officers.

A pilot program training dispatchers how to elicit as much information as possible will begin in 2021. This will give officers more information to determine the best course of action. There will be a contracted psychologist on call to be reached via Zoom to help officers choose the best way to proceed in certain instances or even speak to the subject themselves.

At the end of the 2015 trip to Scotland, Sheriff Mike Chitwood spoke during the wrap-up meeting regarding the training and tactics learned. He was most impressed with the stress put on the sanctity of human life when choosing the best method for approaching and establishing communication with a subject.

(Photo provided by Rich Herard, Police Executive Research Forum)

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Creative use of CARES Act funding for road improvements The state of West Virginia has devised a way to utilize its $1.25 billion in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding by improving some badly worn roads, which lead to medical facilities or hospitals.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced the Medical Access Roads Project June 26, which would target roadways used to reach medical facilities.There are 95 road projects in all 55 counties of West Virginia included in the Medical Access Roads Project. Pictured is the West Virginia State Capitol. (Shutterstock.com) 46

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

By DENISE FEDOROW | The Municipal

Gov. Jim Justice announced the Medical Access Roads Project June 26 and stated he was allocating $100 million of the state’s CARES Act funding for what he reportedly was calling COVID-19 highways, according to an Aug. 4 article, “Common denominator for most state ‘Medical Access Road’ projects: They’re not near hospitals,” by Phil Kabler in the Charleston Gazette.

However, that announcement reportedly drew criticism from Sen. Joe Manchin and others who questioned the validity of using COVID relief funds for road building and maintenance. After that criticism Justice readjusted his plan, cutting the funding in half to $50 million and assigning the other $50 million to broadband technology instead.

There are 95 road projects in all 55 counties of West Virginia included in the Medical Access Roads Project.

Department of transportation Deputy Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Transportation Jimmy Wriston, P.E., spoke about the MARP program.

“This was part of our governor’s wisdom and great vision for highways. He carved out a portion of CARES Act funding supplied by the federal government for pandemic relief,” he said. “It was a really smart thing to do. It allowed us to go in, and we picked out projects in line with people getting to medical facilities — hospitals and clinics.”

He added, “$50 million doesn’t go a long way in a state like West Virginia,” which has the sixth largest highway system in the country.

He said, as of mid-September, some of those 95 projects were already under construction, with a few being finished. He anticipated they would all be completed by year’s end.

“We’re hopefully taking care of a lot of those slip and slide areas so first responders can get folks to medical services a little more expediently and drive on good roads to get medical help when they need it,” he said, noting its importance in “this season of uncertainty and with winter coming. Everything’s harder when the weather gets bad.”

WVDOT is able to help all 55 counties with a least one project in each county. The biggest priority is taking care of “slides” — where the roadway is partially blocked by fallen rocks and debris. WVDOT is also taking care of “slips” — a fallout of the embankment below the road — and addressing drainage issues. Wriston said in addition to roads directly in front of facilities, WVDOT is improving secondary roads used to get to and from those facilities.

The deputy secretary said West Virginia has nearly 38,000 miles of roadway, 7,000 bridges and just 1.8 million people to pay for it all, making it a challenge to maintain them.

“West Virginia is a beautiful state. We have four great seasons, mountains and river valleys, but the geography and geology make it very tough to maintain an underfunded road system,” he said.

He added West Virginia is one of four states that maintains all roads and bridges in the state, and WVDOT is responsible for 94% of the 38,000 miles of roads, with municipalities only maintaining a very small percentage within their cities.

An example of that is the town of Oak Hill. When City Manager William Hannabass was contacted about the program, he said he was unaware of what MARP was, and when given more specifics, he

This photo shows a Medical Access Road Project near Summersville, W.Va., on Fairview Heights Road. According to the project’s provider questionnaire, the existing medical center’s entrance requires ambulances, fire trucks and other medical vehicles to navigate a 120-degree turn within a limited roadway and shoulder area. This slows emergency deliveries to the hospital and creates a hazard as vehicles must intrude into the opposing lane of traffic.

replied the state was improving a half block of Main Street East, but he wasn’t aware of the funding source.

He said, “I am aware of the project but was not made aware of the funding source by the state. I support paving projects within the city by the state, but I would have been more supportive of a project that paved the entire Main Street. The state informed me they were paving two sections of Main Street, but not the entire street.”

That project was being completed that week, according to Hannabass, and he said lack of funding was the reason he was given for only doing the two sections of Main Street.

Wriston said departments of transportation across the country have taken a hit because much of their funding comes from fuel taxes and people were driving less during quarantine. Bureau of Motor Vehicle offices were also closed and many departments had to invest in technology.

Wriston said the governor brought “bold vision” with his Roads to Prosperity economic recovery program, with highways being the centerpiece WVDOT has been working on for four years.

“The MARP program is another way to keep that going,” he said.

The department of transportation has been working with a short-term, six-year plan and also a 12- to 20-year long-range plan containing $30 billion worth of projects, but the roads being improved in the MARP program were not in either plans.

Wriston said these roads “weren’t even on our radar. None of them were at the point to be a priority to be taken care of in this funding cycle. So you can imagine how pleased we were by this boost that we could apply in very specific manners to help folks during this pandemic.”

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 47

continued from page 47

He said when WVDOT was vetting projects, it contacted emergency responders, local emergency medical services personnel, ambulance drivers and firefighters because it realized “They’re the ones driving the roads.”

He explained, from an engineer’s standpoint, WVDOT was looking mostly at roads’ conditions rather than use, but the department heard from first responders, “We use this road four times more than that one.”

So it readjusted its projects based on that input. “We know in some cases we’ll be cutting response time as much as half. We know that just a few minutes can make the difference between life and death,” he said.

Casting doubt Despite Wriston’s enthusiasm, there are those who were casting doubt on the validity of using CARES Act funding for these projects. The Aug. 4 article by Phil Kabler in the Charleston Gazette stated a review of projects shows several of the projects are miles away from the nearest hospital. The article claims only two are adjacent to hospitals and both are in Fayette County.

The $390,000 project repaving 0.64 miles of Main Street East in the town of Oak Hill — previously mentioned — adjacent to Plateau Medical Center and the other is a $350,000 project to replace drainage structures and repair 0.61 miles of Sixth Avenue in Montgomery, adjacent to Montgomery General Hospital.

In the “Coronavirus Relief Fund Frequently Asked Questions” PDF available on the Department of the Treasury’s website, it states in regard to being able to use fund payments for capital improvement projects, “In general, no. If the capital improvement projects are not necessary expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, then the Fund payments may not be used for such projects. However, Fund payments may be used for the expenses of, for example, establishing temporary public medical facilities and other measures to increase COVID-19 treatment capacity or improve mitigation measures, including related construction costs.’

According to that Charleston Gazette article, among others, Gov. Justice — whose office did not respond to request for interviews prior to deadline — had stated the state doubly checked that the funds

48 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

Pictured is the Crestwood Project in Kanawha County, W.Va., located on CR 119/13, after the West Virginia Department of Transportation fixed its embankment after a slip occurred.

(Photo provided)

could be used to improve the roads from the standpoint of medical emergency routes.

Wriston said the projects were also vetted through both houses of state legislature prior to WVDOT starting work. He was asked if there were other states or cities using the CARES Act funding in this manner.

He replied, “I don’t know about other states using CARES Act funds (like this), but the West Virginia Department of Transportation tends to be a leader in the country as far as departments of transportation; we’re usually on the cutting edge. The governor targeted specific needs where we could get the most effect for the people.”

Wriston concluded, “Our infrastructure is critical. Our roads and bridges touch every life and every citizen in the entire country. It’s serious business and hard work, and it’s been underfunded for decades.

“We need to take care of our roads and bridges, and here in West Virginia, that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

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Water & Energy

Pawtucket focuses on placemaking, green infrastructure

By BARB SIEMINSKI | The Municipal

Pawtucket, R.I., is a scenic little seaside town in Providence County.

This is where tall ships rub shoulders with shore-bound artists and lobster fishermen bringing in the day’s catch. As the fourth largest city in the state, Pawtucket derives its name from the Algonquin word for “river fall.”

Big changes are afoot in the little town, according to Chief of Project Development David A. Kurowski II, P.E., who announced last August that Pawtucket had received a $400,000 grant to promote a climate sustainability project in the town’s train district.

This encompasses 2 million square feet of underutilized mill space from the days of the Industrial Revolution when Slater Mill, the historic textile mill complex, was established on the Blackstone River.

Pawtucket, R.I., Chief of Project Development David A. Kurowski II, P.E. 50 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

ABOVE: Pawtucket received a $400,000 grant to promote a climate sustainability project in its train district, which encompasses 2 million square feet of underutilized mill space from Slater Mill, the historic textile mill complex. Pictured is the Slater Mill Historic Site.

(Shutterstock.com) For this project, green stormwater infrastructure is being used to update general living conditions while creating placemaking and multimodal access opportunities.

The grant was offered through the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management for the city of Pawtucket’s transit-oriented development near its new train station, which is currently being worked on.

“This drop-off area — called a ‘kiss-andride’ — is what (Rhode Island Department of Transportation) has been calling this drop-off area,” said Kurowski. “It is adjacent to the train station entrance from Barton

Street, but does not have any parking, so you just kiss your S.O. (significant other) goodbye and you both ride away.”

The area includes Barton and Pine streets, both of which Kurowski and his department had discussed as a possible hub with the train station coming. The group had been aiming for a number of projects that might support that locale.

In 2018, Pawtucket received an analogous grant where work had begun on the other side of Pine Street, in which green stormwater infrastructure was incorporated. There are a lot of old, unattractive buildings that could be demolished or remodeled, said Kurowski, adding to the intersection and developing it into more of a “T” intersection with added crosswalks.

“There is only one building in the area that has been demolished,” said Kurowski. “As for the others, I have no idea, although I understand that there are developers interested in all of the buildings in the TOD.” A similar grant was from the RIDEM 2018 Resiliency Fund.

“This grant was $575,000 and was split among the currently ongoing work on Pine Street to the south of the train station, a second GSI project that has not yet been realized and a stormwater master plan for the TOD,” said Kurowski.

“However, the project also has funding from Southeast New England Program and the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank. However, the SNEP and Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank funds were connected to the previous GSI project, which is just winding down now.

We attempted to obtain SNEP funds for this upcoming GSI project, but unfortunately, we were not selected. To date we have only secured the RIDEM funding for this project on Barton and Pine.”

There will also be a pedestrian corridor, which will exist by the new public parking lot between Lily Pond Street, Conant Street and Barton Street. Parking lots in this district will be made into commuter lots. Fuss & O’Neill Inc. is the design consultant on this endeavor.

Some of the work includes curbs and sidewalks, with the goal of adding room for setting up tables and chairs, thus making the area a place where people can congregate. There will also be retention basins, tree wells and some new limited-growth trees to be used on sidewalks to provide shade and to colorfully reflect the changing seasons.

Pawtucket, R.I., is working on improving the livability of its neighborhoods while implementing green stormwater infrastructure components. (Shutterstock.com)

One area slated for improvement is Pine and Barton streets, where green infrastructure and pedestrian access will be added. (Google Maps photo)

“This project is being designed so as to be In addition to improving the livability of neighborhoods, green stormwater infra- phased in chunks that will be implemented as structure components will be installed and we are able to pay for them,” noted Kurowski. the old underground pipes — some having “Our goal here is to have as much of a ‘shovelbeen installed in the late-1800s to early- ready’ project waiting to go that can be scaled 1900s — will be updated. Also, some varieties to available funding. Ultimately, this project of GSI will be found in the sidewalks. Four will span as much of the TOD district as postypes of sidewalk pavers will be used, allow- sible; our hope is that all future construction ing rainwater to be absorbed into the earth will share the same materials/theme so it will instead of traveling into the roadways; the appear seamless throughout.” pavers are connected but not with grout.

As for this new project, Kurowski is looking Kurowski said his group had been looking for additional funding, as the city is required at sidewalk pavers that can accomplish two to match the last 25% of the grant award.

“We’ve been lucky in that some of the grant things: be accessible to people with disabilities and be able to move stormwater into the opportunities that we’ve been pursuing for soil before it travels into structures or over- this project have had deadlines extended, which has allowed us to refine our pitch a flows into waterways.

The whole venture is expected to be bit more,” said Kurowski. “However, we have completed depending on the amount of yet to see how the pandemic works out in the funding that becomes available, according spring, and how that will affect the timing of bids and the construction season.” to Kurowski.

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 51

Parks & Environmental Services

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A biker gets air off one of the Brenda Joy Bike Park’s features. The park officially opened to the public in the summer of 2019.

(Photo provided)

Winning the lottery: Grant gives Fort Morgan’s Brenda Joy Bike Park a needed upgrade

By JULIE YOUNG | The Municipal

The city of Fort Morgan, Colo., is a great place to raise a family, but it tends to lack in outdoor recreational spaces. Green space is abundant and there is a large park/trail system, but there was a growing need for affordable recreation/entertainment for kids. Thanks to the efforts of city leaders and some funds from the Colorado Lottery, Brenda Joy Bike Park has become that local hangout.

“Pedaling” the idea Located in the southwest corner of Fort Morgan, Brenda Joy Park is a 3-acre green space that serves older residents and young families just starting out. Originally comprised of a grassy area, playground, shelter and BMX bike track, it became overgrown with weeds and was the topic of negative comments from residents requesting improvements to the property.

In 2015, the city sold a property known as the Old Fort Park and used the proceeds from that sale to design and build a new 52

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

8,000-square-foot, bowl-shaped skate park at Brenda Joy, which opened in 2015. However, it did little to alleviate the weed problem or satisfy other necessary upgrades.

Around this time, Ty Hamer took over as the director of community service and was overseeing the completion of the skate park as well as many other improvements to Brenda Joy Park.

“My predecessor Josh Miller had a wonderful plan and vision for the park, which included the skate park and entry-level bike park.

(He) applied for a mini-grant through the Great Outdoor Colorado

(GOCO) program to build the bike park, but it was denied. The skate park ended up being built on the location where the bike park was originally planned.”

Plan B In 2018, Hamer and his intern Daniella Cabrera revisited the project. They worked with Progressive Bike Ramps to create a new plan for the bike park and reapplied for the grant. When the $45,000 was approved, the parks department began prepping the site along with a crew from PBR and a few local Scouts who assisted as part of a merit badge project.

“All in all, the plan came together really nicely,” Hamer said.

“With the GOCO funds, the city was able to do much more work to the site than would have been possible. The project was able to be completed, and it was open to the public by the summer of 2019.”

The Brenda Joy Bike Park has been well received by the public, is heavily used on the weekends and has become a popular spot for families and teens. Hamer said developing Brenda Joy Park has greatly improved access for all type of people. It has bike features designed to help people develop skills, and it is designed to accommodate all levels of riders.

“We created a beginner area, a technical area and an advanced jump line for the more advanced thrill seekers,” Hamer said.

Well-earned recognition While growing up in Colorado, Hamer said he was an avid biker in his youth and continues to be an outdoor enthusiast so he was excited to work on the Brenda Joy Bike Park and was very handson throughout the process. In addition to being on-site and in the dirt with the crew while the new features were being built, he regularly visits the site and is always on the lookout for ways in which it can be made better in the future.

In addition to being a big hit with the public, the Brenda Joy Bike Park received a GOCO Star Burst Award for excellence in the use of lottery funds last June. The award is intended to recognize projects that make good use of GOCO funds while making a significant change or improvement to the community as a whole.

“With so many projects funded with lottery dollars, it’s sometimes easy to forget all the different types of outdoor projects that result from lottery revenue,” said Tom Seaver, director of the Colorado Lottery. “This year’s Starburst Awards showcase the diverse uses of lottery money — ballfields, bike parks, playgrounds, riparian zones and, of course, massive land purchases. These Starburst awards demonstrate just a fraction of the ways lottery dollars are going to work wherever and however Coloradans like to play.”

Hamer said it is great to be recognized for the project, but it took an army to turn the Brenda Joy Bike Park into a reality.

“I am just one part of a bigger cog in the wheel, part of a great team of leaders here at the city. This project and many of my current projects have been in the making for many years and a lot of credit needs to go to the former director Josh Miller for his vision and effort to start planning these improvements,” Hamer said. “Like our city manager always says, ‘The city lives on forever.’

I am just happy to help make it a better place for the future.”

A sculpture of a boy on a skateboard welcomes visitors to the Brenda Joy Park in Fort Morgan. The park had been awarded funding by Great Outdoor Colorado to add a bike park. (Photo provided)

One section of the bike park is designed to test biker’s technical skills. (Photo provided)

Since opening, the Brenda Joy Bike Park has become a popular gathering spot for residents. (Photo provided) NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 53

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Conference Calendar EDITOR’S NOTE: In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, readers are encouraged to verify their conference’s status. The Municipal has updated entries’ statuses with information available as of press time; however, as the situation is still fluid, plans may change rapidly.

N OV E M B E R Nov. 1-4 CCFS Campus Fire Forum Postponed to 2021 www.myccfs.org

Nov. 15-19 CTAA Expo 2020 (Cancelled) Louisville, Ky. https://ctaa.org/expo/

Nov. 4-5 Wildland Urban Interface Virtual www.iafc.org/events/wui

Nov. 16-19 ISSA Show North America Virtual www.issa.com

Nov. 2-4 Sweeper Summit & Equipment Expo (Cancelled) www.sweepersummit.com

Nov. 16-20 New Jersey State League of Municipalities 105th Annual League Conference Virtual www.njslom.org/300/ Conference

Nov. 2-6 SEMA360 Virtual www.semashow.com Nov. 6 F.I.E.R.O. Regional Fire PPE Workshop (TENTATIVE) Detroit area, Michigan www.fieroonline.org Nov. 9-11 AWRA Annual Water Resources Conference Virtual www.awra.org Nov. 11-14 The Summit in Provo Provo, Utah www.emsassociates.com Nov. 11-13 WJTA Conference and Expo Cancelled www.wjtaimcaexpo.com Nov. 12-15 VOCS Symposium in the Sun (Cancelled: Virtual Options Coming Soon) Hilton Clearwater Beach, Clearwater, Fla. www.iafc.org/events/vcossun/ home

Nov. 18-19 2020 MRF Summit Virtual https://mrfsummit.org Nov. 18-20 National League of Cities’ City Summit Virtual https://citysummit.nlc.org Nov. 18-20 New Hampshire Municipal Association 79th Annual Conference and Exposition Virtual www.nhmunicipal.org

DECEMBER Dec. 1-3 Connecticut Conference of Municipalities Convention (Virtual) Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, CT https://www.ccm-ct.org/ convention

DECEMBER Dec 2-4 Florida Parking & Transportation Association Annual Conference & Trade Show Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. https://www.flapta.org Dec. 7-9 Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association’s Safety & Health Conference Virtual www.ffca.org

J A N UA R Y Dec. 8-11 Groundwater Week Virtual www.groundwaterweek.com Jan. 12-14, 2021 Landscape Ontario Congress Virtual www.locongress.com Jan. 12-14, 2021 Northern Green 2021 Minneapolis Convention Center, Minneapolis, Minn. www.northerngreen.org Jan. 17-22, 2021 NRPA Event Management School (CANCELLED) Oglebay, Wheeling, W.Va. www.nrpa.org/careerseducation/education/eventmanagement-school/ Jan. 18-21, 2021 Fire Department Safety Officers Association Conference TradeWinds Island Grand, St. Pete Beach, Fla. www.fdsoa.org

J A N UA R Y Jan. 20-23, 2021 Fire-Rescue East Daytona Beach, Fla. wwwffca.org Jan. 21-23, 2021 U.S. Conference of Mayors 89th Winter Meeting Washington, D.C. www.usmayors.org/meetings/ Jan. 22-23, 2021 Massachusetts Municipal Association Annual Meeting and Trade Show (Virtual: Jan. 21-22) Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel, Boston, Mass. https://www.mma.org/mmaannual-meeting-and-tradeshow/ Jan. 28, 2021 Rhode Island League of Cities & Towns Annual Convention Crowne Plaza, Warwick, R.I. www.rileague.org Jan. 25-28, 2021 Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week ‘21 Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center ,Grapevine, Texas www.hdaw.org Jan. 26-28, 2021 Underground Construction Technology International Conference & Exhibition Music City Center, Nashville, Tenn. www.uctonline.com

To list your upcoming conference or seminar in The Municipal at no charge, call (800) 733-4111, ext. 2307, or email the information to swright@the-papers.com.

56 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

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On the Web Want even more? Visit www.themunicipal.com to read the latest edition, view the complete calendar or sign up for mailing!

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57

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 59

News & Notes Sourcewell increases offerings in public safety STAPLES, MINN. — Firefighters can breathe a little easier with the addition of two new categories of fire service contracts, including personal protective equipment, at Sourcewell.

Twelve suppliers were awarded between the firefighting PPE and firefighting equipment and rescue tools categories at Sourcewell.

“The fire service has a unique need for equipment that impacts the life-safety of the firefighter and the public they serve,” noted Sourcewell Supplier Development Administrator Darin Narlock. “Being able to easily procure essential equipment that maintains continuity for training and service standards is key to the public safety community. Utilizing Sourcewell cooperative contracts is a more efficient, and cost-effective, way to meet this need.”

These new Sourcewell contracts in the area of firefighting include turnout gear, helmets, boots, gloves, self-contained breathing apparatus and accessories, fire hose, nozzles, extrication tools and thermal imagers.

Revenue generated through the use of these contracts is shared with fire chiefs associations across the country, including the International Association of Fire Chiefs, its divisions and state fire chiefs associations.

Awarded suppliers include C.E.T. Fire Pumps; Draeger; Fire-Dex LLC; Grainger; Husqvarna Professional Products; Innotex Corp.; Kipper Tool Company; LION First Responder PPE Inc.; L.N. Curtis & Sons; Motion Industries; Municipal Emergency Services; and Safeware Inc. For a complete list of contracts, suppliers and offerings, visit https://news. sourcewell-mn.gov/sourcewell-increases-offerings-in-public-safety/.

NAFA President Patti Earley, CAFM, honors Immediate Past President Bryan Flansburg, CAFM PRINCETON, N.J. — NAFA Fleet Management Association, the vehicle fleet industry’s largest membership association, announced the presentation of its Distinguished Service Award for 2020 to Immediate Past President Bryan Flansburg, CAFM. Flansburg is location manager for First Student in Scottsbluff, Neb. The honor was announced by NAFA’s President Patti Earley, CAFM, Sept. 17 during the Virtual I&E. “(Bryan) has been involved with nearly every facet of NAFA, on every level, for 25 years now,” said Earley. “He has chaired many of NAFA’s committees, took the lead on converting our education to an online system, and was instrumental in this association’s recognition that mobility was going to radically change the working lives of everyone in our industry.”

NAFA’s Distinguished Service Award is the association’s highest form of recognition for members. 2020 is Flansburg’s final year with the board of directors, after serving in multiple capacities on it for over 11 years.

Flansburg earned his CAFM designation in 1997 and has been one of its greatest supporters ever since, both as a fleet leader and as an instructor.

“Bryan, I am sure you will remain a vital part of NAFA for many years to come,” added Earley, “so this isn’t so much an award at the end of the race so much as the recognition at the start of its next phase.”

60 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

Elizabeth Montoya expands her leadership role at Rubicon NEW YORK, N.Y. — Rubicon, a software company that provides smart waste and recycling solutions to businesses and governments worldwide, announced Elizabeth Montoya, the company’s current chief of protocol and investor relations, and key advisor to the CEO, has been appointed to Rubicon’s board of directors, effective immediately.

“We are thrilled that Elizabeth is joining Rubicon’s board of directors,” said Nate Morris, founder and CEO of Rubicon. “As one of our longestserving executives, Elizabeth has a proven track record of leadership, and has been a central figure in making Rubicon the company it is today. In addition to her new responsibilities as a member of our board, she will continue to help guide the strategic direction of the company and keep us focused on our mission, which is to end waste, in all its forms.”

Montoya joined Rubicon in 2011 as its third employee and, since that time, has led many transformative projects, including the company becoming a Certified B Corporation. This certification means that the company has met, and continues to meet, rigorous standards of social and environmental performance. Rubicon was one of the first, and is one of the largest, B Corps in the world. With each recertification since 2012, Rubicon’s B Corp score has increased, and in both 2017 and 2018, the company was awarded Best for the World honors for Governance.

Then, in 2018 and again in 2019, Rubicon was named Best for the World for Environment in recognition of the company’s environmental and sustainability practices. The company was also named a Great Place to Work in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

“When I joined Rubicon, it was rare to find a company that led with its mission, and it was a pleasure to work with an entrepreneur who put so much focus on culture, people, and the environment, while also driving innovation,” said Montoya. “I am proud to have been a part of Rubicon since its earliest days and am honored to serve on its esteemed board.”

Stertil-Koni awarded five-year GSA contract extension STEVENSVILLE, MD. — Stertil-Koni, the recognized leader in heavy-duty vehicle lifts and a longstanding U.S. government partner, announced the company has been awarded a five-year extension of its General Services Administration contract for vehicle material handling equipment.

The contract, #GS-07F-5890R Category 333921, is effective through June 14, 2025, and includes Stertil-Koni’s extensive portfolio of heavyduty vehicle lifts, related accessories and shop equipment.

What’s more, the selection of Stertil-Koni aligns with GSAs stated mission and strategic goals, one of which is to: “Establish GSA as the premier provider of efficient and effective acquisition solutions across the federal government.”

Stertil-Koni fully embraces this mission by delivering award-winning lifting systems, well regarded for their power, safety, durability and efficiency — and engineered to service light, medium and heavy tactical vehicles. Noted Dr. Jean DellAmore, president of Stertil-Koni, “All of our heavy-duty vehicle lifts — including Mobile Column Lifts, which are particularly suited for Department of Defense applications — feature state-of-the-art hydraulic technology, are manufactured with highquality, high-tensile DOMEX steel for maximum strength and deliver fast lifting and lowering.

“What’s more,” he continued, “our Mobile Column Lifts have a mechanical locking system for added safety that starts at just 5 inches

News & Notes above floor height and continues up the entire length of the lift every 1 3/8th inches.

“In sum,” DellAmore concluded, “Stertil-Koni is honored to receive this extension from the GSA. Our mission remains to fully support the federal government and, in particular, the Department of Defense, to deliver the very highest quality heavy duty vehicle lifting systems – and related technical service and support – available anywhere.”

NRPA Parks Build Community Project wins national award ASHBURN, VA. — Trojan Park in Wellston, Mo., the 2016 National Recreation and Park Association Parks Build Community project, has been recognized by the Urban Land Institute’s 2020 Urban Open Space Award.

The award recognizes outstanding examples of vibrant public open spaces that have been instrumental in promoting healthy, sustainable and equitable outcomes in communities.

NRPA and Great Rivers Greenway worked closely with the city of Wellston on the development of Trojan Park back in 2016. NRPA’s Parks Build Community is a national initiative aimed at demonstrating the transformative value of parks on the health and vitality of communities across America and has historically included building or refurbishing a park at the location of the 2016 NRPA Annual Conference, which was held in St. Louis.

Valued at $2 million, Trojan Park offers a variety of family-friendly amenities, including a state-of-the-art playground, basketball court, splash pad and picnic areas complete with shade structures. More than 25 local and national donors came together to make the park a reality.

To learn more about the Parks Build Community initiative, visit nrpa. org/parksbuildcommunity.

Three suppliers named to fee management and online payment portal category STAPLES, MINN. — When collecting fees and managing expenses, it makes cents to use Sourcewell contracts.

Three suppliers have earned contracts in the fee management and online payment portal software solutions category at Sourcewell.

“Collecting payments can be a difficult task,” said Sourcewell Supplier Development Supervisor David Duhn. “These solutions will help agencies expand opportunity, as well as increase efficiency.”

Contracts in this category offer billing and payment solutions for fees, fines, tuition, nutrition and more; portal solutions for the acceptance and refund of ACH, credit cards and other payment forms (Apple Pay, PayPal, etc.); online storefront systems; and training, integration, support and other related services.

Following a competitive solicitation process, Sourcewell awarded cooperative purchasing contracts offering access to these brands: CORE Business Technologies | 042020-WWR Inbound revenue management – receipt to reconciliation, integrated point of sale (POS) system, integrated payment solutions, comprehensive eCommerce, and innovative merchant services.

Edlio | 042020-ONL* School payments and donations, online school stores, teacher receipting, ticket management, student invoicing, and online school care.

Rycor Solutions |042020-RYC* School payments, fee management, and e-Forms.

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XL Fleet to accelerate rapid growth and expand fleet electrification solutions through proposed merger with Pivotal Investment Corporation II BOSTON, MASS. — On Sept. 18, XL Fleet, a leader in vehicle electrification solutions for commercial and municipal fleets, and Pivotal Investment Corporation II, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Upon closing, the combined company will be named XL Fleet and is expected to remain listed on the New York Stock Exchange under a new ticker symbol, “XL,” with an anticipated implied enterprise value of approximately $1 billion and no material debt expected to be outstanding.

XL Fleet is a recognized leader in fleet electrification, with over 3,200 commercial and municipal vehicles deployed throughout the U.S. and Canada, which have logged over 130 million customer miles driven on the company’s hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric drive systems. Upon closing, the company is expected to have an additional $350 million of funding, which it plans to invest in the development of new electrification technologies while also expanding into emerging markets outside of North America.

With the capital raised from this transaction, XL intends to fuel significant investments in the development of new products designed to accelerate the fleet industry’s transition from fossil fuels to electrified propulsion. The company expects to expand its current suite of hybrid and plug-in hybrid solutions for Class 2-6 vehicles to include zero CO2 — e.g., all-electric, hydrogen fuel cell electric — drive systems for a wide range of vehicles, including those in the heavy-duty Class 7-8 vehicle space.

“Fleet electrification as a whole is still in the early stages of development, and there is tremendous untapped opportunity in the years and decades ahead,” said Dimitri Kazarinoff, chief executive officer of XL Fleet. “With the ability to quickly expand our teams, scale our production capacity and fund significant new product investments, we believe we will be well positioned to build on our leadership as a result of our transition to a publicly traded company. More importantly for our customers, that will mean greater access to a wider array of electrified vehicles, services and solutions to help them meet their sustainability goals.”

To review the company’s Sept. 18 press release and related investor materials, visit www.xlfleet.com/investors. To learn more about XL Fleet’s electrification solutions, visit www.xlfleet.com or email sales@xlfleet.com.

News releases regarding personnel changes, other non-product-related company changes, association news and awards are printed as space allows. Priority will be given to advertisers and affiliates. Releases not printed in the magazine can be found online at www.themunicipal.com.

Call (800) 733–4111, ext. 2307, or email swright@the-papers.com.

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 61

DEMANDED PLOWS & WINGS

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BODIES

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.�

- Elmer Davis

We send a special salute to World War II veterans this year, which marks the 75th anniversary of V-E Day and V-J Day. We are thankful for your service and for the service given by the veterans who preceded and followed you.

The Municipal Staff

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL

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TOP 10 America’s fastest-growing cities In May, the U.S. Census released its “City and Town Population Totals: 200-20” report, and 24/ Wall St. used this data to formulate which cities were growing the fastest. The site noted, “Only places with populations over 0,000 were ranked.”

Of the results, it shared, “Not surprisingly, five of the cities are in Texas, which has been the fastest-growing state for years. It is currently the second-largest state by population, at 2,,. That is up by % from 200 to 20. Almost % of the people who live in the United Sates live in Texas. That puts it behind California, which has a population of ,2,22.”

Frisco, Texas, was found to be the fastestgrowing city, experiencing an astounding growth of .% in the period from April , 200, to July , 20. The other fast-growing cities are shared below:

4/1/2010

7/1/2019

Percent

1. Frisco, Texas

117,174

200,490

71.1%

2.Buckeye, Ariz.

50,851

79,620

56.6%

3.New Braunfels, Texas

57,676

90.209

56.4%

4.McKinney, Texas

131,152

199,177

51.9%

5.South Jordan, Utah

50,473

76,598

51.8%

6.Meridian, Idaho

76,986

114,161

48.3%

7.Cedar Park, Texas

55,117

79,462

44.2%

8.Fort Myers, Fla.

62,305

87,103

39.8%

9.Conroe, Texas

65,392

91,079

39.3%

10.Irvine, Calif.

212,107

287,401

35.5%

66

THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2020

Source: https://247wallst.com/economy/2020/06/01/americas-10-fastest-growing-cities/

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Advertiser Index A

L

Air Tow Trailers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Land Pride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

All Access Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Lube-A-Boom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Alumitank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 AMCS Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Andy Mohr Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

B BendPak Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

M Midwest Sandbags LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Mile-X Equipment Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Monroe Truck Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Bonnell Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

N

Britespan Building Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 44

National Construction Rentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Buyers Products Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

New Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-37

C

O

CBI Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Omega Industrial Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

CleanFix North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Clearspan Fabric Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Composite Access Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

P Pep Boys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Curbtender Sweepers, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

R

Custom Products Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Rapid View LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BACK

E

Robinson Metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Ebac Industrial Products Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Rubicon Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover, 10-11

Everblades Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

S

F

Safety Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Fences 4 Less. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Sign Guardian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Fluid Control Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Frost Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

T T2 Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

H

Tech Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Henderson Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

TrafFix Devices Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

I

Transoft Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

ICOM America Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

TruGrit Traction Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

International Code Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

J

U Uline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Jamar Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 This index is provided courtesy of the publisher, who assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

NOVEMBER 2020 | THE MUNICIPAL 69

ON INTERSTATES & ON COUNTRY ROADS & ON CONNECTING BRIDGES...

SALTDOGG ® HYDRAULIC MUNICIPAL CONVEYOR SPREADER

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MAD E

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