The Municipal - August 2022

The Premier Magazine For America’s Municipalities

August 2022

Waste & Recycling

INSIDE: Beautifying cities by removing litter Bolingbrook, IL Permit No. 1939

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Engaging the community in waste and recycling issues

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AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 3

Contents |

VOL. 13 No. 5

|

www.themunicipal.com

Shutterstock photos

August 2022

18 17 Focus on Waste & Recycling

26

18

Focus on Waste & Recycling: Engaging the community key to success for waste and recycling issues

46

22

50

Parks & Environmental Services: Invasive plant removal programs

Focus on Waste & Recycling: Beautifying cities by removing litter

26

Focus on Waste & Recycling: Love Food, Fight Waste promotes community education to enact positive change

30

46

Focus on Waste & Recycling: Water Reuse Project preserves precious Oklahoma resource

32

Focus on Waste & Recycling: Extended life: Fix-it clinics offer residents the chance to renew rather than repurchase

42

Public Safety: The birth of a police department: Charlotte, Texas’s, steps to successfully form a department

Parks & Environmental Services: Accessible mats, wheelchairs improve beach day inclusivity units

52

Building & Construction: A win-win solution for low-income homeowners, municipalities

54

Water & Energy: Water treatment plant hits a home run with shade balls

58

Streets, Highways & Bridges: The festival goes on: Boyne City completes bridge project in time to welcome morel fans

62

Municipal Management: Power play: Miltipas energy upgrades will save the city millions

64

Fleet Services & Maintenance: Kalamazoo, Mich., pilots biodiesel as an alternative fuel

54 ON THE COVER Bucher Municipal offers a sustainable street cleaning solution in a mid-sized package with its new all-electric pure vacuum CityCat VR50e.

With its custom-designed Bucher Battery Pack, the CityCat VR50e results in zero emission. Find out how this proven technology can help lessen municipalities’ environmental impact on page 10.

Recycling

INSIDE: Beautifying cities by removing litter

www.themunicipal.com

4 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

Engaging the community in waste and recycling issues

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AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 5

Departments

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

8 Editor’s Note: Trash talk: Quelling wasteful habits

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

editor SARAH WRIGHT swright@the-papers.com

10 From the Cover: Delivering on electric street sweeping sustainability

12 On the Road Again: Oz Museum, Wamego, Kan.

14 What’s in a Name: Ninety Six and 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 ANNETTE WEAVER aweaver@the-papers.com

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

Six Mile, S.C.

36 Personality Profile: From refuse

collector to superintendent: Jimmy Smith Jr. manages Thomasville, Ga., Solid Waste Department with passion

68 Conference Calendar 69 Product Spotlights 70 News & Notes 74 Top 10: Best places for RV camping 77 Advertiser Index

mail manager KHOEUN KHOEUTH kkhoeuth@the-papers.com

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

6 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

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 © 2021.

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 7

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Editor’s Note

Trash talk: Quelling wasteful habits Sarah Wright | Editor

W

aste is easy to ignore in day-to-day life. It’s something placed in a bin and taken to a nebulous destination that’s not the house, and then it is forgotten. However, when cleaning out your refrigerator following a storm-induced power outage in 100 degree temperatures, waste becomes harder to ignore — particularly after uncovering a couple of would-be science projects hidden in the back.

According to Marketplace.org, citing research from economists Edward Jaenicke and Yang Yu published in 2020, the average American household wastes nearly 32% of the food it purchases — what amounts to about $240 billion in wasted food annually.

Even without a power outage necessitating the disposal of such a large amount of food, I fall in line with the trend Jaenicke and Yu discovered. Besides the science projects, I uncovered foods I’d forgotten about and had missed their best by dates considerably. I try to right-size my purchases and never shop hungry, but I still purchase more than I can eat within a set time frame. Having a bag full of wasted food drove the point home. And it’s not just food going down the metaphorical drain.

In 2018, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, the United States produced 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste, the equivalent of 4.9 pounds per person per day.

Cities across the country have strove to scale back these numbers through recycling programs, education and engagement.

In this issue of The Municipal, we highlight several of these efforts to get communities to engage with waste, its journey and its hopeful diversion from the landfill.

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Close to heart at the moment is Iowa City, Iowa’s, new program Love Food, Fight Waste — launched in partnership with Table to Table — which aims to educate residents on eliminating food waste.

Writer Nicholette Carlson shares the city’s approach with the program and the impact it is having in residents’ lives.

Another movement is diverting what we can fix from landfills across the country. Writer Julie Young spoke with Flagstaff, Ariz.; Austin, Texas; and Chula Vista, Calif., about their successful fix-it clinics. These clinics pair talented volunteers with residents with objects they’d rather see fixed than trashed. The volunteers give their skills to the residents, teaching them how to repair common household items like lights, fans and bicycles. Every community has similarly talented individuals; all they have to do is reach out to them.

Tapping into the community is important for waste. Writer Denise Fedorow highlights Joplin, Mo.’s, and Council Bluffs, Iowa’s, efforts to get their residents involved in making decisions regarding municipal solid waste.

Other waste and recycling topics include taking out the litter and Broken Arrow, Okla.’s, Water Reuse Project at its Lynn Lane Wastewater Treatment Plant.

From time to time, it’s good to reflect on the waste we produce, though I would prefer not having to brave 100 degree temperatures without air conditioning to do so. .

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 9

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From The Cover

Delivering on electric street sweeping sustainability

By MATT STARNES | Product Marketing Manager, Bucher Municipal North America Inc.

Sustainability is a word that gets tossed around, sometimes inaccurately.

One definition of sustainability is to save our natural or physical resources from running out.

In a broader definition in relation to street sweeping, sustainability is the ability to maintain a process, such as effective and continuous street sweeping program, over time. That’s why there is a huge push to add electric-powered street sweepers — and equipment and vehicles — to the fleets of municipalities and contractors.

Bucher CityCat VR50e: Electric performance in the compact class Keeping sustainability in mind, Bucher Municipal’s new mid-sized all-electric pure

ABOVE: Bucher CityCat VR50e All-Electric Street Sweeper (Photo provided by Bucher Municipal)

costs and extended on-station/work time vacuum CityCat VR50e delivers on low with the 232-gallon water capacity. environmental impact first by its customWater is also used to suppress dust via designed zero emission Bucher Battery water jets on each brush. This provides a Pack. This pack is tailored to the sweeper. fine clean water spray that traps dust parThis proven technology helps deliver a ticles, which are then lifted by the two — or minimal footprint to the environment and the optional three — brushes. Recycled achieves low noise emissions — goodbye water from the hopper is filtered and fed noise pollution. into the suction intake. The VR50e is PM 2.5 Water? While it may seem odd to men- and PM10 4 star certified for dust emissions. tion water when talking about electricity, it makes sense with today’s critical water Mid-sized pure vacuum sweeper supply issues. The CityCat VR50e uses a The Bucher CityCat VR50e solves the recirculation system to reuse water inside “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” conunthe hopper. The result? Reduced refilling drum. While traditional truck-mounted sweepers tend to use more fuel and are

Bucher gets you unstuck = Endless Cleaning Solutions.

10 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

Bucher CityCat VR50e Bucher Battery Pack (Photo provided by Bucher Municipal)

too large to access all municipal environments, compact sweepers tend to lack enough hopper capacity for large jobs and shifts. Each of these sweepers has its place in a street sweeper fleet, but sometimes you need a mid-sized sweeper.

The pick up, pulled brush system with wide suction intake in front of the axle is hydraulically moved 15 inches laterally to the left- or right-hand side of the sweeper.

The two standard side brushes in combination with the third brush have a 148-inch maximum sweeping width. The VR50e delivers with the appetite of a large truckmounted sweeper, the functionality of a multipurpose vehicle and the maneuverability of a compact sweeper — all delivered in a single package.

Full shift sweeping One problem early electric-powered vehicles ran into was lack of range or work time before recharging. The all-electric Bucher CityCat VR50e is powered by a 137 kWh Bucher Battery Pack, which provides the autonomy to fulfill a full 10-hour shift. Stop for coffee or stop for lunch, but you don’t have to stop to recharge the battery right away. When you finally need to charge, you can do so anywhere and anytime with both AC 22kW and optional DC 70kW, allowing full flexibility and customization to your charging needs.

You don’t have to compromise performance by going electric either. Heavy-duty suction and a high payload are combined

Bucher CityCat VR50e 4-wheel steering (Photo provided by Bucher Municipal)

with a four-wheel steering system, providing capacity in the form of a 7.3 cubic yard stainless steel hopper — with high dump option — and agility via the hydrostaticcontrolled, four-wheel steering.

After a long sweeping shift, cleaning is minimized with the EasyClean self-cleaning function. The blower, filter screen, dirty water tank, side walls and other difficult-toreach pockets of dirt are then sprayed by the cleaning nozzles, resulting in perfectly clean machine within minutes.

Low cost of ownership One of the most valuable benefits of the CityCat VR50e is the low-cost ownership.

How is this accomplished?

• Water recirculation system reuses the service water from the hopper and feeds this to the suction intake to minimize fill-ups and maximize on-station time.

• Self-adjusting disc brakes on both axles reduce service time.

• Energy-saving LED lights offer more powerful lighting while significantly reducing the number of times bulbs require replacement.

• Reduced number of greasing points with autolube option to save on servicing costs.

• Vulnerable nodes and electronic components protected up to IP69 standard and additional covers reduce the risk of further water ingress.

• C Sense display with full on-board diagnostics and reduced downtime.

• Steel hydraulic pipes replace flexible hoses to reduce chaffing and premature hose wear. Up to 60% less hydraulic hoses than other sweepers in this class.

• Hopper manufactured out of stainless steel for protection against corrosion and wear.

• Heavy-duty fan with wear resistant blades.

• Hydraulic, optimized design for less maintenance.

• Maintenance-free Bucher Battery Pack protected in a shock, water and dustproof case.

Learn more about the Bucher CityCat VR50e pure vacuum street sweeper delivering cleaner streets one sweep at a time by visiting www.buchermunicipal.com/us/en.

About Bucher Municipal Cities and contractors turn to Bucher Municipal when they feel frustrated and stuck being pigeonholed into cleaning their streets and sewers with no other options while failing to meet stormwater compliance. We free cities from this trap of one size fits all by supplying and supporting a full product line to fit every sweeping and sewer cleaning challenge better than any other manufacturer on Earth.

Bucher Municipal North America, Inc. 105 Motorsports Road, Mooresville, NC 28115, 704-658-1333 AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 11

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On The Road Again

The two-story facade of the Oz Museum in Wamego, Kan., is bedecked in emerald and yellow with touches of ruby red.

Wamego, Kan.

By RAY BALOGH | The Municipal

(All photos courtesy of the Oz Museum, Wamego, Kan.)

You’re standing across the street, looking at the facade of emerald and yellow bricks dotted with flying monkeys and the likes of a lion, scarecrow and other fictional characters peeking through the windows.

Yes, you are in Kansas.

More specifically, you’re in Wamego, a quiet burg of fewer than 5,000 residents 50 miles west of Topeka. The building you are facing is the Oz Museum, opened in 2003, which contains the most comprehensive permanent collection of Wizard of Oz memorabilia in the world.

Included in the displays are more than 2,000 artifacts, including costumes and props from the original 1939 MGM movie and subsequent adaptations “The Wiz” and “Wicked”; movie posters; merchandising, such as toys, dolls, cookie jars, ornaments, board games, coloring books and lunch boxes; and accounting documents from MGM’s books pertaining to the movie.

Visitors enter a monochrome lobby, pay their admission through Dorothy’s farmhouse window, open a sepia-colored door and step into a kaleidoscopic wonderland of Munchkins and other beloved characters to learn the history of L. Frank Baum and his 1900 book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” which inspired the classic film, and to glean further information from the displays and exhibits.

One feature not for the faint of heart is the tornado machine, located in the gift shop. For $2 patrons can climb inside and experience the force of 79 mph winds.

12 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

The cast of Munchkins consisted of 225 pituitary midgets MGM recruited from carnivals and vaudeville shows.

A yellow brick walkway in the alley down the block is lined with statues of the movie’s characters, including some of the 15 Toto sculptures located around town.

The town hosts OZtoberFEST! every October, this year on Oct. 1. The festival includes a Toto look-alike contest, classic car show, indoor/ outdoor market, barbecue, beer and wine garden and other activities. The signature event is the costume contest, divided into nine

Judy Garland was 16 when “The Wizard of Oz” was filmed. She wore size 5 ruby slippers and wore tightly constricting undergarments to replicate the figure of a younger girl. The cast of fellow adventurers, from left to right, included Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Burt Lahr as the Cowardly Lion.

(Background photo, Shutterstock.com) categories, held on the Emerald City Stage in front of the nearby Columbian Theatre.

Not surprisingly, a plethora of fascinating trivia attends the epic production: • L. Frank Baum derived the name “Oz” from an alphabetic filing cabinet label, “O-Z.” • The cowardly lion’s costume weighed 100 pounds, consisted of a real lion skin and had to be dried every night of actor Burt Lahr’s sweat, as the set routinely reached triple digits from all the lights required to shoot in Technicolor.

• Food played a significant part in the movie’s special effects: the various hues of the “Horse of a Different Color” were created with six colors of Jell-O powder (green, blue, orange, red, yellow and violet); the oil used to lubricate the Tin Man was chocolate syrup; and the flames from Dorothy’s ruby slippers to repel the Wicked Witch’s touch was a spray of apple juice played at high speed.

• The ruby slippers, which were silver in the book, were size 5.

• Dorothy’s dress was pink but showed up white in Technicolor.

• Baum published 13 sequels to his original “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” before he died. Three more books were published posthumously.

• Toto was paid $125 a week; the Munchkins each received $50 a week, half of which was kept by their agent.

• Dorothy was named after Baum’s niece Dorothy Louise Gage, who died in infancy.

• The 1939 movie’s production costs were nearly $2.8 million, more than $58 million in today’s dollars.

• Shirley Temple was the first choice to play Dorothy, but she was under contract with Twentieth Century-Fox so could not make the commitment to MGM. • Buddy Ebsen was cast as the Tin Man, but was intensely allergic to the aluminum-based silver face paint. Actor Jack Haley, who

landed the role for the movie, developed a severe eye infection from the paint.

• The Wicked Witch’s copper-based green face paint was dangerous to ingest, so actress Margaret Hamilton subsisted on an exclusively liquid diet during filming.

• The rubber prosthetic face makeup worn by actor Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow etched creases in his face that took more than a year to heal.

• Most of the flying monkeys in the movie were about 8 inches long and made of rubber and foam, with pipe cleaners serving as their tails.

• Frank Morgan, who portrayed the Wizard, actually played five characters in the movie.

• The ruby slippers on display in the Smithsonian are mismatched.

• The Kansas tornado was actually a 35-foot-high rotating muslin stocking.

• The snow in the poppy scene was made of asbestos.

• The Wicked Witch’s death certificate is dated May 6, 1938, the 19th anniversary of Baum’s death.

The Oz Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The museum closes at 5 p.m. each day during the winter and at 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The museum is closed Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Admission is $10 per adult 13 and older, $8 per child 3-12 and free for those 2 and younger. Adult and children prices for military members and their families are $8 and $6, respectively.

The museum is located at 511 Lincoln Ave., Wamego, Kan. For more information, call (866) 458-TOTO (8686) or visit ozmuseum.com.

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 13

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What’s In A Name

Ninety Six and Six Mile, S.C.

By RAY BALOGH | The Municipal Some town names consist solely of numbers, and sometimes, their etymology is a matter of mystery or dispute. Such is the case with two municipalities in South Carolina.

The town park and pavilion are frequent gathering places for community members to share fellowship, food and good times. (Photo provided by the town of Six Mile)

The town’s park fountain boasts a rock sculpture of the town’s number. (Photo provided by the town of Ninety Six)

NINETY SIX Ninety Six, a small community of 1.5 square miles, sports a name whose origin may never be known with any certainty, though that prospect has not quelled staunch but differing opinion that is still providing debate fodder today.

Perhaps the leading theory is that early traders dubbed the town from their estimate that the nearest Cherokee settlement, Keowee, was 96 miles away. But the actual distance is 78 miles, and it is hard to imagine the pioneer’s calculations would be that “far off.”

Another disproved legend was that 96 was the total number of creeks crossing the main road from the town to Lexington, S.C. Again, the estimate was wildly inaccurate.

One speculation is that the town is named because of a mispronunciation of the Welsh phrase “nant-sych,” meaning “dry gulch.”

Historians, however, have been unable to confirm that the town’s founder, Robert Goudy, was Welsh, Scottish or German.

Some say the name derives from the observation that six creeks ran south from the Saluda River and nine ran south from the Savannah River. Though plausible, no convincing documentation supports the theory.

Finally, one source suggests 96 refers to the number of “chains,” a linear measurement traditionally used in English parishes, equal to 66 feet. The distance equals exactly 1.2 miles, but no meaningful reference points have been posited to connect the number with the land.

In any event, the settlement was established in the early 18th century and became the capital of the Ninety-Six District in July 1769.

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The area saw its share of battles during the Revolutionary War, including the first engagement outside of New England.

Ninety Six was chartered by the state legislature in 1869 and was incorporated on May 27, 1905. Early industries included cotton, brick, cannery and oil. The current population is 2,051.

For more information, visit ninetysixsc.gov.

SIX MILE The name origin of the tiny burg of Six Mile, population 678, is more discernible, as it is situated 6 miles from Fort Prince George, a fortification built on the Cherokee Path and serving as the principal Carolinian trading post among the Cherokee settlements.

Still, an alternate theory still makes the rounds, perhaps because of its romantic element. Legend has it that Indian maiden Issaqueena rode on horseback to the fort to warn her lover, an English trader named Francis Allen, of an impending Cherokee attack.

They escaped, married and had a child.

In 1777, Six Mile was signed over to the state in a treaty, but was not settled until 1800 by Scotch-Irish, Dutch-German and English pioneers. Those settlers were a sturdy bunch noted for their “integrity, industry and independence,” according to historians.

There were no established businesses for most of a century, just handshake commerce and neighbors helping each other.

Six Mile Baptist Church was founded in 1836, and the first post office was established in 1878. The community was incorporated in 1910, and businesses started to spring up, including sawmills, blacksmith and welding shops, barbers, furniture and grocery stores, service stations and a mortuary.

Commerce was still chiefly agricultural until after World War II when textile mills opened around the area.

The town has steadily maintained its character of hardworking citizens who enjoy simple, honest, cohesive community and family life.

For more information, visit sixmilesc.org.

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 15

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$60,000 to $96,000

Broken Arrow’s, Okla.’s, Water Reuse Project at Lynn Lane Wastewater Treatment Plant saves the city between this amount annually.

Learn more about Broken Arrow’s Water Reuse Project on page 30.

250 The number of submissions Colorado Springs, Colo., received during its contest to name its four new street sweepers.

Focus on:

Focus on: Waste & Recycling

Waste & Recycling 540

The number of residents who responded online to Joplin, Mo.’s survey, seeking public feedback on its proposed master plan for solid waste, recycling and yard waste.

Read more about how communities are engaging in litter busting on page 22.

See how cities are encouraging citizens to become involved in waste management decisions on page 18.

520 Austin, Texas, has held 23 in-person fix-it clinics. During these, volunteers have helped 520 people fix a variety of items from fans and lights to bicycles, keeping these items out of landfills.

25% Looking at statistics from 2017 in Iowa City, Iowa, approximately 25% of what entered the local landfill was food waste.

Find out about other cities’ experiences with fix-it clinics on page 32.

Read about Iowa City’s Love Food, Fight Waste, which aims to divert food waste from landfills, on page 26.

85% The 2022 zero waste resolution proposed developing strategies to increase total waste diversion in Longmont, Colo., to 70% by 2030 and 85% by 2050. In 2021, Longmont residents and commercial entities combined produced an estimated 108,473 tons of waste.

Source: https://www.timescall.com/2022/06/28/longmontofficials-revisit-citys-zero-waste-strategies/

50-plus Sites repeatedly littered with household, commercial and automotive waste around the unincorporated Santa Cruz County. Illegal dumping — a nationwide problem — is being exacerbated in California by a statewide trend toward privatizing waste management.

Source: https://www.montereyherald.com/2022/06/17/ illegal-dumps-choke-watersheds-and-open-space/.

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 17

M Focus on: Waste & Recycling The fountain at Bayliss Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa, is shown in this photo. Council Bluffs has engaged the community in its plans to bid out a new waste and recycling contract. (Photo provided by Council Bluffs, Iowa)

Engaging the community key to success for waste and recycling issues

By DENISE FEDOROW | The Municipal

Getting public input on municipal projects is generally a good idea, but sometimes city officials might shy away from it for a variety of reasons. With waste and recycling, the officials we spoke to said community engagement is the key to success.

In the city of Joplin, Mo., officials were looking to develop a master plan for solid waste, recycling and yard waste. They hired a consulting engineering firm — Burns & McDonnell — to assist with the master plan.

Lynden Lawson, assistant public works director over operations, explained there were several services involved — trash collection and a recycling center — that they didn’t think was working well.

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“There are a couple of issues; we have a recycling center, but it’s not a good place as it doesn’t meet all the needs. We’ve got a good flow, but they’re not able to do certain things in there,” he said.

Part of the master plan includes what that recycling center will look like in the future. Officials would like to see a place where residents could drop brush off for mulch and also be able to pick up mulch if they need it. Lawson said the city creates windrows of the leaves that it picks up every year and rolls them out every three years as compost,

Laura Drescher, PE, Burns & McDonnell, consultants on the master plan for Joplin, Mo., points out some information to a resident at the open house held to get community input on the master plan.

(Photo provided by Burns & McDonnell

The recycling center at Council Bluffs, Iowa, is part of the contract the city is currently putting out for bid. City officials expect recycling to increase if curbside recycling is included. (Photo provided

by Council Bluffs, Iowa)

so it would like to create an area where residents could come and get compost for their gardens.

He said the city also has a transfer station that a different company other than the one who has the trash contract operates. The city subsidizes the cost to keep the price down for residents who want to drop off bulky items like old furniture.

“We negotiated the cost to keep the prices low so they’ll be more apt to do it, and overall, we’ll have less of a dumping issue,” he said.

Julie Davis, senior environmental scientist with Burns & McDonnell, said the company believes engaging communities is crucial.

“In all the important public services, if it touches the public, it won’t be successful unless there’s public buy-in,” she said. “We want to ensure that our plans are not only fiscally responsible but also environmentally responsible and tolerable by the community.”

She said what they did in Joplin is not unique to Joplin, but a model that the company encourages for all public entities. In Joplin, Davis said the city contracted with one service provider for trash only. The provider offered recycling but on an optional subscription basis, not a service provided to all.

Joplin and Burns & McDonnell have held one open house for the public so far, and another one will be coming. Davis said in the first round, the goal was to get the public’s input about what they’re interested in, what services need changing, how much they’d be willing to pay and how satisfied they are with the current services.

“In conjunction with the open house, we had online surveys, so if they couldn’t make an open house, they had access to the same information,” she said.

About 20 people attended the open house, “which was a low turnout, but we had about 540 respond online so some may not have attended because they already responded online,” according to Davis.

She added, “I’ve been doing this a long time, and there’s nothing controversial in Joplin’s plan — people tend to show up more when they’re not happy.”

The city was responsible for getting the word out, and Davis said officials advertised in local newspapers with a QR code so they could track that they received 140 responses from the local newspaper.

Joplin also has an active social media presence and promoted the open house and the online survey on those platforms. It also printed flyers and placed them in public places.

The most successful of those communication efforts, according to Davis, was the digital surveys.

“Dealing with COVID the past two years, some people have grown complacent about getting out, and also because it’s not too controversial, it didn’t motivate people to show up,” she said, adding, “I’m very pleased that, with a community the size of Joplin, we’ve gotten the results we did.”

Those responses also came from a variety of different households and sizes of households — not just from those supportive of recycling, according to Davis. Despite the lower attendance of the open house, Davis still felt it was a good thing to do.

“With an in-person option, it’s a good opportunity to engage with those who may not be comfortable taking an online survey,” she said.

Those leading the open house could spend a longer time with those attending, educating them so they can make informed decisions.

Lawson agreed. “For the people who showed up in person, they could look at the information boards, voice their opinions and ask questions. It really helped out as we put the master plan together.”

But like Davis, Lawson is thrilled with the online responses.

There’s one part of the contract the city hasn’t delved into yet — the energy part. Lawson said the city has two wastewater treatment plants, and officials want to determine if they produce enough methane to use for heating purposes.

“We’re getting ready to delve into that,” he said, adding they’re waiting on that study before presenting any findings to the council.

Davis didn’t want to share all the results of the survey before the council saw it, but said, “I can tell you that the community is in AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 19

continued from page 19

support of having recycling provided as part of the base level of service — meaning available for all.”

She said the online results showed residents are supportive of collecting separate yard waste — now it’s co-mingled with the trash — and they support curbside recycling. Those who currently pay for a subscription for curbside recycling support it because they believe the price will decrease, and those who don’t have it now because the price is high would recycle if the city included it in their base service.

Lawson said they’ve found solid waste can be “an emotional topic one way or the other” so engaging the public is important. He added providing education in the elementary and middle schools is also important so they can explain the environmental benefits of having less trash in the landfills and the benefits of being a clean city, so they understand why the city is doing what they’re doing.

Council Bluffs, Iowa, moving to automation The city of Council Bluffs’ current waste collection contract will expire next year, so city officials began engaging the public about what the next contract should look like.

Solid Waste Superintendent Tony Fiala said, “We’re right in the middle of going out to bid for the waste collection service.”

He said the current contract ends June 30, 2023, and before the start of a new contract, city officials were building some ideas and decided to hold public outreach open houses.

“We set up poster board concepts with what the plans would be to get their opinions — will this system work best for the citizens of Council Bluffs? Is it most efficient? Most cost effective? We laid out the different ideas to see if the course we were headed on matched what residents were looking for.”

One of the biggest changes the city is looking for in the contract is moving away from the current manual collection system, which has a driver and two workers who get off the truck at every collection stop and manually pick up the trash.

“Our goal is to go out to bid for automatic collection. We’ll provide trash and yard waste carts, co-mingled for weekly collection and single-stream recycling carts for collection biweekly,” he said.

The base size of the carts is 95-96 gallons.

Fiala shared some results from the public outreach, noting the city provided questionnaires at the site with some directed questions. One concern residents expressed was about cleaner, alternative fuels for the collection vehicles. He said over 70% thought that was important.

When asked if that was something the city was aiming for, Fiala responded that alternative fuels are in the bid and would be considered in the scoring criteria.

He said 82% were concerned about providing options to recycle the carts they have now — the small 18-gallon recycling totes and their trash containers.

“Everything on the street now would be obsolete. Eighty-two percent felt it was very important to have a recycling option for the containers,” Fiala said.

Half of the respondents — two-to-one ratio — felt they would recycle under a single-stream system, but Fiala said officials expect it being higher than that once the program is in place.

When asked if residents were concerned about costs, he said, “It was a concern but not as high as I anticipated.”

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Recycling containers at Council Bluffs, Iowa, are shown. The city is bidding out a new waste and recycling contract, and if singlestream curbside recycling is part of the contract, which officials expect, they believe recycling will increase. (Photo provided by Council Bluffs, Iowa)

Officials anticipated there would be a cost increase, but until the bids are in hand, they won’t know; however, it looks like it’ll be close.

“We updated 30 days ago, but a lot has changed since then,” he said.

The bids are due back on July 13.

Another negative concern for residents was the size of the carts.

Some households won’t use containers that big; some were concerned that the elderly or disabled wouldn’t be able to maneuver them.

Because of those comments, officials changed the contract to add an offer of a smaller half-size cart for those who can’t handle the larger carts. He added they offered the larger carts for purchase since 1993, so many residents are already accustomed to them and the carts are on wheels.

Fiala said officials also took residents’ comments via voice mail and email. They cover 62,000 residents or 19,600 households with the trash service.

The city has a Facebook page with 12,000 followers so Fiala said that was a main communication venue for the city. It posted information about the meetings on its Facebook page and got the word out through local media — television and newspapers. The open houses were held two weeks apart on March 15 and 23. The city also has a recycling-waste collection app that residents can sign up for and get text message notifications about collection delays and more.

Best practices Fiala said attendance at the open houses was not the best, but the two dates chosen turned out to be two “beautiful early spring days.”

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The outside of River’s Edge Pavilion in Council Bluffs, Iowa, is shown here. The sculpture is titled “Looking up” and was unveiled in 2019. (Photo provided by Council Bluffs, Iowa)

“So the nice weather was a bit of a challenge driving attendance — it didn’t work as well as I hoped,” Fiala said, but he added mailing out an annual solid waste guide to all customers has proved successful.

“One of the biggest impacts on everything we do is the annual solid waste guide that’s mailed out every spring before the start of yard waste season. It’s a 16-page booklet that contains all the information residents need — what they can dispose of, what they can’t, contact information, etc.”

The city also operates a recycling center, where it takes in all the curbside recycling plus the recycling from seven other drop-off sites.

It also takes in tires, construction demolition material, brush and scrap metal.

“It’s a pretty comprehensive program. Every customer — 19,600 households — receives the guide, and the response is good to it.

People like the guide. It’s a quick reference and includes a calendar,” he said.

The consolidated results were presented to the city council for review. Fiala said officials kept the council in the know throughout the process.

“Everyone’s on board — there’s buy-in,” he said.

The most important thing in his opinion is “timely, readily available messaging is the most important, especially on any program changes like texts for time delays in high heat days, local media, Facebook, city website, etc. As many venues as possible is key.”

Davis summed it up best. “A successful plan is one with community support. It helps elected officials by giving them backing on decisions that they’re doing what the community wants. With community input, those changes are more likely to be supported.”

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AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 21

M Focus on: Waste & Recycling

Beautifying cities by removing litter Colorado Springs, Colo., is known for its scenic beauty, and its mayor has strove to make sure the city matches that beauty by removing litter. (Jacob Boomsma/Shutterstock.com)

By BETH ANNE BRINK-COX | The Municipal

Those of a certain age might remember a public service announcement from 1971. The Clio Awards-winning spot was named one of the top 100 advertising campaigns of the 20th century. This unforgettable spot, most commonly referred to as the “Crying Indian” spot, featured a Native American actor, Chief Iron Eyes Cody, paddling a canoe on tranquil waters. Then floating trash appeared. When he pulled the canoe up to a beach, it too was littered. Eventually, as he stood looking over the cars zooming by, a bag of trash was thrown out a passenger window, bursting open at Chief Cody’s feet. A tear fell down his cheek as a voiceover stated, “People started pollution. People can stop it.”

Mayor John Suthers of Colorado Springs, Colo., has devoted his two terms to making the beauty of the city match the beauty of the surroundings. (Photo provided by Colorado Springs, Colo.)

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During the height of that campaign, Keep America Beautiful reported receiving more than 2,000 letters a month from people wanting to join their local team, and by the end of that ad campaign, litter had been reduced by as much as 88% in 300 communities.

Unfortunately, littering continues to be an ongoing problem. The average U.S. resident produces about 4.5 pounds of garbage a day — the global average is 1.6 pounds a day.

Apart from the obvious ugliness, there are other issues: Littering can encourage the spread of pests and diseases, attract wildlife and, if the trash collects water, it may also harbor mosquitoes. So what is the solution and how is it implemented? A lot of cities are trying different methods to combat this health hazard.

Colorado Springs, Colo., has been under the leadership of a passionately involved mayor since 2015. Jacob Anderson, community

Melbourne, Fla., provides basic recycling information in one small brochure to help residents begin their recycling journey. (Photo provided by Melbourne, Fla.)

When the recycle bins have contaminants in them, Megan Selva with Melbourne, Fla., leaves these hangers on the resident’s door, so they’ll understand what can and can’t be recycled, as part of the ongoing work of lowering the quantities of litter. (Photo provided by Melbourne, Fla.)

engagement specialist for the city of Colorado Springs Office of Communication, couldn’t say enough about Mayor John Suthers.

“His passion since beginning his first term — he’s in the final year of his second term — has been to make a city that matches the scenery. That was part of his inaugural speech.

It’s an incredibly beautiful city,” said Anderson.

And he walks his talk. “If you’re walking into some building, thinking about what you have to do, where you have to be and all that, and he’s approaching at the same time. He’s likely to fall behind you, because he’ll be picking up a piece of trash on the sidewalk or street. He wants to leave this as his legacy. And he took it on himself to motivate the community, take ownership. We have an app we use — and social media is our friend and asset — and I’m

empowered to be the manager of that app; you use a tech-enabled process to report vandalism or damage so the issue can be taken care of as quickly as possible. And when you’ve done that, it feels like, ‘Hey, that’s my stop sign, my streetlight.’ That’s what it takes to have community involvement.”

So with all this in mind, Colorado Springs started a program called #KeepItCleanCOS. Its page shows all the ways community members can be involved, including one called the Immaculate Eight, “which was suggesting names for the four new street sweeper trucks purchased for street cleaning. We had about 250 submissions, and the community did bracket voting, narrowing down to the final eight: Dirt Reynolds; Obi-Wan Cleanobi; Bruce Springsclean; Sweep Caroline; Sir Sweep-ALot; Sweepy McSweepface; The Grim Sweeper; and Kevin,” Anderson said.

A June 8 Fox 21 News article revealed the winners as Dirt Reynolds, Bruce Springsclean, Sweepy McSweepFace and Kevin.

There is also a new vacuum truck meant to suck up trash. This was a $2.7 million endeavor, and the funds came from the city’s reserve savings account. Human resources will cost $800,000 annually. The Colorado Department

of Transportation is partnering with this program; it will clean up state-maintained roads locally.

There’s also a toolkit on that webpage, because in order to encourage more community involvement, the city will provide trash bags and gloves. And when residents have filled those bags, they’ll be picked up and hauled away. Another incentive is the nomination of businesses and organizations, as well as individual people, in August, for those who go that extra mile along the roads and clean things up.

An award will be given every September. Anderson said another helpful thing is to have locking trash cans and dumpsters, especially in family housing developments.

“We get some pretty high, sweeping winds here, and if those trash containers blow open, you might just as well have dumped all your trash directly on the ground.”

It’s all a part of what Mayor Suthers has said all the way through, “If each and every one of us focused on becoming a good ancestor, the world would be a better place.” He’s written a book called exactly that: “Becoming a Good Ancestor.”

On the other side of the country, Melbourne, Fla., has a Trash Bash every year. Part of the AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 23

continued from page 23

Great American Cleanup and sponsored nationally by Keep America Beautiful, Trash Bash has been happening in many places for more than 50 years. This most recent one meant that 185 volunteers bagged 157 bags, equaling 7,900 pounds of trash.

Megan Selva, the environmental programs’ coordinator in Melbourne, said, “That’s not as much as we’ve gathered in previous years.

Not because there’s less trash, but because COVID has cut down on the number of volunteers.”

Selva just finished leading two workshops for the “Don’t Waste It!” program. The workshops are offered for educators of students from prekindergarten to 12th grade, and there are multiple lessons and activities both for groups and individuals. There is also the opportunity to tour the new Keep Brevard Beautiful Organics Composting Facility or the Waste Management Materials Recovery Facility.

But Selva is busy with a lot of other projects and responsibilities as well. “We have a program called Curb Contamination. Wednesday is recycling day, so I go all around and open bins everywhere, checking to see if there are any contaminations, and if there are, I have a door hanger to be left behind.”

Contaminations, Selva explained, are “things like styrofoam, plastic bags, clothes hangers — or tangling things like hoses and cords and strings of Christmas lights! I let the residents know which items are contaminated because they might not know. And there’s a term we use called ‘wishcycling,’ which means things people think should be recyclable and hope they are, so they put them in. But if they’re not, and they’re in there, it’s all going to go to the landfill, which is not what we want. This helps control the contamination rate — ours is about 30%, which is pretty high, and we’re always trying to get that down. The main thing residents need to focus on is getting back to the basics of recycling: aluminum and steel cans; plastic bottles and jugs; and cardboard and paper. Plastic bags are the worst, because they get tangled up in the machinery. If there aren’t any contaminants, I leave a sticker that says ‘Great Job!’” Selva added, “On Earth Day, we planted over 100 plants and trees at our local golf course. This beautifies, of course, and helps the wildlife, but it also mitigates runoff, and that’s crucial, too.”

Runoff can pick up and deposit harmful pollutants: dirt, sediment and especially phosphorus and nitrogen, which, Selva explained, creates a thick sludge and damages seagrass.

“Our stormwater management solution — the use of baffle boxes — has prevented 200 tons of trash, 7,800 pounds of nitrogen and 1,550 pounds of phosphorus from entering the Indian River Lagoon. We have the annual International Coastal Cleanup all along the lagoon, where it’s most vulnerable to trash and all the other things that harm it.”

Selva said anyone in any town can coordinate something like the Adopt-a-Road program. “Twenty groups here have adopted and maintained city roads. They go out at least four times a year because of the changing weather with each season, and many times more than those four are needed.”

The city of Fort Worth, Texas, is developing its first environmental master plan to support the city’s pursuit of improved environmental performance. Once completed, the city’s plan will outline strategies and concepts to safeguard residents and visitors against outdoor air pollution, water pollution, contaminated soil and properties, groundwater pollution and litter and aquatic trash. The planning began in 2019, but was delayed due to COVID.

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Pictured is Lake Como in Fort Worth, Texas, before and after an Adopt-a-Spot cleanup. (Photo provided by Fort Worth, Texas)

One of the best ways to attract butterflies begins with clean landscaping. (Photo provided by Fort Worth, Texas)

Delonda Kerr at Fort Worth City Hall, explained the Adopt a Spot program allows volunteers to adopt public spaces like parks, medians and roadways for regular litter cleanups and other maintenance activities. It’s a serious commitment: two years are required. And there are various forms of adoption, such as litter only, which focuses on cleaning up litter and occasional plantings for beautification. Participants might also choose a maintenance adoption, which is more involved, including mowing and irrigation, plus the cleanups. This requires a formal contract with the city. The contract is for a minimum of two years. Interested parties might choose to Adopt a Street, Adopt a Median or Adopt a Park. And, of course, there are safety guidelines that must be followed.

In keeping with all these cities, adopt the mindset: Stop it; report it; and pick it up! It only takes a minute to pick up papers, bottles or whatever has been left behind.

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800.837.9711 | info@superproducts.com | www.superproducts.com AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 25

M Focus on: Waste & Recycling

Love Food, Fight Waste promotes community education to enact positive change

By NICHOLETTE CARLSON | The Municipal

Working with Table to Table in various aspects and programs over the years, it was natural for Iowa City to reach out to the organization once more when looking for ways to increase food waste diversion within the community.

Jane Wilch, Iowa City recycling coordinator, suggested the city “do something a little more permanent in our food waste program.”

A program called Love Food, Fight Waste started this year to further the education of residents in both Iowa City and Johnson County on simple ways to help eliminate food waste and keep it out of both the landfill and compost pile.

Looking at statistics from 2017, approximately 25% of what entered the local landfill was food waste. There are many wasted resources — from agricultural to business — that go into food waste.

When food waste is put into a landfill, it produces methane gas as it decomposes, which contributes to climate issues. One goal of Iowa City is to help positively affect climate change by reducing methane emissions. Even when food waste is sent to a compost facility, there are still many resources wasted.

In honor of the national Stop Food Waste Day on April 27, Iowa City officially launched its Love Food, Fight Waste program. The first When Iowa City’s Love Food, Fight Waste three months have very specific topics to aid in the public’s education. program began at the end of April, the first topic was May’s topic was “Know Your Best By, Use By and Sell By Dates.” June’s topic was “Understand the Types of Food Waste.” July’s topic was “Buy “Know Your Best By, Use By and Sell By Dates.” These magnets were given to residents and participants for free to give them the Right Amount of Food.”

According to Wilch, “The program is very young, and we are just reminders of how long food lasts. It also provides tips for storing starting to build traction with it. We anticipate it to be a year long, but food when excess is received. ((Photo provided by Iowa City, Iowa) it may go even longer.”

These three initial topics were chosen intentionally to give residents getting started with the program a solid essential foundation to make being left open-ended and can change from month to month dependmore conscious choices for eliminating and reducing food waste. ing on how the program evolves and what the community needs.

Each month, the city communicated with the residents on fighting These topics cover simple, practical ways any resident can help positively affect the reduction of food waste at home. One of the simplest food waste via city newsletters, the city website and several social suggestions includes eating a snack before going to the grocery store. media pages. The hope is also to have an archived page on the Table Following these three initial topics, Love Food, Fight Waste will to Table website so, if an individual joins the program later on, they move on to more complicated topics and collaborate with other pro- can still view previous topics. The Love Food, Fight Waste program grams throughout the community. These collaborations will help to will also further its reach as other local organizations partner to broaden the audience for the program. The city is also teaming up promote the program. As local events take place pertaining to food with the schools to include fighting food waste as part of the school waste, the program will also participate in these to continue to reach curriculum in September. Wilch mentioned that further topics are more residents.

26 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

One lesson learned through Love Food, Fight Waste programming is buying the right amount of food to prevent waste.

(Shutterstock.com)

Since Table to Table has been an active, valuable asset to the Iowa City community for over 25 years, Nicki Ross, Table to Table executive director, believed their specific community is primed to want to reduce food waste. One of the biggest struggles she has seen is the ability to communicate to members of the community that the food being collected from grocery stores, trucking companies, etc. is still good and edible, even if it is close to or past the sell by or best by date.

This is another important aspect of creating a strong foundation for the program with the three initial topics.

Ross explained that this program “helps the city promote their commitment to reducing organic food waste, and it helps show the commitment of the community.” One of Ross’ additional goals is to “lift up the view of food and what is waste and trash and shift the narrative of food and dignity of food to make those, especially those food insecure, feel better about their food choices.”

The partnership between Iowa City employees and Table to Table employees is fairly equal. There is a small group of employees from each that split up the variety of tasks each month. They share equal collaboration in the program, and with a long history of good partnership between the two, it has made it easy to promote the good work of the program.

Ross has received excellent feedback from community members regarding the program — at least three or four emails each month.

Some mention how the program simply reminds them to be more conscious about their food waste. She has also received unexpected positive responses from other organizations that help to meet food insecurity need within the community. Pantry directors have reached out asking for material to help support the Love Food, Fight Waste program in order to benefit those who use their own organizations.

“It has been such a rewarding experience to hear feedback from everyone in the community,” Ross commented.

A program called Love Food, Fight Waste educates Iowa City and Johnson County residents in on ways to help eliminate food waste, keeping it out of the landfill. (Shutterstock.com)

Apart from the Love Food, Fight Waste program, Iowa City and Table to Table are also currently in the research stage of a pilot program that will install a piece of equipment to be used as a diversion method that will further help to rescue food waste at Table to Table.

The goal is to reduce the volume of food waste by 90% and will result in a pre-compost product that can either go to the compost facility or be placed directly into a garden.

For a look at Iowa City’s program, topics and suggestions, visit www. icgov.org/lovefood.

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AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 29

M Focus on: Waste & Recycling

Water Reuse Project preserves precious Oklahoma resource

By JODI MARLIN | The Municipal

Nine years ago, the Lynn Lane Wastewater Treatment Plant in Broken Arrow, Okla., was using 220,000 gallons of potable water per day in its processes. Through a new sustainability process called the Water Reuse Project, it has gone from using 70 million gallons of potable water, total, in 2020, to only 11.1 million gallons in 2021. That’s an 84% decrease year over year, which is saving the city between $60,000 to $96,000 annually.

Facility Manager David Handy has been at Lynne Lane since 2012. During most of that time, potable water was being utilized in all processes, including chlorination disinfection, biosolids processes and wash-down 30 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

cleaning practices. “We were the largest user of potable water in the city,” Handy noted.

Water use regulations were adopted eight years ago in Oklahoma. Since then, the practice of water reuse at wastewater

ABOVE: David Handy, facility manager, has a vision to increase the level of sustainability in the plant’s processes. In addition to re-use of non-potable water, he’d like to see more public acceptance of biosolids reuse. (Photo provided by Lynne Lane Wastewater Treatment Plant)

treatment plants is something a few facilities have obtained permits to engage in, and others are looking closely at the possibility. The Lynn Lane plant made it happen by building a top station and is now pulling treated water into the plant for wash-down and disinfection purposes — including keeping the biofilter wet and in screen wash and compactor use.

“With new state water reuse regulations under the state’s Category 3 rules. What in place, I wanted to develop a project that the courses don’t use is discharged to the would allow us to reuse the treated non- Arkansas River. potable water and replace the potable water The rules that govern the use of nonusage,” Handy said. “It would save money potable water at the wastewater plant are in and resources.”

Category 6. At Lynne Lane, the non-potable Handy had spoken with members of the water is disinfected with sodium hydrocommittee that wrote the new state regu- chloride as an extra step so plant employees lations and been rolling the idea around feel comfortable working with it — as kind in his head for a while. He said that 20 of a fail-safe mechanism. Handy said this years ago, the word “sustainability” wasn’t is done even though by the time it gets to common vernacular in the wastewater that stage — when it’s being pulled out for industry. He began studying water recla- reuse — the water already meets regulatory mation practices to see what technological compliance. advances could reduce the plant’s water UV disinfection completes the prowaste. A project to rehab an old clarifier cess — a choice made largely because presented an opportunity, in Handy’s mind, homes in proximity to the plant would have to calculate how much savings there would made use of chlorine gas difficult. “It’s not be if they went the route of using treated a complicated process, but the paperwork non-potable water instead. and the risk behind it were the greatest con“The cost of adding this non-potable part siderations,” said Handy. It also gives better of the project, I thought it represented a pressure and volume to other sections of good savings for the capital cost. So, we the plant. added it into the clarifier project, and that’s “Now, we only use potable water for the how we got it done. To me, it’s a win-win sit- Administration Building, the Maintenance uation for everybody, including the people Building, and the eyewash stations,” Handy who are served here in the community. said. “This project saves the city roughly at There’s an extra 200,000-some odd gallons least $8,000 per month. of water going out into the system for use “I was really surprised at the numbers,” by other people that otherwise would have Handy said after the switch. “Our water been taken away. And when you’re pulling resources manager, she ran the numthat much flow to plant, it pulls pressure off bers … I look instead at how much water of some areas of the system. I believe that we use and how much it costs us to treat helped out tremendously to restore pres- the water, from the point of view of monthly sure to some problem areas of the system, expenses, and it was quite a bit of savings.” because we have greater water pressure It’s something plants of a similar size now than when I came here nine years ago.” might want to look at, Handy said, if they’re It helps especially to save water when the using a large volume of potable water. region gets into a dry weather pattern that “With that — using potable water — comes increases water demand. The Water Reuse backflow preventers to prevent backflow Project came to fruition in late 2019. contamination … In our case, with going One of two treatment plants in the largely to non-potable, we eliminated those suburb of Tulsa, Okla., the flow at Lynne in almost everywhere.”

Lane is about 5.8 million gallons per day.

He has a vision for where he wants to Water reclamation processes use water in take the facility. Now, Handy is looking at every phase of operation: From the chlori- a biosolids project, which he is researchnation process to the headworks function ing currently, with the aim of converting of removing sticks, stones, grit and sand, Broken Arrow’s biosolids to reuse. from the wastewater stream to processing “We already have some of the mechathe sludge and cleaning the equipment, it nisms in place for that project. I think the takes water to process waste. idea is becoming more known: It’s getting But by replacing potable water with the public to have that acceptance. That’s treated non-potable in most processes, what it’s all about, and the way I generate there has also been a benefit to the two that is through education about what we 18-hole golf courses that pull from the do here.” plant’s basin in May through September,

The switch to non-potable water in processes at the Lynn Lane plant not only saves the city thousands of dollars each month but also improved water pressure within the system. (Photo provided by Lynne Lane Wastewater Treatment Plant)

The Lynn Lane Wastewater Treatment Plant in Broken Arrow, Okla., identified a large cost savings by nearly eliminating its potable water use. By switching to non-potable water in processes including chlorination disinfection, biosolids processes and wash-down cleaning practices, the facility is saving the city around $8,000 a month.

(Photo provided by Lynne Lane Wastewater Treatment Plant) AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 31

M Focus on: Waste & Recycling

Extended life: Fix-it clinics offer residents the chance to renew rather than repurchase

By JULIE YOUNG | The Municipal

When it comes to environmental responsibility and reducing our collective carbon footprint, communities are quick to promote the three Rs of sustainability: reduce, reuse and recycle. But what about the fourth R — repair? The fix-it shop, once a staple of Main Street America, has become all but extinct; however, some municipalities are determined to bring the concept back.

The fix-it clinic is a locally organized event designed to divert as much waste from landfills as possible by fixing broken items that usually wind up in the trash, such as small appliances, electronics, lamps, sewing machines and more. By assembling a volunteer team of creative and skilled individuals with experience in a variety of fields, cities find these events support a community’s zero waste goals.

A popular program According to Kaeli Wells, sustainability specialist with the city of Flagstaff, Ariz.’s, sustainability office, the community held its first fix-it clinic in 2014. Inspired by the repair cafes and fix-it fairs that were taking place in Oregon, Flagstaff’s clinics became so popular that the city has offered them two to three times a year.

“We had 74 community members and 18 fixers attend the fix-it clinic on March 26,” she said. “Our fixers prevented 261 pounds of material from going to the landfill. We have an incredible list of volunteer fixers, and before each event, we ask residents to register for appointments so that we have a better idea of what items will need to be fixed during the event.”

The city of Austin, Texas, has been hosting fix-it clinics since 2015.

Residents who attend learn how to repair items, such as clothing, jewelry, etc., at the clinic, working alongside a skilled volunteer who coaches them through the repair. Matt Hart, public information officer for the city of Austin, said fix-it clinics inspire do-it-together, handson disassembly; troubleshooting; and repair knowledge. All ages are welcome because it’s never too young to learn how something works.

“Many items are repairable, and we believe that by repairing, you prevent your item from going to the landfill and avoid the cost of buying a replacement (which is likely made from virgin materials),” he said. “While servicing an item may be more expensive than replacing 32 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

A volunteer repair person explains the inner workings of a lamp during a fix-it clinic in the San Diego area. (Photo provided by Zero Waste)

it, sometimes repairs are easier than you think. It mainly involves a little elbow grease and confidence … One of the things we hope that people take home from the fix-it clinics is the courage to try these things on their own the next time something breaks.”

The city of Austin has held 23 in-person fix-it clinics and served over 520 people. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the quarterly events ran for three hours in partnership between Austin Resource Recovery and the Austin Public Library’s Recycled Reads. These events began by focusing on specialized item repair (e.g. bikes or jewelry), but in 2020 and 2021, they pivoted to virtual education with the city hosting 23 live workshops on Zoom.

“Instructors were paid for their time, and the repair/maintenance skills that were taught included: bikes, electric guitars, shoes, sewing

Fix-it clinics are not solely designed for small appliances, electronics and other practical household items. Some cities, such as Austin, include clothing repair as well so that people can extend the life of their favorite garments. (Photo provided by Austin, Texas)

machines and sewing/mending by hand,” Hart said. “A handful of classes were offered in English and Spanish with live translation and closed captioning options — the total estimated attendance was over 350, though there were 800 registrants.”

Collaborative events for all Laura Anthony, director of Zero Waste San Diego, helped the city of Chula Vista, Calif., organize its fix-it clinics, which she said was a great opportunity to bring intergenerational groups together. She worked with Chula Vista’s environmental services manager, Manuel Medrano, to create programs that were fun and allowed people to connect, an ancillary benefit that went beyond the repair of household items. Anthony said in addition to culling the community for skilled volunteers — often retirees — to help fix items that are brought into the event, she also reaches out to high school robotics clubs who are knowledgeable about the latest technology and have a natural urge to “tinker.”

“Until the pandemic, we were hosting fix-it clinics once a month in the San Diego area in churches, public libraries or any space where we could put tables, chairs, have access to electricity and something to cover the volunteers — most of which have followed me around since 2016,” she said. “You should see the tool kits that they bring with them. They have such pride in these beautiful boxes with logos from the various fix-it clinics they have attended. They love sharing their skills with others.”

Medrano said as the fix-it clinics have taken off, they have spawned a variety of sub-clinics that focus on specific items and often happen in concert with other events. For example, a bike repair clinic might lead to a bike ride where residents show off their renewed items. He said communities looking to host these kinds of events should not think about the education or environmental component, but rather build a fun, festive atmosphere that becomes a fun event for everyone.

“People still like to gather, and they like to do hands-on activities,” he said. “It’s not hard to (create a fix-it clinic). You merely have to call

A volunteer “fixer” mugs with a vintage lamp during a fix-it clinic in Flagstaff, Ariz. The city of Flagstaff Office of Sustainability holds these events two or three times a year to help community members save, rather than throw away their broken items. (Photo provided by Flagstaff, Ariz.)

A bicycle repair specialist works on a tire as part of a fix-it clinic held in Austin. (Photo provided by Austin, Texas)

out for volunteers, set up resources and have a plan to properly dispose of the things that can’t be repaired. Above all, hold these events as frequently as possible so that they become commonplace in your community.”

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 33

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Personality Profile

From refuse collector to superintendent: Jimmy Smith Jr. manages Thomasville, Ga., Solid Waste Department with passion

By BETH ANNE BRINK-COX | The Municipal

Jimmy Smith Jr. makes you feel you’ve always known him, and all it takes is a few minutes of conversation.

As the solid waste and landfill superintendent of Thomasville, Ga. — and having worked for the city since 1995 — what Jimmy doesn’t know about the business likely isn’t worth knowing.

“I was a young country boy who started at the bottom — a refuse collector, working on the trucks, all that, for a couple of months. And how things have changed!

Back then, the trucks didn’t have air brakes, but hydraulic. I went into it thinking I’d do this for a couple of months. Showed my supervisor! Through the years, I worked up from crew leader to team leader to foreman and, eventually, this position,” said Smith.

Smith shared he didn’t really see the need for college and went right to work as soon as he’d graduated. But in 2016, while celebrating his niece’s birthday party, his mom answered the phone, dropped it and left the room.

“Dad went to see what the problem was and came back and told us: Mom had cancer.

So I was thinking, what can I do for her?

What would be something that would really make her feel good in spite of all this? And it was pretty simple. She’d always wanted us to go on to school, and so I did. Back to school for my mom. That was some form of relief I could give her. I graduated with an Academy Profession degree in business management.

I enjoyed it! I earned a Student of the Year, Advocate of the Year and went to talk at other schools. It wasn’t the same as being a valedictorian, but it was pretty good. I mostly went for mom. I vowed to finish after she passed, because she would want that. So I got a degree in environmental management.

I met Governor Kemp in Atlanta, as one of 36 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

the G.O.A.L. (Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership) students. Seems like I just kept moving and climbing.”

Smith is amazed at how much has changed during the years of his employment with the city.

“A lot has changed — the workforce in general, when you came in, you came in to work. Technology advancements, print and file lasers, analog — you can put the truck in drive just by pushing a button now.

Emails, acronyms — I didn’t know what they were at first — getting used to text speak, I learned. Older generation here, and those are different communications. And the way we dress. Used to be shirts and ties, now it’s casual pants and tennis shoes, and oh, I guess that’s how it is now! It seems to be harder for some of the younger workers to put in the work at the bottom; they want to start right out at supervisor level. But you got to put in the groundwork first, learn your way up to that. And when I started, it was something like paid $4 an hour, something like that, and now you offer $20, and they say that’s it?”

Smith is a family man. “Four beautiful daughters and my wife! I ask the guys at work, any of you know the way to win an argument ‘cause I haven’t learned it yet?

Two of our girls are in college, and the twins are in seventh grade.”

And family needs have reconfigured his life, as well. “My wife has an illness — scleroderma — and now I am privileged to be her caretaker. Things you might take for granted, like taking the top off the orange juice, she can’t do any more. So we stay humble and prayed up. I want to show my girls that there

Solid Waste and Landfill Superintendent Jimmy Smith Jr. are people who will love you for you, no matter what. But I still have a lot of responsibilities over two departments. A lot of people look up to me, and I want to meet that well, set the bar high.”

As with so many other businesses, COVID made its presence known. Smith said, “I had COVID, and it hit hard. Couldn’t breathe! It didn’t shut us down. In a landfill, you have just one person in a setting, so we were pretty much distancing just by doing our job — everyone riding and working by themselves. I had to go to meetings and public things, so it’s hard to say where I got it, but it hit hard in the admin building. They had to shut that whole building down. A lot of people think handling garbage is the riskiest of all, but it’s actually safer in the sanitation department than out in the rest of the world.

You aren’t really touching anything because you’re in the cab of a truck!”

He continued, “But we have staff shortages now. Used to be about 28, and now down to 11. We’re trying everything to get

Some of the Thomasville, Ga., Solid Waste Department’s best equipment is set up at a job fair to entice potential team members.

(Photo provided by Jimmy Smith Jr.)

more help. We’ve done job fairs (and) advertising, of course; we’ve done pretty much everything but sign-on bonuses. We are promoting within, and that helps some. But when you work with a short staff, morale goes down quickly, so I don’t stay in my office, just sitting behind my computer. I’m out walking through, high-fiving people, jumping in to help with the trucks, because hey, if we can go home early, let’s go! I want an open door policy. They all have my cellphone number. You need me? Got something you want to talk to me about?

We’re family! I try to create an environment of team openness. You got something going on? Can’t work a full shift or whatever? We’ll make it work. It makes them feel good. Makes them feel heard and seen.”

Smith has made some changes through the years. “We used to have over 7,000 customers, probably more, and we gave back door service.

Two different trucks out, and the guys would walk through the yards and pull the containers to the side of the road. But there were a lot of problems. We ran into dogs who didn’t want us there. We might be accused of stealing something. The turnover rate was awful, and the job was excruciating. Once the cans were emptied, they had to take them back. COVID actually stopped this because cross contamination.

That has saved us an abundant amount of money. Heat exhaustion, dog bites, falls, whatever — workman’s comp costs were in the top 3%.

Now the customers are responsible for their own cans.”

Another change has been technological. “Cameras in the trucks have helped a lot. No more ‘You hit my mailbox, etc.’ We have video to prove/disprove our truck wasn’t there. GPS systems, well, we can tune in and see the driver. And we can check how the trucks are doing, fuel efficiency and such. A new driver may know how to operate the truck but not the route, and this shows them how and where to go.”

Recycling has changed, Smith said.

“Cardboard, the prices went up and down, and we no longer take plastics because it wasn’t cost efficient — you could recycle 1 and 2, but 3 and 7 weren’t taken. It just became simpler to say no plastic; we were transparent with the public so they’d understand why. We don’t do glass because we couldn’t get anyone to take it for less than $2,000 — for an open trailer. And it cost that much each time, even if the trailer wasn’t full. Well, you can’t make people do their recycling the way you want to every time. We took metal. We had two major

Jimmy Smith Jr. poses with his family. In back, from left, are daughter Giselle, wife Jeanne, Smith and daughter Jazlyn. In front, from left, are fraternal twins Jayla and Jayda. (Photo provided by Jimmy Smith Jr.) sites, but they were being illegally filled with mattresses and clothes and such … (we) had to revamp how we did it. Operation Shield from China wasn’t taking our stuff because it was too contaminated.

Medical waste, now, we got a handle on that years ago. Even at home, people are using jugs for needles. But we had trouble for a while with syringes because they thought, well, it’s plastic so it should be okay.

We don’t do curbside because customers didn’t get it right. There are two sites in town and a couple more on the outskirts for glass, clothing, shredded paper, metal and aluminum. Batteries we got away from because of such an abundance, and toner cartridges — too many of both. Earth Day we collaborate with, you know, Keep America Beautiful. We used to have big barbecues, but now it’s a bag of goodies, because of COVID. Used to have tents set up and kids from the schools.

I hope we can get back to that.”

For Smith, this community connection is important.

“I’m very passionate about this,” said Smith. “You’d be surprised at the relationships you build with the kids and the old people, if you’re a people person. I want to educate people on this and what they can do. Landfill is about making sure the groundwater isn’t contaminated, etc., and that takes a lot of education and technology. A liner underneath and then the stuff on top. And that smell? Methane? We got pumps to suck up the gas caused by municipal household waste, and then there are flares to burn it off. In bigger areas, landfills can create their own gas and utilize it back into their trucks.”

So, while Jimmy Smith Jr. is no Oscar the Grouch, he loves trash when it’s well managed and kept controlled. And if it isn’t, you can bet he’ll get right on it until it is.

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 37

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AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 41

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Public Safety

The birth of a police department: Charlotte, Texas’s, steps to successfully form a department

The Charlotte Police Department is located at 8 Couser Drive in back of the Charlotte Public Library. This beautifully remodeled building was formerly the First United Methodist Church in Charlotte, Texas.

(Photo by Glenda Thompson)

By GLENDA THOMPSON | The Municipal

Mayor Christi Rankin had a vision for her small south Texas town. Long before becoming mayor, she dreamed of establishing the first-ever police department in Charlotte, Texas. Rankin believed Charlotte PD would offer protection and safety for current residents and bring new people into the area knowing there was an established law enforcement presence.

Not everyone shared Rankin’s dream. Long-time Charlotte resident Arturo Cordova expressed concern regarding the police department.

“I don’t believe the tiny town of Charlotte can afford a police department. I fear our city taxes will go up.”

He also doesn’t believe the city of just over 1,380 people needs a police department. Cordova worked in the criminal justice field for over 20 years, most of it at the Atascosa County Juvenile Probation Department. He feels the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office and the Atascosa County Precinct 3 Constable’s Office do a good job of being there for Charlotte.

He said, “I strongly believe that the police department will not give us protection 24/7. I believe the city of Charlotte cannot handle it.”

Others felt the police department was being formed in secret, despite a series of city council meetings and town hall forums.

42 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

The city council formed a Charlotte Police Advisory Committee.

This committee met regularly and followed suggested guidelines provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, Texas Police Chiefs Association and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

One of the first steps taken by the advisory committee was to hire EMC Strategy Group LLC, to provide technical assistance and guidance. With EMC’s help, committee members developed a checklist to aid in the police department’s development department.

Prior to hiring EMC, the mayor and city council conducted a strategic assessment and gathered citizen input.

In a public interview, Rankin said, “I was really impressed by the overwhelming amount of support for the police department project from the city’s residents. As Mr. Gonzalez of EMC stated, during the public meeting, we are going to follow every step of the process

The city of Charlotte Police Department announced the swearing in of the new police Chief Rick Luna. (Photo courtesy of the Pleasanton Express News)

and ensure that we meet all state and federal requirements in establishing the Charlotte Police Department.”

Some of these steps included reviewing the existing service plan and developing options; hiring a chief; preparing a budget; negotiating agreements with other agencies; establishing critical policies and procedures; hiring officers and support staff; acquiring office space, equipment, vehicles and supplies; and promoting the department.

After submitting an agency application to TCOLE, the city council announced the selection of Rick Luna, a former constable of 40-plus years, as member’s choice for its first police chief.

After TCOLE approved the city’s agency application, the Texas Department of Public Safety, which governs the Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, granted the Charlotte Police Department access to the Texas Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information Center.

Throughout the process, various citizens raised concerns about whether their city taxes would increase because of the addition of a full-time police force. Mayor Rankin reassured them the city has no intention of raising taxes as it was pursuing multiple state and federal grants to fund the police department.

In addition, the police department plans to generate enough revenue to be self-sufficient once it is up and running. She also said Congressman Henry Cuellar’s office was working with the city to find additional funding.

“Another thing residents should keep in mind is that the city of Charlotte has no

The Charlotte Police Department Advisory Committee met with Congressman Henry Cuellar (US-28) for lunch at Cafe Chris in Pleasanton on Aug. 19, 2021, to discuss the city’s progress in creating its first locally operated municipal police department. Pictured, from left, are Charlotte City Utilities Administrator Laura Morales; City Secretary Gracie Garcia; EMC’s Alex Soto; EMC CEO and President Ernie Gonzalez; Congressman Cuellar; Cafe Chris owner Mary Rodriguez; City Councilwoman Amanda Luna; and Acting Charlotte Police Chief Rick Luna. (Photo courtesy of Rebecca Pesqueda/Pleasanton Express)

Pictured are Charlotte Police Department members, from left, Jesse Martinez, Gerry Rogers, Chief Rick Luna, John McRae and Andre Vargas. (Photo courtesy of Cade Andrews/ Pleasanton Express News)

outstanding debt, so financially the city is in top shape,” she added.

The original working budget approved by the city council was $150,000. Of that money, $50,000 won’t have to be used as the department takes advantage of grant opportunities with the help of EMC Strategy Group LLC. Speaking with Chief Luna, he said start-up categories in the original budget included vehicles, computer expenses, office expenses, licenses, equipment maintenance and yearly program subscriptions. Looking back, he added items overlooked included IT tech and over-time hours.

The biggest challenges Chief Luna said they faced were communicating with Austin, making sure all the paperwork was filed properly to receive the ORI number before day one. Policy and procedure manuals were a major role in this process.

The ORI number is a federal designation that provides agencies with access to NCIC and TCIC. “Automon will use the ORI to verify that users have the necessary permissions to access criminal history information,” he said.

Another challenge was hiring. Chief Luna looks for quality, honesty, integrity and flexibility. “My ideal officer is always on time AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 43

continued from page 43

and is willing to do what is necessary for the betterment of the department,” added Luna.

Ernie Gonzalez, president and CEO of EMC Strategy Group LLC, said, “During the spring of 2021, my firm was contacted by the city of Charlotte seeking assistance in the development of the city’s first police department. As part of the development process, my team utilized an official publication of the U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services, titled ‘Guidelines for Starting and Operating a New Police Department.’

“The COPS publication was a great resource throughout the entire process. The recommended process included forming an advisory committee, budget development, community input and engaging county, state and federal law enforcement partners. During the fall of 2022, the city council authorized the establishment of a department, adoption of a budget, policies and procedures, selection of a police chief, and submission of an application to operate a local law enforcement agency to the state of Texas.”

Gonzalez continued, “The city of Charlotte received approval from the state in December, creating the Charlotte Police Department. The Charlotte Police Department began field operations on May 2, 2022. The Charlotte Police Department Project has been a huge success for the residents of Charlotte and Atascosa County. My team is now working with the CPD to seek state and federal funding opportunities that will help the department better meet the needs of the community it serves.”

Charlotte Police Department held their first Operation Blue Santa Program Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021, by delivering gifts to the children in the community. Charlotte Police Department had the help of Los Reguladores in escorting Blue Santa around town. From left are Jody Huerta, Julio Huerta, Chief Rick Luna, Blue Santa, Johnny Vasquez, Luis Cisneros, Juan Benitez, Andrew Auila, Brandon Sinclair (Dollar General manager/Charlotte VFD firefighter) and Bill Miller. (Photo courtesy of Gabriella Ruiz/Pleasanton Express)

Mayor Rankin did not survive to see her dream come true — she died in January 2022 due to complications from COVID, but Charlotte Police Department is alive and functional today in no small part to her hard work and persistence.

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Parks & Environmental Services Port Clinton officials and The Ability Center of Sylvania, Ohio, partnered to put down a Mobi-Mat beach access mats for people with disabilities, walkers and elderly visitors or parents with strollers. (Photo provided by Port Clinton, Ohio)

Accessible mats, wheelchairs improve beach day inclusivity

By LAUREN CAGGIANO | The Municipal

The driving force behind efforts initiated by two municipalities is that everyone wins when public facilities and amenities are accessible to people of all abilities.

Installed from Memorial Day through Labor Day, Lincoln City’s Mobi-Mats are ADA compliant, portable, nonslip and roll-up, increasing beach access by creating temporary pathways. (Photo provided by Lincoln City, Ore.)

46 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

Jeanne Sprague is the parks and recreation director of Lincoln City, Ore. She is charged with working with the public, other departments, nonprofits and public entities to offer health and wellness programming to the community. According to Sprague, the staff approach each project through the lens of three pillars: equity, health and wellness, and conservation, which is why three beaches are now equipped with Mobi-Mats — portable, nonslip roll-up runners that create temporary pathways along the sand.

“Accessibility is a huge part of Lincoln City,” she said. “We are a tourist town, and we have residents. We rely heavily on our beach and open spaces to get people outdoors to recreate. And we want everyone to be able to recreate, no matter their ability.”

With that in mind, the public works department started the conversation because they had seen such a concept in another location and wanted to bring it to Oregon. At the time they already had an all-terrain beach chair and wanted to expand on that. The chair is equipped with fat tires that can get over rocks and sand on the beach.

According to Sprague, the Mobi-Mats are made of 100% recycled polyester and are saltwater resistant, ideal for the Oregon climate.

Perhaps most importantly, they help remove barriers to enjoying the beach.

Safety Service Director Tracy Colston said public involvement and feedback is important to making Port Clinton, Ohio, a rich place for residents of all abilities. (Photo provided by Port Clinton, Ohio)

Port Clinton’s beach wheelchair was funded through a grant from The Ability Center of Greater Toledo. (Photo provided by Port Clinton, Ohio)

“They make transportation over the sand easier,” she said. “You can do it with a wheelchair. You can do it with a children’s stroller. It could be someone that’s walking with a cane — it just makes accessibility to the beaches possible for everyone.”

Community feedback has been positive, she related. The city has been contacted by residents who’ve shared that an older relative recently enjoyed the beach after years of avoiding it.

The city has three Mobi-Mats and is working on equipping a third beach wheelchair. Sprague acknowledges that the initiative would not be possible without support from partner entities such as the Oregon Coast Visitors Association.

In Ohio, Port Clinton, has similar ambitions. The city on the Lake Erie shoreline has a specialized beach wheelchair and ADAaccessible ramp. Safety Service Director Tracy Colston said those projects are the result of community action.

“Five years ago, we had citizens who wanted to build an all-accessible playground,” he said. “They put about a $750,000 marketing campaign together and raised the money privately through donations. And now we have this state-of-the-art playground here that’s handicap accessible.”

The project was particularly meaningful to one family who had a relative in a wheelchair. The person was unable to play with their sister on the standard playground and was sitting on the sidelines, watching. That family brought awareness to the issue and got the process moving.

What followed was a concrete walkway placed along the beach.

Then, according to Colson, they took it a step further and installed

Residents of Lincoln City, Ore., can download an app through a link provided by the community center to reserve wheelchairs to access the city’s Taft Beach.

(Photo provided by Lincoln City, Ore.)

Mobi-Mats at various locations in the city. Like in Lincoln City, they worked with another organization— The Ability Center of Greater Toledo — to bring the idea of beach mats to fruition through grant funding.

“So now we have accessibility for people, especially grandparents who would have to sit in the parking lot to watch their grandchildren swim,” he said. “They can basically participate and be a part of it. We think it’s a tremendous thing and they’re getting quite a bit of use.”

The grant has also enabled them to offer a wheelchair available for rental that’s made for the environment. The chair features four large, inflated tires that glide with ease through sand, gravel, grass or concrete.

According to Colston, these projects represent just part of their commitment to making Port Clinton a better place for everyone to live, work and play.

“We also have now a handicap accessible walkway that we’re just finishing right now,” he said. “It’s a $2.3 million project along our riverwalk that should be done within the next few weeks. It’s a tremendous thing and connects all of our other walkways around the area of Waterworks Park.”

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 47

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Parks & Environmental Services

Invasive plant removal programs

Volunteers participate in an invasive plant cleanup at the historic Woolsey Homestead in Fayetteville, Ark. (Photo provided by Fayetteville, Ark.)

By STACI REAFSNYDER | The Municipal

Cities across the country are incorporating invasive vegetation removal programs in hopes of promoting healthy plant growth. The removed plants are usually nonnative and grow quickly, disrupting plant ecosystems and causing harm to the environment or human health.

In 2019, Fayetteville, Ark., created a bounty on invasive plants as a part of its Urban Forestry Program. Residents of Fayetteville receive a free tree or shrub to plant when they successfully remove a specific type of invasive plant from their property.

“The invasive program started as the Bradford Pear Bounty; now, it is simply the Invasive Bounty,” Fayetteville’s urban forester John Scott stated. “Our goal is to add all 18 plants to our invasive list. We started with Bradford Pear, then Bush Honeysuckle, Chinese privet, and this last spring Tree of Heaven was added to the list. I want to spotlight a different invasive plant each year.”

Scott noted the program has always been an educational tool, but he knows they could never be completely eradicated. The board has raised awareness of invasive plants in the area and chose native trees and shrubs to give away, as opposed to nonnative ones.

50 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

“The Urban Forestry Advisory Board came up with the idea, and I took it and came up with the details on how to make it work. We got the idea from the Burmese python bounty reward in Florida, and instead of money, we thought of replacement plants as the reward,” Scott said.

To promote invasive plant removal, there is also a group of advanced placement high school students who conduct experiments for science projects.

“They have been assigned a plot in an invasive part of the school’s grounds and are monitoring growth after removal. It has become part of the curriculum for the science class,” Scott said.

According to Scott, the first year saw around 20 participants. The program grew, and in 2021, there were approximately 45 participants

Volunteers remove invasive plants during a cleanup in Fayetteville, Ark. (Photo provided by Fayetteville, Ark.)

and 120 trees and shrubs given away. There are currently four plants on the invasive list.

Fayetteville has seen more removal activity of invasive plants in the last year. He now receives messages and phone calls from residents about removing invasives on their property, usually seeking advice.

“My main advice is that this is a long battle and not ‘one-time removal, and the process is done.’ This process takes many years and continuous monitoring.”

In Chattanooga, Tenn., the city participates in a Weed Wrangle every spring, removing invasive plants from the area. The term “Weed Wrangle” is a registered trademark, coined in Nashville, Tenn., in 2015.

“The Weed Wrangle is community-focused education outreach during which the public is introduced to effective trash-plant suppression. I call them ‘trash plants’ because they have no ecological value,” the city of Chattanooga’s parks and outreach coordinator Sofia Rudakevych said.

By eliminating harmful plants, the Weed Wrangle cultivates healthy ecosystems and encourages native plant growth. The invasive plants overrun native plants, suffocating and choking out vegetation that is native to the area.

Rudakevych said many Chattanooga residents are responsive to the Weed Wrangle. The event includes volunteers who are educated on the invasive plants in the area with the hopes they will take the knowledge and restore the ecosystems native to the land.

Having a plan ready for reintroducing natives to the ecosystem once invasives have been removed is imperative, Rudakevych noted.

“A crucial step in any invasive plant management plan is to replace the invasives that were removed,” Rudakevych said. “Planting native plant species and seeds is an imperative procedure when managing invasive plant species. Nature will fill the void with more invasives — trash plants — if nothing else is available.”

Besides the Weed Wrangle, which is held the first Saturday of March every year, Chattanooga also has Public Lands Day in September and other volunteer days throughout the year.

A group of volunteers participate in a Renaissance Park Weed Wrangle in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Photo provided by Sofia Rudakevych)

Sam Young volunteers in Renaissance Park with Chattanooga Park Stewards on March 5. (Photo provided by Sofia Rudakevych) “The opportunity to educate the public is priceless. Having our citizens mindful of what they can do in their own yards to continue vigilant removal and prevention of trash plants is vital to restoring plant biodiversity,” Rudakevych said.

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Building & Construction

A win-win solution for low-income homeowners, municipalities

By DANI MESSICK | The Municipal

“Chances are that there’s someone working with HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) from wherever you’re looking to have these, because HUD provides funding nationwide,” said Aurora Housing and Community Development Manager Alicia Montoya encouragingly about the Colorado city’s newest homeowner repair program.

A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development partnership helps the city of Aurora, Colo., repair the homes of elderly, low-income homeowners. Through one of the partnership’s programs, a Paint-A-Thon brings thousands of volunteers from across the state to paint the residences of hundreds of senior and disabled residents each year.

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Aurora has three HUD programs in place and the city created a new one in January, the Minor Home Repair Program. Through it, $160,000 was approved to be administered by Brothers Redevelopment Inc. to address repairs related to accessibility, electrical, plumbing, roofing and HVAC for low-income homeowners with disabilities or physical limitations.

“Home repair is just a need that we all have,” Montoya said. “It’s important to us because we want to be sure that we maintain homes safe for the people who live in them. It helps us create stability and we want people to be able to live long-term in their homes. We want to be able to create that stability in their home.”

The city’s four housing rehabilitation programs include an emergency repair program, also managed by Brothers; the minor home repair grant, which covers up to $15,000; a separate minor home repair loan, which offers a loan of up to $45,000;

and a Paint-A-Thon program geared at those 60 years or older with disabilities.

The programs are funded by a Community Development Block Grant Program from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD provides CDBG funding to all localities within the country as long as they can meet certain criteria, including presentation of a five-year plan. The city of Aurora then includes the block grant as a part of its budget and determines how much it can allocate to homeowners in need of repairs each year.

“With the population that we target for these grants and loans, the individuals are usually in a fixed income, many times or most of the time on social security income, and they’re older so they’re not able to make those repairs themselves. We want them to feel safe in their homes. Obviously, it also helps us maintain the neighborhoods and keep them housed,” Montoya said. “We just want to make sure the repairs that need to be done are done and that we’re supporting our older community who is on a fixed income.”

Montoya said the new grant program has its first four homes in progress.

Jason McCullough, director of home modification and repair for Brothers, explained that many of the folks involved in the home repair grant programs are in a crisis situation, needing ramping for handicap accessibility, electrical repairs or plumbing.

“Kind of all the things people need to live in their house, especially when you’re on a lower fixed income,” he said. “If you’re an older adult and you’ve lived in your house for many years, you don’t have the skillset or the financial ability to take care of that, so these kinds of programs help. Hopefully we get people to be a little bit more relieved and comfortable in their home.”

This is the second year the 50-year-old nonprofit organization is working on such paid and volunteer projects with the city of Aurora, but it’s the first time they’re the designated contractors. Brothers provides, manages and protects affordable and accessible housing and related issues throughout much of the state.

“The work we’re doing is predicated on aging-in-place,” said Chad Nibbelink, director of volunteer department for Brothers. “We’re providing a tangible service by painting the house, protecting this really big investment and improving the aesthetics in the community, but really what we’re doing is helping our older adults to age well in their homes.”

As the volunteer director, Nibbelink sees a different side of Brothers and the grants than many others involved may see — especially through the Paint-A-Thon program, which receives hundreds of requests from all throughout their service area every season.

“Our goal is that every ounce of work that we do in our volunteer department is ensuring dignity and that everything that we do is shared, because we care about each other and our community,” said Nibbelink. “We’re not coming in and saving the day on any of these projects, but we genuinely are walking shoulder-to-shoulder with our neighbors and that’s what we think is a healthy philosophy of volunteerism.”

The work is all exterior. Sometimes it’s painting or debris cleanup, and sometimes it’s landscaping or light repair work.

“One of the things that we’ve seen with the Paint-A-Thon is that by having it, our homeowners are connecting with their communities in new ways. When you have 15 people running around in the front of

The Paint-A-Thon is just one of four home repair programs that Aurora, Colo., created alongside Brothers Redevelopment to help low-income residents age well in their own homes.

Volunteers for the Paint-A-thon come from various organizations, including city works, religious groups and companies. your house, in your neighborhood, you notice,” said Nibbelink. “That awareness really brings neighbors to want to show up and talk to the homeowner or meet the homeowner for the first time. Often, the person has been kind of ashamed of their home and it hasn’t been a really bright spot in the neighborhood, and now here you’ve got this kind of meeting point, where it’s like starting over: The homeowner is able to engage the community in a new way.”

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Water & Energy

Water treatment plant

By KEVIN KILBANE | The Municipal

Raleigh Water in Raleigh, N.C., is throwing a curve at algae and bacteria that can cause taste and odor issues in residents’ drinking water.

In early 2019 it launched a pilot project testing use of shade balls in the west reservoir at its E.M. Johnson Water Treatment Plant. The hollow, dark-colored, 4-inch diameter plastic balls float on the surface of a body of water, blocking most sunlight from reaching the water. Sunlight can spur growth of algae and bacteria that give drinking water a bad taste.

The plant is one of two water treatment facilities Raleigh Water operates as it provides water and sanitary sewer services to about 610,000 people in the city and several nearby communities. The utility stores raw water from Falls Lake in the plant’s west and east reservoirs before treating it for use as drinking water.

Raleigh Water needed about 5 million shade balls to cover the west reservoir surface.

“In short, our main water source has had various taste and odor issues over the years due to high algal counts, MIB, geosmin, etc., although in general these issues have been pretty rare, thankfully,” Ed Buchan, Raleigh Water’s senior communications analyst, said in an email. “Thus, we decided to try the shade balls out in one of our terminal reservoirs to see how they worked.”

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MIB, which is 2-Methylisoborneol, and geosmin are natural substances that result from the presence of algae and bacteria in water.

Staff members learned about shade balls at an American Water Works Association Annual Conference and Exposition, Buchan said.

The utility has limited data on the shade balls’ effectiveness because weather conditions haven’t created algae problems the last few years. However, for the first few weeks the shade balls covered the west reservoir, they reduced MIB and geosmin levels significantly — while the east reservoir showed large increases in both readings, water test data provided by Buchan showed.

“Also, our (water plant) manager did say the shade balls have been very effective in dissuading geese and other waterfowl from taking up residence around the reservoir and loitering in the water,” Buchan said. It had been common to have 30 to 50 geese on the west reservoir, but shade balls have nearly eliminated the problem.

Shade balls also can be useful in other public utility settings, according to Bryan Stuck, general manager at Environmental Control Company LLC in Wilmington, N.C. The firm makes shade balls

hits a home run with shade balls ABOVE: Plastic shade balls cover the surface of the west reservoir at Raleigh Water’s E.M. Johnson Water Treatment Plant in Raleigh, N.C. Raleigh Water tried shade balls to prevent sunlight from sparking the algae and bacteria growth that can cause taste and odor problems in drinking water. Officials also found the shade balls keep geese out of the reservoir. (Photo provided by Raleigh Water)

for customers in the United States and Canada, including the ones used by Raleigh Water.

For example, shade balls can be used on wastewater lagoons to keep waterfowl and animals out of water that may contain toxins that could kill them. Blocking sunlight from water, keeping water temperature cooler and preventing algae and bacteria growth also can minimize accumulations of organic matter that can disrupt the treatment process, ECC says on its website, https://eccllc.us.

Use of shade balls also can reduce the amount of chemicals needed to disinfect or treat drinking water or wastewater. In addition, they can limit evaporation losses on water bodies and block sunlight from sparking the formation of the carcinogen bromate in disinfected water.

ECC’s Stuck said use of shade balls has become fairly common among municipal utilities and some industries, such as foundries and plating businesses.

It typically takes 10 shade balls per square foot of water surface being covered, Stuck said. Total cost for shade balls varies based on location and other factors.

Use of plastic shade balls such as these helps Raleigh Water and water and wastewater utilities in other communities reduce algae and bacteria growth, wildlife deaths and the amount of chemicals needed to treat or disinfect water or wastewater. (Photo provided

by Environmental Control Company)

“We usually guarantee them for 10 years,” he said of the balls’ longevity. “But we’ve had customers that have had them longer than that.”

When the balls appear ready for replacement, they can be recycled as with any other high-density polyethylene plastic. Stuck’s company also will help with redeploying shade balls to a new location.

Raleigh Water has had only one slight issue with its shade balls.

“I can also say that while they seem to be effective, high winds can cause them to bunch together and kind of pile up on themselves,” Buchan said.

Based on the shade balls’ success, Raleigh Water officials are exploring the possibility of covering the surface of the E.M. Johnson’s east reservoir. Buchan said one option could be a floating solar-energy array, which would help prevent taste and odor problems and also generate electricity to power the water treatment plant.

Learn more To see a video report on Raleigh Water’s use of shade balls, go to https://archive.org/details/ crnc-Shade_Balls_Pilot_Project.

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 55

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AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 57

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Streets, Highways & Bridges Following high water levels, Boyne City, Mich.’s, North Lake Street Bridge required repairs, and the city had the goal of completing them before the National Morel Mushroom Festival. (Photo provided by Boyne City, Mich.)

The festival goes on: Boyne City completes bridge project in time to welcome morel fans

By BETH ANNE BRINK-COX | The Municipal

Boyne City, like so many other northern Michigan towns, got its start in the lumbering business. At the height of Boyne City’s lumbering era, the population had grown to nearly 6,000 permanent residents.

There was actually a shortage of homes at the turn of the century; the call went out from city fathers, and the result was development and growth, which propelled the village of Boyne into Boyne City. In 2012, downtown Boyne City achieved its listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

It’s a beautiful small town, a mix of historic homes on quiet streets, a library, and smaller, newer homes as well. There’s a bustling Main Street, complete with the old-fashioned hardware store. There are restaurants and an ice cream shop — Kilwin’s — whose smells of caramel corn and fudge draws tourists and residents straight through the door.

Boyne City has a back-in-time feel to it that makes everyone feel like they know everyone, even if they’re a summer tourist.

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And there are parks, 10 altogether, more parks than might be expected in a town this size (population 3,721 in 2020).

They include Old City Park, Veterans Memorial Park, Riverside Park, Sunset Park, Cannery Park, Peninsula Beach Park, just to name a few.

Veterans Park, right on the edge of Lake Charlevoix, hosts the farmers’ market all summer long.

In addition to the National Morel Festival, there are countless other celebrations and gatherings in the parks around town. (Photo provided by Boyne City, Mich.)

Also along the water’s edge is a bridge, the North Lake Street Bridge, not to be confused with the 1,200-foot SkyBridge opening this fall at Boyne Mountain Ski Resort, the world’s longest timber-towered suspension bridge.

The North Lake Street Bridge is 50 years old, easily crossed on foot and has just undergone some significant repair. High water levels had caused flooding and damage along the Lake Charlevoix shoreline area; the combination of high water and wave action resulted in a partial closure of Veterans Memorial Park, restricting vehicle and pedestrian access and closure of the road in 2020.

City Manager Mark Cain said the repair work began April 12. The hope was to have it completed within a month, just in time for the annual National Morel Mushroom Festival, held May 12-15, 2022. It’s a big event that’s been going on for decades. If legend is to be believed, it was originally organized during a bar fight to legitimize bragging rights for the area’s top morel pickers, and Boyne City looks forward to it every year. It’s a family festival with good food — morels abounding — and music and all kinds of activities. But it’s more than just a party. The proceeds from the festival go toward college scholarships for local area students. In 2021, $3,000 was awarded to various students.

When asked if the deadline had been met, Cain smiled and said, “We just made it by the skin of our teeth.

The finishing touches went up just a couple of days before — handrails along the edges and so on. So everything went as planned, and we were very happy about that and happy with our crew, which was Manthei Construction from Charlevoix. They did a great job.”

Cain continued, “We were also lucky and happy that the street closure during the repair didn’t hurt the downtown businesses. It was really confined only to the westerly part and didn’t extend much into the traffic. There are three lanes across, and we only had to close off the westerly/southbound lane, for the workers and construction equipment. There really wasn’t a real shutdown and pedestrian traffic wasn’t much affected.”

There are two large culverts underneath the bridge, Cain said, and “typically, there’s enough clear space for kayaks and canoes to go through. You can see them going under the bridge, just gliding through. But the waters of Lake Charlevoix had gone so high that the culverts were almost completely underwater.

And the westerly wall of the bridge had been just hammered by the lake. It needed to be rebuilt.”

Cain continued, “We had engineers and bridge specialists, and they designed things to withstand and absorb the wave action. The culverts remain — reused in the new design that rebuilt the shoreline. They calculated everything — the sizes of large stones, the fabric wrap and the small stones that filled in between. It shouldn’t deteriorate in the future. The bridge is at the east end of Lake Charlevoix, and there are large fetches of wind from west to east that pick up force and wave action. The bridge took the brunt of that,

Lake Charlevoix is just one draw to Boyne City and offers plenty of recreational opportunities such as canoeing and kayaking. The lake’s higher water levels have resulted in damaged along its shores.

(Photo provided by Boyne City, Mich.)

and it weakened and eroded, degrading the outside walls, and the stone and concrete were deemed no longer safe. So we had abutments replaced on the west side, to protect against rising water levels. And new rails and sidewalks were part of the plan, too.”

But Cain made it clear that it was simply water damage. “Not ice damage. Most winters, there is enough movement of the river current to prevent that kind of damage, that kind of ice formation. Other areas and shorelines are more impacted by moving ice, especially in early spring. But here, I’ve never noticed anything like that from the mouth of the river.”

Cain added, “There were other projects the city did to mitigate the impact. In Cannery Park, there was erosion along the waterline.

Peninsula Beach Park was affected, too, so we’ve been sitting tight to see what will be needed most and if there will be any funds to help with the protection and prevention.

There weren’t any such funds for the bridge project. The city budget paid through the general fund resources, which were shifted to meet this most immediate need. By the time we need to do something more, the funds will be available.”

With 38 years of city management, 20 of them in Boyne City, Cain knows his stuff.

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continued from page 59

“A few years ago, we did a streetscape improvement,” he said, noting streetscapes are defined as an artistic representation of a street, with the visual elements including the road, adjoining buildings, street furniture, trees and open spaces that form the street’s character. This is why sidewalk tables and chairs are commonly seen outside of restaurants and ice cream parlors, and indeed, Boyne City has those in several locations.

Knowing his stuff, however, means looking ahead for any potential problems. While future weather can’t always be predicted, “the Army Corps of Engineers, teamed with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has determined that the 30-year cycle patterns they’ve studied — releasing new information every 10 years — look as if they’ll become shorter, like maybe a five- to six-year fluctuation, years where the waters will be higher than average or lower than average.

Is this part of global warming? Seems possible to me, but I wouldn’t be the one to say so definitively,” said Cain. Keeping that in mind, though, means he’s going to be keeping a close watch not only on those weather charts but also the condition of his city, the water lines and structures there.

Boyne City has a lively summer tradition called Stroll the Streets on Friday evenings. The work just completed means residents and tourists will walk about freely, enjoying the music, lingering over dinner or grabbing an ice cream cone while watching the boats on the lake — whatever says summer evening to them.

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When North Lake Street Bridge was repaired, a new sidewalk and rail was installed, improving access to nearby Veterans Memorial Park and other destinations in Boyne City for pedestrians. (Photo provided by Boyne City, Mich.)

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Municipal Management

Power play:

Miltipas energy upgrades will save the city millions

By JULIE YOUNG | The Municipal

Miltipas, Calif., is serious about sustainability. And thanks to the installation of new microgrids as well as state-of-the-art, community-wide water and energy conservation initiatives, this Silicon Valley city is working smarter, not harder.

“We are now entering the next phase of our journey, with our developments ready to be operationalized,” said Mayor Rich Tran in an Earth Day statement.

Strategic upgrades Located 45 miles south of San Francisco, Miltipas is home to just over 80,000 residents. In 2013, city leaders created a Climate Action Plan to make Miltipas a more sustainable community by reducing greenhouse gas emissions; as the global climate crisis continues, the city is 62 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

constantly updating and revising its plan to keep the city on the path to carbon neutrality by 2045. Recent energy and water conservation initiatives are part of the overarching Climate Action Plan that is geared to make a difference in a variety of sectors while promoting the health and well-being of everyone who lives and works there.

According to Tony Ndah, PE, public works director, the new energy and water conservation initiatives were not developed in a vacuum, nor were they adopted

ABOVE: An overheard shot of the microgrids on top of the Milpitas Community Center and the Barbara Lee Senior Center that are part of the energy and water conservations efforts the city has installed over the past year. (Photo provided by Milpitas, Calif.)

overnight. Approximately five years ago, the city identified several upgrades they wanted to make throughout the city and began to look for a partner who would help them achieve their sustainability goals. After drafting the scope of work that needed to be done and putting policies in place that would allow them to move forward, Miltipas leaders invited firms to submit proposals. They narrowed six finalists down to three and ultimately selected ENGIE North America Inc. to plan, design

LEFT: Microgrids are only part of the 10 water and energy conservation initiatives that the city of Milpitas, Calif., put in place to save the community money and to become more proactive about maintenance issues.

(Photo provided by Milpitas, Calif.)

and deploy each component of the infrastructure modernization program. Ndah said ENGIE is an energy leader that is accelerating the continent’s transition toward a carbon neutral economy.

“They came into the city and audited our energy and water usage in order to suggest improvements,” Ndah said. “It was a real partnership. We had a lot of ideas that we wanted to bring to the table, and they brought in ideas that we hadn’t thought about. However, they never forced their ideas on us, but rather let us decide if we thought it was right for our city.”

The 10 initiatives approved by the city include advanced water metering infrastructure with leak detection, automation and modernization that will minimize waste; efficient lighting infrastructure with over 2,000 LED streetlight retrofits, nearly 4,500 streetlight control upgrades with outage detection, city-wide lighting upgrades in municipal parks, sports fields, buildings and community facilities; and resilient community centers that can keep the lights on and the doors open in the event of a power outage. The upgrades are expected to reduce utility consumption by more than 4.2 million kilowatt hours and save $1.5 million annually with a lifetime net savings of more than $30 million.

The project cost nearly $34 million and was funded through bonds, grants and money that was previously set aside.

“ENGIE was great about seeking grants to help us offset the costs,” Ndah said. “It’s a lot of work, but knowing what is available is half the battle.”

Microgrids yield macro results One of the most innovative aspects of the project was the installation of sustainable microgrids at the Miltipas Community Center and the Barbara Lee Senior Center.

The microgrids function as a local, self-sufficient energy system that will produce and store power. The microgrids consist of 200 kW solar photovoltaic panels installed on rooftops as well as parking canopies, battery energy storage, and a natural gas backup generator. There are also electric vehicle charging stations outside of the senior center.

The microgrids will enable the buildings to be used as a resource or charging center during Public Safety Power Shutoff events or other power outages, save money by reducing each facility’s reliance on energy during peak demand, reduce utility consumption and offer accessible and convenient EV stations for residents and city employees.

“Basically, we have created an energy island,” Ndah said.

The initiatives implemented by Miltipas are an example of what can be accomplished when a city is willing to be on the forefront of smart city infrastructure. In recognition of its innovative approach, it has been honored with a Smart 50 award. The award is a partnership between Smart Cities Connect and the Smart Cities Connect Foundation that recognizes the most innovative and influential initiatives happening around the world.

The organization hailed Miltipas as a “template for other U.S. cities” that may be looking to create a more sustainable and fiscally responsible future.

For Ndah, the awards and recognition are great, but what is most exciting is seeing the project in action.

“That’s the fun part — the maintenance aspect of it,” he said. “Until now we have been using manpower to try and figure out what’s going on when there is a problem, and now when the intel comes in, we’ll know what needs to be addressed and can handle it much more efficiently. I think we will be flooded with information at first, but it will taper off fairly quickly.

“Ultimately, we wanted to create a smarter city that will benefit our residents for years to come and I think we’ve done that.”

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Fleet Services & Maintenance

Kalamazoo, Mich., pilots biodiesel as an alternative fuel Kalamazoo, Mich., adopted a community sustainability plan in June, which will guide it toward reducing emissions.

(Atomazul/Shutterstock.com)

By CHERYL HARPER and SARAH WRIGHT | The Municipal

The city of Kalamazoo, Mich., initiated a pilot program from June 2021 through June 2022 to determine whether biodiesel use within its fleet of city-owned vehicles would fall into alignment with its goal of reducing carbon emissions.

“The city of Kalamazoo has been working for a number of years — and pretty heavily in the last year — on a community sustainability plan,” Kalamazoo Public Services Director James Baker, PE, shared. “The city commission just within the last month (in June) adopted that plan.”

With its adoption, city departments are picking up the baton to reduce their carbon footprints, and the city’s fleet is no different.

“Most folks in the industry understand that electrification — electric vehicles — are going to get you away from the internal combustion engine, and there’s a lot of solution there,” Baker said. “The challenge there, public services — our department — in our vocational roles here at the city of Kalamazoo is that (we’re using) big equipment, front-end loaders, backhoes, vocational-use equipment. It’s not just the sedans that folks drive around. The real-world implementation of us going to an all-electric fleet isn’t here right now. I’m not going to say it’s not in the future, but right here, right now, I need the dump truck, I need a front-end loader, I need an excavator. To my knowledge, we’re just not there yet with technology.”

64 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

With this in mind, biodiesel seemed like a feasible alternative for the present until technology catches up.

“We have a lot of great staff here within our fleet division — folks who have a lot of experience and technical depth. It was kind of a group effort where a bunch of folks who have some experience with diesel kind of came out and said, ‘Hey, biodiesel has got a lot of great benefits to it, and there are entire states right now that are doing a really great job with (biodiesel) … where (biodiesel) is widely implemented,’” Baker said. “So we said, ‘OK, we’ll look into that.’”

What followed was a painstakingly planned pilot program, designed to give biodiesel its best chance at success while evaluating its effectiveness and performance within the city of Kalamazoo’s fleet.

A solid start “You hear the horror stories. Biodiesel did this. Biodiesel did that,” Baker said. “So, you know a lot of mechanics, fleet owners or fleet operators are really hesitant to go out and try new things if there’s been bad publicity.”

Kalamazoo switched about 20 vehicles to biodiesel and did sideby-side comparisons to vehicles of the same make and model that were still running diesel. Empirically, the city found its B11 blend to be superior, but also got the lab data to further prove it.

Pictured is one of the city’s dump trucks. (Photo provided by the city of Kalamazoo, Mich.)

Baker noted some early adapters around 2005 experienced issues with biodiesel, often tied to quality control issues. Though sometimes, negative experience may actually be tied into the changes occurring in the diesel industry at the same time as biodiesel’s emergence, such as the switch to ultra low sulfur diesel. Unfortunately, such unsatisfactory experiences have turned some off from biodiesel. When starting the pilot, Kalamazoo wanted to avoid such negative reactions.

The city of Portage, Mich., partnered with Kalamazoo to make the “So we knew there were going to be challenges with overall con- specific blend of biodiesel more economical for fuel providers. fidence in it,” Baker said. “One thing we wanted to make sure we’re (Photo by KzooCowboy/flickr.com; https://creativecommons.org/ doing from the pilot, as well as to implementation, is that the engine licenses/by/2.0/) manufacturer would allow (biodiesel). If a particular engine or model number does not have certification (for biodiesel) from the manufacturer … we’re not going to do it. This is also a public safety fleet, so that are higher than B5 up to B20. Kalamazoo then went a step further we have fire apparatuses and things like that, so when we’ve got lives by asking that the final product be in accordance with the Engine depending on reliability, we’re doing only what the engine manufac- Manufacturers Association’s definition of what a premium diesel fuel turers say we can do.” should be.

“It’s got to have a high cetane level in it. It’s got to have enhanced Since a lot of heavy equipment manufacturers are also heavily involved in the agriculture industry, which has embraced biodiesel, cold flow properties. It’s got to have enhanced lubricity, detergency there is more crossover with engine application and support of bio- and stability properties as well,” Baker explained. “We look at this diesel by manufacturers. like a three-legged stool of really just beefing up the specifications to Besides strategically picking what equipment would move to bio- really ensure we are getting the best possible product. We were really diesel and having the engine constraint in place, Kalamazoo put intentional from specification stand point that we weren’t going to together a bid package tailored to start the pilot program on the have any fuel show up that was going to be questioned.” right foot.

This was vital since the confidence in biodiesel wasn’t there.

“When we put the specifications together, we required that the Baker shared amongst the mechanics, there were serious questions manufacturer of the biodiesel itself — the folks who are making the and concerns.

B100 — to actually then blend it down so we could use it in our equipment,” Baker said. “We required that facility, wherever it is, would Local vendor steps up have to be BQ-9000 certified. That’s a unique certification that is like “We had to bid out the specifications for the fuel blend,” Baker said, an ISO certification that folks have to go through that really ensures noting this went out to fuel providers. “There was a lot of pushback that it’s of the upmost quality and specificity.” during our bid process. ‘Where the heck are we going to get this?

The next step was that the finished blended product comply with We tried biodiesel before; it didn’t work.’ But we had local vendors ASTM International D7467, a specification for biodiesel fuel blends that were willing to do it. Getting this program going was only AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 65

continued from page 65

Contrary to the myths, biodiesel is not produced from french fries or fried chicken. There is quality control, and Kalamazoo had lab tests done to back biodiesel's performance.

Shutterstock.com

successful because we had a local — Kalamazoo Oil — provider. They were willing to step up to the plate and say, ‘Hey, you know what?

We’ll try it. We’ll support you. We’ll go get this fuel for you.’”

The fuel that Kalamazoo receives to Baker’s understanding is not available in Michigan. In fact, Kalamazoo Oil travels to Illinois to bring back a tanker load of it.

“We can’t say enough positive about Kalamazoo Oil,” Baker said.

To help strengthen the bid, Kalamazoo did its own research to find where the fuel it had specified was located. While Baker described it as a unicorn, it existed. Secondly, the city of Kalamazoo partnered with the city of Portage, Mich. It was important that a significant volume of fuel be utilized to make the bid more economical and enticing to fuel providers.

“This is a big step for Kalamazoo. We are proud of that. We want to make sure that agencies in our area are able to come to the table if they want to participate in (biodiesel),” Baker said. “The city of Portage has been with us the entire way. That’s been a great partnership.”

emergency standby and support,” Baker said, explaining equipment like emergency bypass pumps and generators might only be used once a year if even that.

“When we got into winter, we switched to a B11 product and that is when we realized we had some operation limitations,” Baker said. “Had we filled up a generator in summer with B20 and then wanted it to work in winter, we couldn’t just go out and give it B11.”

Originally, Kalamazoo had planned to run up to B20 in the summer and B11 through the winter. Baker stated this would likely work in a conventional fleet; however, for Kalamazoo, where equipment might not be used every day, the decision was made to use B11 throughout the entire year.

As for infrastructure, Kalamazoo took an extra unleaded pump and had it professionally cleaned and made it compliant to house biodiesel. Next year, the city will relocate a diesel tank to make way for a wastewater project, and when that occurs, it will be built in its new location for biodiesel.

As of May, the city of Kalamazoo has used 16,662 gallons of biodiesel.

Pilot in action For the pilot, Kalamazoo took about 20 vehicles that had both newer and older engines — all approved by the engine manufacturer — and converted them to biodiesel. These vehicles ran the gamut of dump trucks, loaders and pickups. The selected vehicles also offered the opportunity for a side-by-side comparison between diesel and biodiesel as the city had others of the same model that would stay on diesel.

“We were looking for if there was any noticeable movement in Out of the pilot economy — miles per gallon,” Baker said. “Some equipment we “We’re out of the pilot. We know it works. We’re confident in everydon’t really have the ability to do miles per gallon, so we’re kind thing. Our phase one is to go full fleet — for equipment that says of taking a more empirical approach — it got so many hours, it’s we can — B11,” Baker said. “We’re confident it will work. We’ve even been in service and how many gallons are going through it. It’s not done some cold flow testing. We did have outside labs (do testexact … but we’re really looking for outliers from an economy stand- ing) … and do a side by side with diesel.

Baker will share the lab results with anyone interested in seeing point if we’re running kind of side-by-side in a specific vehicle — this them. “Our prospective when we give you a side by side of the B11 one vehicle tanking on this fuel as compared to regular diesel.”

Kalamazoo also looked for any issues within the emission system, product and a conventional diesel is, we believe — and you can see whether in the particulate filter, plugging, check engine light, etc. it in the lab data — is that B11 fuel is superior in every single perBeing in Michigan, cold weather performance was a factor, too. formance category. For us, it’s kind of the smoking gun of success.”

“As we got into winter, we started to realize some of our constraints Kalamazoo’s fleet has seen the empirical success, but the data that we weren’t initially aware of. A lot of that has to do with the brings it home. “You can see values like cetane. You can see the low frequency of operation of a lot of equipment we have from 66 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

distillation curve; you can see all those numbers come through. You can see lubricity numbers. You can see stabilization.”

Overall, biodiesel has been well received, with mechanics also embracing it, especially when they saw the data.

“I would say try it. We’ve had a lot of success with the program,” Baker advised other cities. “A lot of community success can be achieved from this, namely reduction in carbon emissions and other emission factors as well.”

The greatest advice he gave was to take specifications very seriously. Specifications played a key role in Kalamazoo’s success, as was its following of engine manufacturers’ guidance. Also, ignore the myths.

“This stuff is not made from french fries. The trucks don’t smell like french fries,” Baker said, joking, “There’s not fried chicken in the fuel tanks of the trucks.”

As more cities move to cut emissions, biodiesel offers an opportunity.

“It’s really something Kalamazoo as a city has a lot of passion for. I think our community sustainability plan is something we are looking to take very seriously, and our ability to make our entire fleet electric isn’t just going to happen overnight,” Baker said. “This is going to be a midterm, interim stop of addressing vehicle emissions — something we can do right now, today (and) a relatively low-hanging fruit that we can go after some of our community climate goals.”

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AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 67

M

Conference Calendar 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.

SEPTEMBER

AU G U S T July 31-Aug. 3 ITE 2022 Annual Meeting Sheraton, New Orleans, La. https://www.iteannualmeeting. org/ Aug. 2-5 Arkansas Municipal Police Association 85th Annual Convention Double Tree by Hilton, Hot Springs, Ark. https://ampapolice.com/ Aug. 4-7 152nd Congress of Correction Conference New Orleans, La. https://www.aca.org/ACA_ Member/ACA/ACA_Conference/ Event Aug. 6-10 70th Annual Summer Training Conference & Expo PGA National Resort & Spa, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. https://fpca.com/summerconference Aug. 8-10 Florida Rural Water Association Annual Conference Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, Daytona Beach, Fla. https://www.frwa.net/ Annual%20Conference Aug. 10-13 South Atlantic Fire Rescue Conference & NCSFA Annual Meeting Raleigh, N.C. http://www. southatlanticfirerescueexpo. com/ Aug. 11-13 Florida League of Cities 2022 Annual Conference Diplomat Beach Resort, Hollywood, Fla. https://www. floridaleagueofcities.com/

Aug. 9-12 Building Officials Association of Texas Annual Conference Sheraton Austin Georgetown Hotel & Conference Center, Georgetown, Texas https://boatx.org/boatconferences/ August 13-16 82nd TML Annual Conference & Expo Gatlinburg Convention Center, Gatlinburg, Tenn. https://www.tml1.org/ Aug. 16-19 Indiana Water Environment Association Annual Conference Grand Wayne Convention Center, Fort Wayne, Ind. https://indianawea.org/ Aug. 18-19 Midwest Security & Police Conference/Expo Tinley Park Conventin Center, Tinley Park, Ill. http://mspce.com/ Aug. 20-24 NIGP Forum 2022 (also Virtual Aug. 22-24) Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, Mass. https://www.nigp.org/events/ annual-forum-and-productsexposition Aug. 24-26 Fire-Rescue International Association of Fire Chiefs Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas https://www.eventscribe. net/2022/FRI Aug. 28-31 PWX 2022 Annual Conference: Ready & Resilient Charlotte Convention Center, Charlotte, N.C. https://pwx.apwa.net/pwx/ event_

68 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

Aug. 28-31 ARFFWG Annual Symposium Omni Championsgate Hotel, Championsgate, Fla. https://arffwg.org/ conferences/2022 Aug. 29- Sept. 1 Florida Recreation & Parks Association Annual Conference Caribe Royale, Orlando, Fla. https://www.frpa.org/ conference/confgen Aug. 30 – Sept. 1 KWEA & KsAWWA 13th Annual Water & Wastewater Joint Conference Hotel Topeka & Stormont Vail Events Center, Topeka, Kan. https://www.kwea.net/jointconference.html Aug. 30-Sept. 2 League of Arizona Cities & Towns Annual Conference The Renaissance, Glendale, Ariz. http://azleague.org/103/ Annual-Conference

SEPTEMBER Sept. 7-9 League of California Cities Annual Conference & Expo Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, Calif. https://www.calcities.org/ Sept. 18-21 ICMA Annual Conference Columbus/Franklin County, Ohio https://azmanagement.org/ events/

Sept. 21 NYC Watershed Science & Technical Conference Bear Mountain Inn & Conference Center, Tomkins Cove, N.Y. https://www.nywea.org/ Sept. 26-28 FIERO Station Design Symposium Hyatt Regency Downtown, Greenville, S.C. https://www.fieroonline.org/ symposia-and-workshops Sept. 25-28 American Road & Transportation Builders Association National Convention Conrad Nashville, Nashville, Tenn. https://connect.artba.org/ events/2022-artba-nationalconvention Sept. 26-28 Water Pro Conference National Harbor, Md. https://mrws.org/conferences/ Sept. 28-30 OACP/OSSA Fall Leadership Conference Dayspring Fellowship Church, Keizer, Ore. https://oracp.memberclicks. net/index.php?option=com_ content&view Sept. 28-30 WASWD Fall Conference & Trade Show Kennewick Convention Center, Kennewick, Wis. https://www.waswd.org/ general/page/workshopsconferences-and-trade-shows Sept. 29-Oct. 1 FLAGFA Fall 2022 Tradewinds Island Grand, Treasure Island, Fla. https://www.flagfa.org

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News & Notes Elgin Sweeper releases new Broom Badger ELGIN, ILL. — The enhanced, Elgin-manufactured Broom Badger has made its debut. The compact, highly maneuverable street sweeper is the latest in the innovative lineup from Elgin Sweeper, a leading global manufacturer of street sweepers. Once again, Elgin engineers incorporated updates based on extensive customer feedback.

“The Broom Badger is ideal for municipalities and contractors who need reliable, robust cleaning from a compact street sweeper,” said Tim Letts, product manager, Elgin Sweeper. “At Elgin Sweeper, we pride ourselves on going above and beyond industry standards. The upgraded Broom Badger not only provides efficient and reliable cleaning, but also is backed by our established, extensive network of dealers for the life of the sweeper.”

A number of new features boost the Broom Badger’s productivity. The sweep path of the new Broom Badger has been increased to 120 inches, including dual, 42-inch side brooms. Productivity is also greater due to the redesigned hydraulics system.

Beyond increased productivity, operator comfort is paramount.

Upgraded operator controls are easy for new operators to learn and understand. Curved edges in the sweeper’s elevator reduce noise. Plus, no CDL is required, which helps recruitment and operator schedules.

For easy servicing and upkeep, the elevator cover opens wider for clean out. Like all Elgin products, the Broom Badger is available with the LIFELINER hopper system, which greatly improves the life, durability and functionality of the hopper. Advanced hydraulics also enable easier servicing while reducing waste.

Elgin’s strong dealer network enables easier access to servicing and parts, which increases reliability and uptime. With more than 100 years in the sweeper industry, Elgin experts are able to customize sweepers to fit specific needs. Operator training then ensures maximum productivity on the job, while the extensive dealer network is available to answer questions and provide service for the life of the sweeper.

“The Broom Badger offers the quality Elgin is known for,” said Letts. “Our engineers’ attention to detail shows in the final product, which is easy to operate, maneuverable and productive.”

For more information about the Broom Badger, visit https:// www.elginsweeper.com/products/mechanical/broom-badger.

AARP invests $3.4 Million through 260 community improvement projects WASHINGTON, D.C. — AARP announced it is investing $3.4 million through 260 Community Challenge grants for quick-action projects that will help communities become more livable in the long-term.

These grants will improve public places; transportation; housing; diversity, equity and inclusion; digital access; and civic engagement, with an emphasis on the needs of adults age 50 and over. Many of this year’s projects will help communities leverage funding under the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “Helping adults thrive as they age has never been more important, and AARP is dedicated to working with communities to improve residents’ quality of life through tangible changes,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president and chief 70 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

advocacy and engagement officer. “This year, we are proud to support the largest number of projects in the Community Challenge’s six-year history to help communities leverage opportunities with historic federal investments.”

AARP Community Challenge grant projects will be funded in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. True to the program’s quick-action nature, projects must be completed by November 30, 2022.

This year, AARP is bolstering its investment of affordable and adaptable housing solutions in response to the national housing crisis. With additional funding support from Toyota Motor North America, the program is also increasing its investment in projects that improve mobility, innovation and transportation options.

Examples of this year’s granted projects include: • Moro, Ore.: Creating free, pre-approved plans that encourage the development of accessory dwelling units for older adults and their families; • Philadelphia, Pa.: Helping to reconnect a neighborhood divided and displaced by expressway construction in the 1960s through engaging older residents and creating a temporary multigenerational public space for older adults and people of all ages; • C helmsford, Mass.: Establishing informational kiosks and mini libraries to educate older residents about Chelmsford’s Indigenous Peoples throughout the town near historical markers, public parks and trailheads on Indigenous lands; • Silver City, N.M.: Converting a dead-end road into an engaging, interactive, pedestrian space for residents — especially adults age 50 and over — to gather that will connect the park to downtown and prevent frequent flooding; and • St. Louis, Mo.: Transforming a desolate transit stop into an interactive and engaging center with accessible seating, shade and art for older adults and their families.

The Community Challenge grant program is part of AARP’s nationwide Livable Communities initiative, which supports the efforts of cities, towns, neighborhoods and rural areas to become great places to live for people of all ages, especially those 50 and over. Including this year’s projects, AARP has awarded $12.7 million through more than 1,060 grants since 2017 to nonprofit organizations and government entities across the country, many of which have led to long-term change.

View the full list of grantees and their project descriptions at aarp.org/communitychallenge and learn more about AARP’s livable communities work at aarp.org/livable.

Access to the Outdoors is an Asset In Times of Stress ASHBURN, VA. — Six in seven U.S. adults agree it is helpful that they and their families have access to the outdoors during stressful times, according to a newly released National Recreation and Park Association Park Pulse poll.

“It’s amazing how much the outdoors can help us navigate stress,” said Kevin Roth, NRPA vice president of research, evaluation and technology. “As little as 20 minutes a day spent outside can help combat mental health issues, like depression, anxiety

and stress. Making sure that all people have access to parks, trails and natural areas is more important than ever before.”

Whether sitting on a park bench lunch or hiking through a forest, take an opportunity to slow down and reap the benefits of being outdoors.

Key Findings from July’s Park Pulse: • 86% of U.S. adults think it is helpful that they and their families have access to the outdoors and nature during stressful times, including more than three in five who find this very or extremely helpful.

• The vast majority of Gen Zers (79%), millennials (85%), Gen Xers (87%) and baby boomers (89%) find it helpful to have access to the outdoors during stressful times.

Both parents (88%) and non-parents (85%) feel that having access to the outdoors is a helpful way to deal with stress, including more than three in five (65% and 61%, respectively) who find it very or extremely helpful.

News releases regarding personnel changes, other non-productrelated 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.

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 71

72 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 73

TOP 10 Best places for RV camping Recently asked about the effects of the pandemic on recreational vehicle habits, Chris Emery, the editor of Ordealist.com, replied: “The biggest change with the pandemic is that more people still in the workforce are traveling in RVs. That’s because the shift to remote work, which was hyper-accelerated by the pandemic, has created many opportunities for people to work from anywhere. For many people working in information jobs, all they need is a good Wi-Fi connection and a laptop to do their jobs. So, you’re seeing many more people traveling in RVs as a lifestyle — something that used to be reserved for retirees only.”

enthusiasts for the 2022 season. To pinpoint the bucket list destinations for those who want the best mix of scenery and practical amenities, the company partnered with CampgroundViews and analyzed data about the number of campsites; cost; key features such as water, sewer and electricity hookup; information about pools, cable TV, “pull-thrus” for convenience when parking, and pet policies. To further evaluate RVing destinations they considered local air quality, internet speeds, grocery prices and the number of nearby retail outlets.

The destinations with the best overall score for RV StorageCafe, a nationwide storage space mar- comfort and friendliness are: ketplace, dove deep into the best that America has to offer and identified the best places for RV

1. Branson, Mo. 2. Hot Springs, Ark. 3. Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

4. Zephyrhills, Fla. 5. Grants Pass, Ore. 6. Rockport, Texas 7. Gulf Shores, Ala. 8. South Fork, Colo.

9. Houston, Texas 10. Fort Myers, Fla. Read the full report with commentary at: https://www.storagecafe.com/blog/ best-us-rving-destinations-are-in-missouri-arkansas-and-on-gulf-coast/ 74 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

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M

Advertiser Index A

G

Advance Tire Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Greystone Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Advanced Drainage Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Air Netix LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 All Access Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Alumitank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 AMCS Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40-41 American Shoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Andy Mohr Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 APWA PWX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

B BendPak Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 BMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Bonnell Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Bucher Municipal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover, 10-11, 75 Buyers Products Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

C Calhoun Super Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 CleanFix North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Clearspan Fabric Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Curbtender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

E Ebac Industrial Products Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Edinburg Auction Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Elgin Sweeper Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

I ICOM America Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

L Land Pride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

M Minimizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Monroe Truck Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BACK

N National Construction Rentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

S Stan Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Strategic Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Super Products LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Switch-N-Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

T TrafFix Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Trinity Highway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

U Unique Paving Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 United Plastic Fabricating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

V Vactor Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Victor Stanley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

F

W

FCAR Tech USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Winter Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Fluid Control Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Wisconsin Surplus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

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

AUGUST 2022 | THE MUNICIPAL 77

78 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2022

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