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City Profile: North Dakota city reveals a creative side

North Dakota city reveals a creative side

By BETH ANNE BRINK-COX | The Municipal

Devils Lake, N.D., was formed because of a continental glacier that covered most of North America during the Pleistocene Epoch. According to Wikipedia, that part of history lasted until about 11,700 years ago and a basin was formed as the glacier moved, eventually filling as it melted.

During a severe drought in the 1930s, Devils Lake nearly evaporated, but climate change means that the lake now measures 1,450 feet. It continues to expand, which had led to some pretty amazing fishing. Devils Lake is known as one of the best fisheries in the central United States, and both the locals and visitors take full advantage of it. In fact, January will see the 39th Annual Volunteer Fire Department Fishing Tourney take place: It’s three days of family-friendly entertainment for those who are willing to brave the cold.

Cory Meyer, who co-chairs the event along with TeeJay Kurtz, Nathan Bennett and Erik Samuelson, explained the history of the long-running fishing tournament.

“It started 38, 39 years ago, with the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, and when they went defunct, there were already some volunteer firemen who were part of it. It just was a sort of natural, easy transition, a little paperwork,” Meyer said. No one wanted to see such a big event lost in a town whose population numbered 7032 in 2020. The tournament draws 3,000 to 5,000 attendees each year, depending on the weather.

Meyers added, “People come from all over the state, really, even others from across the country, to be part of this. It’s just so much fun. There are some who come solo just to participate, while others come as a family.

There are all kinds of things to do besides fishing on Saturday, he noted. “We’ve given away some awesome prizes.”

It takes a lot of volunteers to put the tournament on. There’s food and music, and then there’s the drilling of the holes early Saturday morning.

As with so many other large annual events, planning for the next one begins almost immediately after each tournament ends.

Visitors can also tour the Fort Totten State Historic Site. It was built in 1867 as a military post to protect the Totten Trail and the Totten Indian Reservation. In 1890 the post was decommissioned, and it then served as a Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding School from 1891 to 1935. Murals still on the walls, though faded, show the everyday life of the children housed there.

The Fort also served briefly as the preventorium for residents with tuberculosis. In 1940, it became an educational facility once again, serving as grade school and high school until 1959. After two days of pre-tournament festivities, the serious fishing happens on Saturday, and there’s always a good turnout. (Photo provided by DLVFD Ice Fishing Tournament)

North Dakota temperatures don’t fool around when it comes to winter; a minus-zero reading is not unusual. If you’re going to ice fish for the first time and didn’t come fully prepared, you might want to avail yourself of similar outfit. (Photo provided by DLVFD Ice Fishing Tournament)

An incredibly talented group that always welcomes more artists, the Woodcarvers Club creates work of such detail it almost has to be touched to realize that those “feathers” are wood. (Photo provided by Lake Heritage Region Center)

LEFT: This finished piece will become an instant, treasured heirloom for generations to come, lending itself to storytelling as well as play. (Photo provided by Lake Heritage Region Center) RIGHT: Carol Greywater, an artist on the Spirit Lake Reservation, specializes in Native American, wildlife and fantasy art. (Photo provided by Lake Heritage Region Center)

In keeping with her love of fantasy art, Carol Greywater drew this beautiful dragon that had everyone talking. (Photo provided by Lake Heritage Region Center)

In 1960, the Fort was declared a state historical site. Visitors can walk the grounds and enter original buildings, a peek into the past with The Interpretive Center, Plummer’s Store, The Fort Totten Little Theatre, Traveling Exhibits and Pioneer Daughter’s Museum, where uniforms and artifacts of Colonel Creel and other former officers stationed at the post are on display.

In June, visitors can participate in the Devils Run Car Show, which began in 1993. It started with a car club called the “Lucky Devils” and just a few local classic cars, growing through the years into one of the largest car shows in the upper Midwest and attracting nearly 1,000 cars annually. This event lasts three days, and in addition to the main attraction there’s plenty of food and entertainment, including “Muffler-Rapping,” Burnout and Balance Beam contests, a parade and a night at the drive-in movie. “What better way to enjoy a celebration of cars?”

The three-day event, usually the first weekend in June, is attended by car enthusiasts from all over the country and Canada. The 30th anniversary of the event is scheduled to begin next June 1.

Another big draw, no pun intended, is the Lake Regions Art Festival. It was held in July and has already been scheduled again for next June. Lisa Crosby, director of operations at Lake Region Heritage Center, bubbled over with a list of superlatives for this display of creativity.

“We had 40 artists exhibiting at the juried exhibition, and they were judged,” Crosby said, noting a juried exhibition displays artwork selected through a competition in the hope of being selected. “The artists were mostly from North Dakota, but we do get some from Minnesota, too.”

The categories were glass, traditional, photography, oil, acrylic, watercolor, mixed media and drawing, with three artists in each placing. There were two very special prizes: the Heritage Award and Colonel Eugene E. Myers Purchase Award: Artist Ellen Diederich won both prizes, and her “Land of Milk and Honey” became a part of the University of North Dakota permanent collection.

Crosby said, “In addition to the art show, we had active exhibits — wood carving, blacksmithing, rug punching. Lake Region demonstrated beautiful Native American music and dancing. We had the Devils Lake Community Orchestra playing; we had Miki’s Dance Studio, where the students were demonstrating tap and other forms of dance; and we saw scenes from ‘Jersey Boys’ performed by the Little Theatre group, a sort of teaser for their upcoming show in Roosevelt Park. There was a boxcar parade for children, with prizes for Most Artistic and Best Use of Recycled Materials, and a bluegrass jam, where anyone with a bluegrass instrument was welcome to join in making music.”

The festival lasts a week, and it would take that long to see and do everything. Crosby explained, “We had food trucks. We had ice cream trucks. We had face painting. We had balloon animals. We had air dry clay projects for children to make at the Lake Region Public Library. We had an artist who brought boxes of colored chalks and did the most amazing picture on the sidewalk, and it was beautiful while it lasted!” The artist was Carol Greywater, an artist on the Spirit Lake Reservation — on the southern shores of Devils Lake — who specializes in Native American, wildlife and fantasy art.

Native American heritage and many other elements are rich in North Dakota. Immersing oneself in the multiple cultures, the food, music and artwork, probably means a visitor will make plans to return again and again.

Surging gas prices cause fleet managers to get creative

By JULIE YOUNG | The Municipal

They say that what goes up must come down. Although oil prices have fallen since the summer surge, communities are constantly looking for ways to fuel their fleets without breaking the budget. After all, petroleum prices not only impact the cost of gas at the pump, but also the products used resurface roads: Both must be carefully considered by municipalities.

ABOVE: Buffalo, Minn., Assistant City Administrator Taylor Gronau said he encourages his fleet to engage in fuel saving practices, such as not idling, taking fuel efficient routes and more. (Photo provided by Buffalo, Minn.)

“There is no real magic for anticipating fuel prices,” said Centerville, Ohio, City Manager Wayne Davis. “When we put our budget together for 2022, we anticipated that there would be a price increase, but we weren’t counting on $5 a gallon. I think we assumed it would be $4 a gallon, and then we rode out the wave.”

Creative solutions

The trick, for local governments, is to manage the cost of fueling a fleet without sacrificing services. According to Taylor Gronau, assistant city administrator for the city of Buffalo, Minn., not only do communities shop around for the best possible fuel price, but they also ask employees to take a wide range of steps to help make the most of their fuel consumption.

“It’s difficult to adjust to higher-than-expected fuel prices because most of the travel is necessary to provide services. So, we do end up prioritizing fuel, which leads to budget adjustments and delayed purchases,” he said.

In addition to buying and using the most fuel-efficient vehicles and equipment as possible for the required trip or job, Gronau also encourages city employees to reduce the amount of weight they carry, avoid extended idling and warm-up periods, anticipate traffic conditions and have the tire pressure checked regularly to conserve fuel.

However, these efforts hardly offset the pain at the pump when gas prices hit historic highs. Buffalo is projecting it will exceed its $199,000 fuel budget for the year.

“Budget-wise, our 2023 preliminary fuel budget is $299,000, or $100,000 higher than 2022,” he said. “That amounts to about a 1% tax levy increase just on that one item alone, never mind the other price increases we’re seeing and have to budget for. This puts significant pressure on decisionmakers to cut costs everywhere.”

Big investments to beat big oil

Experts say one of the best ways to beat the rise in oil and gas prices is to invest in electric and hybrid vehicles/equipment. Davis said there are hidden costs to that option as well.

Centerville has 80 city vehicles on the road and a $300,000 fuel budget for the year. While the city certainly looks to more energy efficient vehicles when it has the opportunity to buy one, no community has the funds it would take to convert an entire fleet at once. There is also the issue of charging and storing them.

“One of the challenges with electricity is that it has to be produced too, and there is a substantial cost to that. The vehicles are more expensive than the traditional gas-powered ones too and we would have to build new buildings in which to store them,” he said. “Make no mistake, we are not opposed to it, and we will continue to look into it. But the market has not caught up with it yet, and no one will convince me that we have enough electricity on the grid to do it.”

In the meantime, Davis looks for ways to cut costs and stretch every dollar a little further. He uses route assessment software and platforms to help plan the most efficient routes for waste management collection. He realizes that after a couple of unpredictable years, city leaders have to be able to adjust on the fly and deal with each fluctuation as it comes.

A city employee shows off a waste collection vehicle to young residents. Centerville has 80 vehicles on the city street, and like other cities it has been hit hard by high gas prices. (Photo provided by the city of Centerville) Like a lot of American municipalities, the city of Buffalo, Minn., is concerned about how fluctuating fuel prices will affect its fleets. (Photo provided by Buffalo, Minn.)

“You have to constantly focus on value and realize that these things will continue to happen,” he said. “You have to anticipate that coming out of a pandemic, we’re not going to be in the same world as we were before. There are so many things that don’t seem normal anymore, including fuel prices, so you have to be proactive and communicate with your constituents so that they can adjust as well.”

Tips for making your gas go further

Gronau said if a community budgets conservatively, high fuel prices won’t force big changes in the budget or delays in purchasing supplies and equipment. He also suggests staff take the following steps to conserve fuel on the road: • Reduce the amount of weight carried and, if possible, eliminate items that create drag or wind resistance. • Avoid extended idling and warm-up periods. • Start up the vehicle and proceed to the work assignment as soon as the vehicle is drivable. • Always drive at a moderate speed and accelerate as though an egg is between your foot and the fuel pedal. • Do not increase engine speed or “rev up” prior to shutting an engine off. It wastes fuel and increases engine wear. • Anticipate traffic conditions, signals and slowdowns while driving at a consistent speed. • Have the tire pressure checked regularly, at least once a month. A low tire can increase fuel consumption by as much as 10%. • Brake early and slowly to maximize fuel economy. • Use air conditioning sparingly in stop-and-go traffic. At steady freeway speeds, however, it may be better to use the air conditioner than to drive with your windows down, which increases wind resistance. • Rideshare to meetings or walk whenever possible. • If you have several stops to make, plan carefully. It’s best to start the engine while it’s still hot.

Displaced left turn is the right solution for Texas town

By BETH ANNE BRINK-COX | The Municipal

Pflugerville, Texas, has adopted an innovative new intersection design called the displaced left turn, or DLT, which allows vehicles to make unopposed left turns at an intersection by crossing traffic over to the other side of the road prior to the intersection, thus creating an exclusive left turn lane. Then vehicles turning left may continue through the intersection, while through traffic traveling the opposite direction flows safely at the same time. By maximizing the flow of the intersection, the DLT increases the intersection’s capacity and requires shorter traffic light cycles to reduce the time drivers spend at a red light.

While Pflugerville is not the first DLT in the country, it is, as Amy Madison, executive director of the Pflugerville Community Development Corporation, said, kind of unusual. So why create this unusual turn lane?

Madison explained. “One of the reasons was because we had recruited a 3.8 million- square-foot building to house an Amazon Fulfillment center. We knew we would have at least a thousand employees passing through every day to and from work, so it was critical to expedite as quickly as possible. We had a lot vested in the region and there is a business park contiguous to the road, so there is a significant amount of traffic.”

“By doing this, we have improved our recruitment opportunities for other businesses and manufacturers and so on,” she ABOVE: This vector art diagram shows a continuous-flow intersection, featuring some lane variation, directional arrows, turn restrictions, traffic light position/ orientation and even some sidewalks and bike lanes. It also showcases an example of a displaced left turn. (cobaltcigs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

elaborated. “And after COVID-19, when so many had lost their jobs, this was a huge thing. We had more to offer, not just who we had already recruited, but we could also extend further to many more. And we have grown quite rapidly since 2020, the numbers not only in terms of jobs but also population. This really was critical infrastructure at a critical time.”

Any road construction project brings its own headaches, and COVID-19 did as well. Shortage supply issues added to that to some extent.

“We did have some delay related to those issues, but not significantly. All in all, it went pretty smoothly. The estimated

An official ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the completion of Pflugerville, Texas’s, new displaced left turn lane. The lane fully reopened the new configuration on the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. (Photo provided by the city of Pflugerville)

timeline seemed good and it was, because it came in within 30 days of the proposed timing. And that was coordinated with another large project to coincide with that for a more fluid usage,” Madison said.

While there was a significant cost for the project, Madison believes the way it was financed is more interesting than any other part of the story. The Pflugerville City Council approved a $3.8 million taxpayerfunded incentive agreement to pay for road improvements, such as the DLT project.

“In 2020, as we were recruiting this large employer (at first known as Project Charm so the Amazon name wouldn’t be used), they agreed to redirect funding to the city. Our grant came from a corporation meant to incentivize the community to come to us, but we ended up funding with an Economic Development Administration (EDA) and Pflugerville Economic Development (PED) grant. I mean, this reduced our costs significantly — from $4.3 million, with the EDA paying $2.3 million and the remainder paid by the PED. There was no cost to taxpayers, no need to use bonds or CDs; it was completely funded by those two grants. What was really unique and different was that Amazon was willing to redirect their money toward us.”

Madison continued, “They were not required to make those improvements. The city was faced with improvements one way or another, and during a time of uncertain budgets thanks to COVID-19, it was a sort of ‘Can we just figure this out, because it will help with traffic flow for your employees?’”

“Did Amazon benefit? Absolutely. But again, it was not a requirement, and everyone worked together and everyone won.”

Without question, once the DLT was completed and ready for use, there was a learning curve much like that which a roundabout requires. Pictured is the intersection that was reconfigured, complete with a familiar “No Turn On Red” sign. The new displaced left turn took some getting used to but has been a major asset to the community. (Photo provided by the city of Pflugerville)

“There was lots of confusion with people entering and exiting and folks were kind of lost, going in circles and not sure what to do. Going between two opposing lanes of traffic is an unusual approach, true, but once you get used to it and understand the mentality of it … So, we put up additional signage and lighting to help them navigate through, because we found it was one thing during daylight hours but much worse at night, more confusing. It’s one of the busiest intersections in our community, lots of flow-through.”

“There were more confident drivers, and there were those that were kind of lost, but it became sort of like following the leader with

the uncertain drivers following the confident ones. It’s true that there was that hesitance at first, even from those who had wanted this lane when it was proposed. And some avoided using it for a while, which made it easier for those learning to use it; but once traffic was flowing smoothly through, we heard less and less complaints. And it has definitely reduced drive time. There were times I could be sitting and waiting up to 20 minutes to get through, and now I can get there in less than 10!”

Madison is pleased with all aspects of how well the intersection has worked. “It worked for us as a community, plus then adding the company itself. Having the focus on improving the corridor was extremely important to us. It has contributed to significant growth and brought capital investment to the community as well as more employment. It’s truly a remarkable project. It’s one thing to have an interesting intersection, but quite another to see it come about as a result of all those elements, especially with the community so affected with financial difficulties because of the pandemic.”

While there hasn’t been a second DLT built in “Pfabulous Pflugerville”—a local play on words—Madison said they are looking at other ways to move traffic along more smoothly and quickly in other areas, because Austin is just down the road. Pflugerville is a suburb of Austin, part of the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos Metropolitan area.

It is definitely a project for other cities to consider where they experience slow intersections, and absolutely an alternative to widening The sheer size of the new Amazon building in Pflugerville, which employs 1,000, made clear the need for better traffic management when getting to work and going home each day. (Photo provided by the city of Pflugerville)

the road and other methods. DLTs may be the kind of progress that has seen bicycle lanes and right turns on red lights become commonplace: This kind of intersection may well become just as ordinary in time, and maybe Pflugerville will be to thank for it.

Part 1 — Taking clean air to new heights with biodiesel

In Illinois, the village of Arlington Heights’ Fleet Services Unit of the municipality’s public works department has been using clean-burning biodiesel since 2007 — an impactful fuel solution supported by its membership in the B20 Club of Illinois.

By RON KOTRBA | for the American Lung Association

The Village of Arlington Heights, Ill., located about 40 minutes from Chicago, is one of the largest towns in the Windy City’s affluent northwest suburbs and the 13th largest municipality in Illinois. With approximately 75,000 residents, the village motto is “A City of Good Neighbors.”

ABOVE: The village of Arlington Heights operates more than 120 diesel vehicles in its fleet, all of which run on 20% biodiesel (B20). The carbon-emissions reductions from the municipality’s use of B20 are equivalent to the planting of nearly 2,200 trees every year. (Photo provided)

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the residents and elected officials got together and made a “thank-you” video for the essential workers in the police, fire and public works departments. “It was a really nice gesture,” said Ray Salisbury, fleet services foreman for the village of Arlington Heights. “This community comes together in good times and bad. It’s very family and community oriented. This is the first place I’ve been where the community supports public works and all we do, and where they’re happy to have us as part of their community. It makes working here much more rewarding.” The support is reciprocal.

Salisbury and the village’s staff return the favor to the community by operating a fleet of more than 120 diesel-powered vehicles and equipment on cleaner-burning, lower-carbon B20, a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% conventional diesel fuel. Biodiesel is a nontoxic, biodegradable renewable fuel made from biobased feedstocks, such as excess soybean oil, waste kitchen grease and animal fats. In its pure form, biodiesel can reduce CO2 emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas, by more than 85% while cutting carcinogenic particulate matter — black soot — by nearly 50%, in addition to lowering many other tailpipe emissions.

The diesel vehicles Salisbury manages, however, aren’t the only ones fueling up on this environmentally friendly blend of biodiesel. Several outside agencies — including the school and park districts, and the Wheeling Township senior-transport buses, for instance — leverage the availability of this green fuel provided by the village of Arlington Heights’ public works department.

“Some of these outside agencies are part of the village but are not under the village’s umbrella,” Salisbury explained. “By offering B20 at our pumps, we are extending our positive impact beyond the village’s own operations. This allows us to provide healthier air and a cleaner environment for our residents and our neighbors.”

B20 Club fuels success

The public works department’s fueling system, managed by the fleet services division, consists of two B20 dispensers, which were recently upgraded thanks to a grant from the USDA’s Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP) and application assistance from the B20 Club of Illinois, a partnership between the American Lung Association and the Illinois Soybean Association checkoff program. The B20 Club is comprised of more than 20 member companies and organizations committed to using B20 and higher biodiesel blends. To date, member fleets have consumed more than 62 million gallons of drop-in B20 and higher biodiesel blends.

The public works department for the village of Arlington Heights has been using B20 year-round since 2007. Salisbury has been the village’s fleet services foreman for eight years of his 26-year public works career, serving with the cities of Rock Island and Des Plaines before joining the village in October 2013. While the department was using B20 before he joined the team, Salisbury quickly became a B20 believer and began sharing information on biodiesel with colleagues at Municipal Fleet Managers Association (MFMA) meetings. That is also where he became acquainted with the B20 Club.

“I was at an MFMA meeting in 2015 and the B20 Club was giving a presentation,” he said. “It seemed good to be a part of it. They would highlight our use of B20, not only for others to understand the viability of the product, but also so residents know we’re doing a good thing here — that we have the best interest of the village and its residents in mind.”

He said the B20 Club is able to do a much better job of promoting the village’s use of biodiesel to the public than he and his team could do. The club promotes its members’ positive health and environmental impacts through their use of B20 and higher blends while also providing — among other benefits — technical training, fuel-quality testing, education and outreach services, grant opportunities and assistance, and networking support. Many of these perks coalesced when Salisbury was ready to replace his B20 pumps.

“Our fuel system was quickly becoming obsolete, and we needed to replace our dispensers,” Salisbury said. “They were so old that the manufacturer stopped making parts, and it was getting harder and harder to find used parts to repair them.”

At a B20 Club stakeholder meeting, the topic of assistance for submitting grant applications was brought up. Salisbury contacted Bailey Arnold, director of Clean Air Initiatives for the American Lung Association and lead of the B20 Club of Illinois.

“We got together, and he and the Clean Air Initiatives team helped get our application submitted,” Salisbury said. “We were awarded an HBIIP grant to replace our dated and unreliable dispensers with newer, modern ones. The grant covered half the cost of the equipment, which allowed us to make additional upgrades, including the addition of DEF, at the same time.” DEF is diesel exhaust fluid, a urea-based liquid used with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems to drastically reduce NOx emissions from diesel engines.

The grant also helped upgrade the fuel kiosk, which was starting to show its age, as well as repaving the entire driveway coming in over the underground fuel tanks, including new below-grade spill containers. “We were able to modernize and improve the fuel system to create a better experience for our employees and outside customers,” Salisbury said. Ray Salisbury, fleet services foreman for the village of Arlington Heights, Ill., said by offering biodiesel blends at the public works department’s pumps — where other agencies can fill up, too — the positive impact of clean-burning fuel is extended beyond the village’s own operations. This allows the municipality to provide healthier air and a cleaner environment for its residents and neighbors. (Photo provided)

The networking opportunities provided by the B20 Club have proven invaluable for the village of Arlington Heights, providing the public works department with a platform to share stories of their success. For instance, Salisbury said some people claim they cannot run or source B20 in the winter because of outdated concerns or misinformation.

“We’ve been able to run B20 for the past 15 years,” he said. “And in that time, we have only had one little glitch, which thankfully our contractor figured out after a fellow B20 member told us where to get winterized B20.”

Arnold said fellow B20 Club member Al Warren Oil Company Inc., a specialized petroleum marketer based in Chicago, helped Salisbury identify terminals offering winterized B20 when his contractor had a difficult time finding the blend over the winter. “The partnerships created through the B20 Club are a prime example of why the club was formed,” Arnold said. “It provides opportunities for folks to reach out to one another to solve problems. And this situation was no different.”

Another B20 Club member, Ozinga, won a competitive bid to provide the concrete foundation for the B20 pump islands with a concrete mixer also powered by B20. The job was bid out like any other municipal engagement but, as Bailey put it, “It was like fate intervened to have a B20-powered mixer pouring the concrete for B20 pumps. It really brought things full circle and made for a great story.”

In the spirit of supporting a fellow B20 Club member, Ag-Land FS Inc., a full-service fuel and lubricants provider based in Pekin, Ill., also lent a hand by cleaning the village’s tanks and polishing its fuel.

“Ag-Land stepped in and provided that service for free,” Arnold said. “They don’t market fuel in the Chicagoland area, so it was truly just one member supporting another. I think that highlights how invaluable the connections our members make with one another are.”

Come back for Part II in the December issue of The Municipal, where the benefits of biodiesel are explored in detail.

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