City aims to reduce expenses

By Dan Linehan

MANKATO — For many years, the city of Mankato had a simple snowplowing promise: Every road was plowed curb-to-curb in 12 hours.

That required 12- or even 16-hour days for snowplow drivers. And because overtime is required for work beyond eight hours, that aggressive schedule resulted in a lot of overtime.

“We’re not doing that anymore,” Streets Supt. Jim Braunshausen said.

Cuts in state aid have prompted the city to cut the 2010 general fund budget by 6 percent. The city spent $52,000 in overtime for plowing last winter and hopes to save money there.

Shift adjustments and policy changes to accomplish that will have an effect on the pace of plowing on Mankato streets this winter.

Focus on main roads
During a snowstorm, the city will still plow main roads — such as Madison Avenue, Riverfront Drive and Victory Drive. But it will stay away from residential streets until the snowstorm ends so each street will only have to be plowed once.

That means drivers’ commutes may begin through a few inches of snow.

There are limits to this rule. If roads are impassable, crews will plow through the center of the street, Braunshausen said. Emergency vehicles will get plow priority.

North Mankato instituted a similar big-streets-first priority last year and plans to continue it, Public Works Director Rich Petersen said. They’d be flexible if there’s a big snowstorm, he said.

Cutting corners
Snow emergencies will be called more frequently. Hills will be closed more often. Special on-call details will be removed.

These cut corners may provide a bit of hardship for some — a longer drive to avoid closed hills, say, or a costly tow — but the city thinks the savings will outweigh the costs. Some corners might be worth cutting.

Four hills are on the list for closure in a storm: Stadium Road, Warren Street, Monks Avenue and Parkway Avenue, a short street with a steep hill off Glenwood Avenue.

The city closed these hills four times last year and it proved to be a big time-saver, Braunshausen said.

They had to keep re-salting the slippery hills and police kept responding to accidents.

This winter they won’t hesitate to close the hills. They’ve set up a trailer that virtually any city employee can use to shut down a hill.

Glenwood and Madison avenues will likely remain open.

“It’s a little farther out of your way, but it’s a lot safer route,” Braunshausen said.

Snow emergencies are used to clear the streets of vehicles to make plowing faster.

“That parked-car business is our biggest enemy,” Braunshausen said.

They are generally called after a snowfall of at least 3 inches of snow and/or ice. Because they save so much time, snow emergencies will likely be called more often.

There will also be no on-call details for special tasks. Now, only a foreman will be on call. That change alone will save about $30,000, Braunshausen said.

Still, it’s impossible to eliminate overtime.

Workers are guaranteed 40-hour work weeks, so if someone works five days in a week and there’s a weekend storm, then overtime is unavoidable.

Managers can get creative with schedules by having drivers be off during the week and work Saturday or Sunday, but union rules require advance notice for changes like these, Public Works Director Mark Knoff said.

Still, “We think we can do a little bit better job with it (overtime),” he said.