Bridges get an ‘A’ while Alleys are rated ‘D’

The grades are in for infrastructure in the City of River Falls, and they…are…above average!— taken as a composite score, that is. With a ‘C’ representing that 70 percent of measured categories have been met, adding in water infrastructure scores raises the City of River Falls overall infrastructure grade from a ‘C’ to a ‘B-,” though not all taxpayer-funded infrastructure gets the same grade. We’ll start from the bottom up—bad news first, then the kudos.

In the first place, city alleyways get a ‘D’ rating, with ‘Streets,’ ‘Street Lighting,’ and ‘Public Parking Lots’ each getting a ‘C,’ the next lowest grade on the report card. Following the Cs, ‘Stormwater Inlets and Manholes’ along with ‘Fire Hydrants’ both get a ‘B-,‘ while “Paved Trails,’ and ‘Water Main – Pipe Type’ get a ‘B’ grade. ‘Booster Stations’ and ‘Water Wells’ both get a ‘B+,’ while ‘Water Main – Breaks’ and Bridges’ and ‘Water Main – Breaks’ both get an ‘A.’ Last but not least on the City infrastructure report card, ‘Capacity of Local Facilities’ gets an ‘A+’ rating.

We’ll not make the mistake of assigning an overall GPA to the scorecard, though the grade is listed as stated at an overall ‘B-‘ for the non-sentient mineral-based hardware. Still, what does the City of River Falls plan to do to keep its vast and expansive water/sewer/potential alley cat winter subway system in good working order?

That falls under “Strategic Initiatives activities.” First up in the City’s vision is to “develop a 2021-2026 CIP,” or Capital Improvement Plan. Next is to ‘Implement North Sewer Interceptor Plan,’ then “Cooperate with the State DOT on 35/65 & Division On/Off Ramp (Jug Handle) Project,’ and finally to “Assist UWRF with a new Science Facility & Coordinated Public Infrastructure improvements at 2nd & Cascade.” Perhaps with due time and effort, that ‘B-‘ average can be raised to an ‘A,’ though it may require addressing the alleyway grade situation. Outliers can make a big difference within the overall statistical data set, after all.