RIVER FALLS – At the Nov. 14 River Falls City Council meeting, Public Works Manager Erica Ellefson admitted she was thinking about snow when it was 100 degrees because she knew the hot weather wouldn’t last.

Ellefson oversees the city’s Public Works Department, which is in charge of clearing city streets and sidewalks when it snows. 

“I cannot say enough positive things about this team: The work ethic, dedication and desire to come into work in the middle of the night to plow snow is impressive and I’m so proud to be a part of the team,” Ellefson said.

She oversees 13 staff members, including 10 maintenance workers, two mechanics, and one wastewater operator. She has also been known to jump behind a plow herself, she said.

“Historically electric linemen were part of the snow plowing team, but now they are pulling from wastewater operators, which saves money and lets linemen be available for possible electrical outages in extended storms,” Ellefson said.

The snow plowing priority map shows which streets receive which priority during a snow event. High priority streets are main streets to businesses, schools and emergency services. Medium priority streets are thru streets that get people to their neighborhoods. Low priority streets are regular neighborhood streets, while the lowest priority streets include dead ends, cul de sacs and short streets.

This year, the team will plow 99.74 lane miles of streets, thanks to the addition of 7.3 lane miles. The additions include from the turnback of County Road U and Radio Road, plus streets in the Oak Hill, Thompson Heights, Highview Meadows and Southpointe housing developments. No additional employees were added to support and maintain the roads, Ellefson said.

The city has five single-axle plow trucks, one motor grader, one wheel loader with blower, one Kenworth quad-axle dump truck, three 4x4 trucks with plow blades (for trails and alleyway), one wheel loader, one tractor and one sweeper (sidewalks and bridge decks). Fourteen staff plow all hours of the night. The city also contracts with Linehan Home Lawn Services for trails in White Tail and Sterling Ponds corporate parks and the Main Street median.

The city uses a mixture of Beet Heet, which is 99% biodegradable, rock salt and salt brine.

“When we put salt on the streets, it’s always pre-wet with salt brine and Beet Heet, because the liquid activates the salt and it also reduces scatter loss,” Ellefson said. “Using salt alone is hard on the environment with its corrosive tendencies and it does not work well alone in temperatures below freezing. Less salt is needed when used with salt brine and Beet Heet, which helps keep the environment and the Kinni clean.”

Each snow event is unique, affected by the time it starts falling, duration, amount and temperature.

General rules of thumb, according to Ellefson:

• Pre-treat high priority streets
• Maintain high priority streets
• It will take eight to 10 hours to plow all streets once an event ends, with two passes on each side of the street
• Staff will come in next night to plow odd/even parking and plow, blow and haul snow from Main Street
• It will take multiple days to fully clear the snow

2024 budget

The council approved the 2024 budget, which totals $53,131,499. Of that amount, 15% will be financed by general property taxes.

The total property tax levy will be set at $7,795,350. For taxpayers, this means the estimated city portion of their tax bill on a $250,000 property is $1,493.

The budget for 2024 increases by $3,243,629, which is 13% higher than 2023. According to Finance Director Josh Solinger, the city continues to see an increase in net new construction for both Pierce and St. Croix counties (2.34% and 3.25% respectively. The city’s equalized value increased by $291.9 million from 2022 to 2023 to a total of $1.8 billion. Residential property values increased by $244.8 million, while commercial property values went up by $45 million.

“Most of the city’s 20% growth in equalized value is attributable to market adjustments due to inflationary pressures,” a memo states.

Solinger said that about $5.5 million of the increase is attributed to notable changes in the budget:

• General fund: Cash financing of the fire station design and police roof ($540,000) – supplemental shared revenue from the state, public safety projects are one of the allowable uses.
• Special revenue: Creation of TID 19, effective for 2024 budget ($967,000) for Mann Valley
• Capital projects: South Wasson Lane project ($3,960,500),
• $500,000-$600,000 – inflationary adjustments

Passings

Dave Hegre, former owner of Kulstad’s and Pop’s Poptcorn Wagon, died on Saturday, Nov. 11, Alderperson Jeff Bjork said. He expressed his condolences to Hegre’s family and friends.

Mayor Dan Toland spoke about former mayor Katie Chaffee, who died Nov. 5.

“She has served the city for many years in several capacities,” Toland said. “She was elected as the city’s first female mayor in April 2000. She served one term in office. Katie was also employed with the city. She served as the River Falls Public Library gallery director for several years and designed and hosted community shows and events in the gallery. This work was a perfect fit as it allowed Katie to put her knowledge of history, connections to the community and creative talents to use.

“Katie also served on the city plan commission and on the library foundation. She was an election inspector also and served on other community boards. The council appreciates Katie’s service to the city and she will be greatly missed.”

Public comment

Town of Clifton resident Dana Linscott reminded the council that November was National Homelessness Awareness Month. He claimed the no camping on public property law, passed by the council this past year, prohibits people from being in “possession of even a blanket to stay warm while resting on any property the city owns or rents.”

“This effectively criminalizes the homelessness of those in extreme poverty in River Falls. Especially when River Falls Police Department enforces this law exclusively upon those who have no shelter but their car or a sleeping bag on public property,” Linscott said. “Even on public property where it’s not unlawful to do so. Homelessness is too complex an issue to expect the RFPD to solve without specialized training, yet that is exactly what you’re asking of them. You have squarely placed the burden of heading the city’s response to homelessness on someone with no training or desire to do that. Yet as is often the case, this unwanted responsibility has been shifted from the city administration to the police department.”

He accused the council of hiding the growing problem of poverty in River Falls and forcing police officers to cite homeless people.

River Falls resident Benjamin Fochs thanked council members who attended the Empty Bowls event at St. Bridget’s a few weeks ago.

“There was a lot of good discussions there and things, but I know you guys usually had like a kind of update on homelessness and other things in the community, but given a couple recent events in town, it may be helpful to have maybe a discussion with your community partners on domestic violence and assault and what happens to people that leave a domestic situation in winter, or mental health,” Fochs said.

He spoke of how his parents are currently sheltering a homeless person.

“She doesn’t have a house. Where’s she going to go? She has nowhere to go, so it’s not only one issue that leads to homelessness,” he said. “Finally, you guys have done a lot of work on plans. A lot of you say mental health, community development, meeting your neighbors. What do you want to do? Put in bike trails, put in bike paths, put in walking lanes, put in open spaces. And I’ve all been told to go take a hike, so it would be good to also, you know, to realize you are doing a lot of things to help the overall mental health of the community.”