City Beat: Luminary Snowshoe & Winter Hike, Breaking the Ice, and Clearing Fire Hydrants

January 24, 2023

Looking for a way to get out and enjoy our abundant snowfall? Join Friends of the Bluffs for their Luminary Snowshoe & Winter Hike on Saturday, February 4. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at Mississippi National Golf Links. Click here for the event flyer. It'll be a great time, snow doubt about it.

Handling Sharps Safely

Loose needles in the waste stream are dangerous. Ouch! Disposing of sharps and syringes properly can help keep you and our Waste Campus staff safe. Here's how:

• Place used sharps/syringes in a puncture-resistant container made of heavy plastic or metal. Laundry detergent bottles, sharps containers, or other receptacles with a tight-fitting lid or cap will work.

• Make sure the cap or lid is tightly secured. Use tape if needed to ensure a good seal. Clearly label the container as "Sharps."

• Bring the sharps container to the Waste Campus at 1873 Bench Street for disposal. Do not place in garbage or recycling bins.

Breaking the Ice

Freezing rain, sleet, snow ... we've had just about every kind of precipitation this winter, and lots of it. It's the perfect set-up for slippery roads, so how do we make sure getting around town is possible? Let's take the January 11 ice event as an example. That required 156.25 tons of salt and 141.25 hours of labor. To de-ice roads, drivers discharge salt on the driver's side of the truck with the aim of clearing the center of the road. As other vehicles drive over that salt, it kicks it out further into the driving lane. It's a longstanding snow and ice removal technique used by many agencies. This strategy helps use less salt more effectively, which is good both environmentally and economically. With regular salt costing $86.67 per ton and treated salted $108.26 per ton – plus its negative environmental impacts – salting every road from curb to curb wouldn't be feasible. Warm and sunny days to melt ice and snowpack help too, but since we can't count on those, we'll keep balancing all the factors at play to make sure you can get home safely.

Every Second Counts in an Emergency

Seconds matter in an emergency. When that emergency is a fire, extra seconds spent clearing a hydrant are seconds not spent fighting the fire. Help protect you and your neighborhood by clearing the hydrant nearest you before an emergency strikes. Make sure the hydrant is free of ice and snow, and clear a 3-foot area around it. If there is still snow blocking the hydrant from street access, remove that snow, too. The next home saved could be yours.

Looking Back and Looking Forward

What did your City departments do for you and our community in 2022 and what are they planning to achieve in 2023? Every department, from Public Works to the Fire Department to the Library, completed a report that details their accomplishments from last year. Priority projects for this year, including anticipated completion dates, were also identified and outlined in separate documents. Dive deep into it all under Item 7 of last night's agenda.

All in a Day's Work

Congratulations to Nick Sather, who was recently promoted to the new position of Assistant Police Chief. Nick was previously Red Wing's Investigative Sergeant and now will provide oversight on the daily operations at the Police Department. Read what he has to say about the transition in his own words.

"I appreciate the faith the City of Red Wing and the Police Department have given me to run the day-to-day operations of the Police Department. We already have a great Police Department; I just want to continue to build on that strength to bring our mission and vision to light.

"One quote that I have read to keep me grounded is 'great leaders are both idealistic and realistic. They have a grand vision and great goals. They seek to close the gap between what is and what can be but they have no illusions that success is either certain or simple.' – Michael Josephson

"I look forward to working more closely with the community as a whole to ensure our services are professional in all manners of policing."