The Blog from City Hall

Earlier this year the City and the County made some changes to several traffic signals around town by changing out the old lights for new LED lights. Our share of the project to change the lights was $11,688.79. We’re now starting to see the results of the project. For example, the energy cost for the month of March 2007 for the traffic signal at Eden Prairie Road/EdenWood Drive, which has a yellow, a red, & a green light on it, was $112.90. The energy bill for the same traffic light for March 2008 was $47.13. For the traffic light at Pioneer Trail & Dell Road, the energy cost for the month of May 2007 was $204.58. For May 2008, the energy cost for the same exact traffic light was $24.48. Very significant savings, and more savings to come as we add more LED traffic lights to our system.

Dave Pokorney is the city administrator of Chaska, Minnesota. After 24 years of service to the people of Chaska, Dave is hanging it up. He is retiring, effective August 4. He has been helpful in accomplishing a great number of things in Chaska. He will be tough to replace.

I think it’s interesting to read retirement and resignation letters. They are often filled with truth and perspective that can only be told on the way out. Dave shared his retirement message with a number of his peers via email last week. I thought it would be interesting to share Dave’s retirement message with my readers.

Here it is. Good luck Dave.

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Dear Mayor and Council,

Effective August 4th 2008 I will be retiring from my position as Chaska City Administrator. It has been an honor and privilege to serve the Chaska community over the past twenty-four years. In particular, it has been professionally and personally rewarding to work with City Council members who have been committed to making Chaska the best it can be. I am both proud of and humbled by the fact that Chaska is viewed by many as a better small town today with 24,000 residents than it was in 1984 when 8,000 people called Chaska home.

Chaska’ first strategic plan was developed in 1985 and identified the following five long range priority goals:

· Complete development of Chaska’s industrial park area

· Construct and finance the $45 million Chaska flood control

project

· Build a new City Hall, public works facility, fire station and

community center

· Facilitate the long awaited new Hwy 212

· Redevelop the Chaska Downtown Area

As you are all aware, each of these big dreams have been accomplished and I hope that you along with past City council members can feel a real sense of accomplishment relative to each.

Vacating the Administrator position at this time gives me the unique opportunity to move on when the Chaska organization is operating at peak performance and a number of the community’s long-term goals are have been or are being realized. Few local government professionals have this opportunity.

The accomplishments of Chaska clearly could not have been achieved without the dedicated efforts of our employees. Since I began, I have constantly been impressed with how committed and dedicated to Chaska’s mission our employees are. Clearly, Chaska municipal employees feel a strong sense of ownership and are willing to make the effort to make Chaska a special place. I would urge you to continue to reward and support these efforts of a unique group of employees. I also must give special recognition to the department head group who have been outstanding. Now I can even share a secret with the Council-they are the ones who do all the work and have the great ideas-I have just stood back and let it happen!

Although this is a tough decision, I am confident that Chaska will continue to be committed to excellence and will be even a better place in the future to call home for my family and myself. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve.

Respectfully,

David Pokorney

Lots of cities have promotional video presentations they use for tourism, economic development or just to help build civic pride. Eden Prairie has one too. I think it happens to be pretty good.

And lots of cities have their videos translated in Spanish, or perhaps even Mandarin Chinese. But in Eden Prairie, we take our position as a small world city seriously. We want people throughout the world to become aware of what we’ve got going on here in the middle of North America.

Through a unique partnership with the students and families at the International School of Minnesota (ISM), the City of Eden Prairie now has its promotional video, called “Eden Prairie Welcomes You“, produced in ten languages: Mandarin Chinese, Danish, French, English, German, Korean, Persian, Spanish, Swedish and Vietnamese. The International School of Minnesota is PreK-12 private school located here in Eden Prairie. ISM is part of the worldwide SABIS School Network. We’re proud that Eden Prairie is home to ISM. We wrote the script, but ISM students and families made it come to life. We could not have accomplished with important international outreach effort without their partnership.

You can check out Eden Prairie Welcomes You in the language of your choice at our website at www.edenprairie.org. You’ll find the link under the button the right side of the page called City TV. Or, you can hit this link and it’ll take you right there: The Video.

We want Eden Prairie to be known as a place that welcomes visitors and guests from around the world. We want to reach out to people in their language of choice. We’ve started telling our community’s story in these ten languages. We’ll be adding to the list of available languages as new volunteer translators become available. If your language is not on the list, and you’d like to add it to the list, email me. The more, the better.

Zen and the Art of Sewer System Maintenance

So I am sitting there watching that really smug guy from “Dirty Jobs” Mike Rowe do a show from the bottom of a Sewer Lift Station. He is scraping big hunks of (insert colorful metaphor) off the Lift Station Walls while a giant vacuum truck called a Vactor sucks it all up.

Now, these Vactors are all business let me tell you. I mean, they can suck a bowling ball (or your arm) up from depths of 30 feet! In fact, that’s our Vactor pictured below.

You know when they roll into your neighborhood too . . . windows shake, birds scatter, kids cry, and yes, even an occasional car alarm will go off.

Anyway, there’s Rowe, in his waders and raincoat, sewage pouring in all around him and he does this kind of slight dry heave . . . looks to camera and says,

“This is it, this is the worst, the worst thing I have ever done, right here.”

In case you missed that, Rowe was talking about Cleaning Lift Stations as the “Worst Job” he has ever done.

We have 22 Lift-stations! How about a pay raise?

You know, that whole business of celebrating the workers doing the dirty work so the rest of us can lead clean and civilized lives is a great concept.

And it is pretty cool seeing Rowe doing the things we do every day in Eden Prairie on National Television.

But there is more to this sewer business than just stepping in it, wading in it, and saying “Poo” like your ratings depended on it.

For instance:

1.  Did you know that Scientists chose Sanitation (sewage disposal and clean water) as the greatest medical breakthrough since 1840? A close second was Antibiotics, then came Anaesthesia, Vaccines and finally the Discovery of DNA structure.

Really? Sewage disposal over . . . DNA?

I guess it does make some sense when you think it through. I mean really . . . what good is DNA if you are dead?

2.  In one year alone the lack of sewage disposal, clean water and thus hygiene, accounted for over 1.5 million deaths worldwide from diarrheal disease.

3.  And for you anthropological folks let’s finish with a quiz:

According to Experts what key factor contributed more to the advancement or success of civilizations old and new? (insert jeopardy music)

A.  How far you could sling boulders the size of a small domestic cars with oversized sling shot’s

B.  Advanced medical knowledge such as blood-letting and leeches

C.  Power over the seas

D.  A working sewer system

If you answered D. you are correct!

So, while you are out there flying Mars missions, cracking the human genome and building microscopic nano-bots, just remember it would not be possible if your toilet didn’t flush.

Our work is done here.

Andrew works for the Utilities Division. Part of their job is ensuring that the wastes produced by 60,000 plus residential and business customers is routed (without incident) south of the Minnesota River to the Blue Lake Treatment plant in Shakopee. To this end, a good deal of time is spent cleaning, inspecting and servicing some 200 hundred miles of sewer pipeline, 22 Sewer Lift-Stations and well over 3,000 Sewer Manholes that make up the City of Eden Prairie’s Sewer Collection System.

My name is Ryan Kapaun and I am the Law Enforcement Analyst for the Police Department. I have many duties, including gathering crime trend information from Eden Prairie and other police departments that may impact Eden Prairie and assisting Detectives with their investigations. Basically, my job is to take a lot of information and break it down into something actionable and understandable.

One of my other duties is to assist the Patrol Division by giving them information on when and where crime is going to happen, based on previous crime trends. I also try to understand why specific crime trends are occurring. I look at patterns to predict when a crime is going to take place, so Patrol can prevent that crime from occurring.

As reported in an Eden Prairie News article, residential burglaries, as well as theft from vehicle reports, are dramatically up this summer. I recently looked at thefts from vehicles and residential burglaries that occurred from June 1 to July 5 to understand why this was happening.

Some things that stand-out from the data:

• Of the 18 residential burglaries, 9 (50%) were the result of a garage door left open.
• The most common items taken in burglaries were purses/wallets, golf clubs and iPods.
• Most burglaries occurred between 10 pm and 6 am.
• During 12 of the burglaries, the victim was home.
• Of the 55 thefts from vehicles, 26 (47%) of the vehicles were parked in the driveway outside of the home of the victim.
• In 55% of the thefts from vehicles, the victim either left their car unlocked or was unsure if their vehicle was locked.
• The most common items taken in thefts from vehicles were GPS, iPods, purses/wallets, CDs, sunglasses and digital cameras.

NOTE: If a thief enters a vehicle parked in a garage, the Police Department classifies it as a residential burglary. If the thief enters a vehicle parked in the driveway, it is classified as a theft from vehicle, or as we technically call it: Tamper with Auto. It took me a while to keep the classifications straight. Several of the residential burglaries were the result of the suspect entering a parked car in a garage.

One of my theories for the rise in burglaries and thefts from vehicles is the increased availability of inexpensive electronics. As more people are able to afford GPS, iPods and digital cameras, more people forget the items in their car. Generally, the property crimes I looked at were crimes of opportunity (i.e. open garage doors, unlocked vehicles, valuables left in the open). Very few crimes were forced or resulted in property damage.

Just this week, Minnetonka released a crime alert warning residents to lock their car doors in their driveways, as thieves have been using garage door openers found in cars to gain entry to homes.

Bottom line: Keep your garage door closed, your car locked and the iPod with you and your chances of being the victim of a theft are dramatically reduced.

Monday morning started out slow, which is rare for a Monday because usually there will be a few things that need attention after the weekend. So I return a few phone calls, made a couple of repairs and see that I have time to work on the rollout of our new phones for the Engineering division.

I start out the project slowly knowing full well that I can get called away at any time for a computer or phone problem. I begin my documentation and before mid-morning I see that I have the ability to roll out a few of the phones. I start with Fred, he is not at his desk and I can quickly replace his phone without disturbing his work.

It goes flawlessly, I program the new phone, sync the system and install it at his desk before he returns. I return to my desk and am amazed to see that there are no new work orders, so I start on Radomir’s phone, again all goes well. I see that Mary is away from her desk so I roll hers out too.

By now it is lunch time so I head off to have bologna and cheese sandwiches with my son who is currently enrolled in playground camp at Miller Park.

I return from lunch confident as ever, things are still slow so I am going for it! I am going to roll out the rest of the phones for Engineering. I start with Paul, his goes well so I roll out Randy S’s. A little more work is mounting but I am in too deep now, 3 more phones and I can stop the roll out until tomorrow. Quickly I configure and install J.R’s and Randy N’s phones, one more to go. A couple of emails came in so I have very little time to complete this.

As I am finishing the roll out I am also working on a couple of other things, I am moving an archive folder for one person and helping another restore their outlook contacts while trying to figure out a video driver issue on another computer. I go to install the last phone and I am told that several of the new phones that I installed are not working. In disbelief I began testing the phones, they can call out but you can’t transfer calls to them. Franticly I rush to my desk through what seems to be a sea of users with questions making mental note that I need to return to them after I fix this phone problem.

I check the system and all seems OK (while Nevada and Ryan needle me about how good my blog better be, thanks guys!) so I start calling the numbers of the phones that I first installed and they are going through, whew! That was close! What I found was that the two phone systems were syncing and just had to play a bit of catch up.

I have more to do so I opt to finish up my work with everyone else and wait to finish the rollout until I get home and configure the rest remotely. Well, I will spare you the details but all didn’t go well with my remote configuration, luckily I got everything working without having to come in.

So Tuesday rolls around and the two phones I configured from home are working. I begin going through a tutorial with Sandy

and notice that you cannot transfer calls from her phone. WHAT! I quickly set up a substitute phone for her and work on the broken one, think I got it, nope didn’t get it. Finally I called the vendor for support. I worked with Sandy to get a working situation and worked on work orders for the rest of the day as I waited for a call back from tech support.

That is a usual day for me, flooded with work orders or projects that sometimes don’t go flawlessly. But I love it. I have been doing IT for almost 10 years now, 3 ½ for the city. It is never boring and I am very proud of what I do. I work with a great team; they are like my brothers and sisters. I hope I can do this for years to come.

Thanks for letting me Blog Mr. Neal.

On a personal note I am celebrating my 9^th anniversary with my wife tomorrow. Happy anniversary, honey! Thanks for putting up with me for all these years!!!

11 years ago, I was searching for a job that wouldn’t be subject to the whims of the economy. I had been laid off twice from jobs in the corporate world. Then the call came. Mike Barone was on the phone, asking me if I was interested in the part-time customer service “floater” position at the City of Eden Prairie. He didn’t have to ask twice.Growing up in small-town North Dakota in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s seems desolate to me now, but it was all I knew back then. Our black and white TV got two channels, plus a couple of fuzzy channels that occasionally treated us to an episode of “Hawaii 5-0. “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” were daily staples. We never did get to see “Pop-eye the Sailor Man” like my lucky friend who had cable TV. My mom assured us that cable TV was an unnecessary luxury, in the same category as having more than one telephone.

I grew up envisioning my future self as something like a blend of Donna Reed from “The Donna Reed Show,” and June Cleaver from “Leave it to Beaver.” In other words, I wanted to be a 1950’s housewife in a perfectly ironed and starched housedress. I loved the idea of baking cookies and creating casseroles (aka: hot dishes) for a perfect family. Never mind that I avoid ironing at all costs. My recipe for porcupine meatballs can be found at the end of this article.

Following that dream, I majored in home economics at the University of North Dakota (home of the Fighting Sioux). I chose that school over the alternative, North Dakota State University in Fargo, because I didn’t want to take the sewing classes that were required in Fargo. I can barely sew on a button, even today. Apparently, my professors at UND had a different idea about my future than I did. Rather than the endless recipe experimentation that I had dreamed of, I ended up interning in hospital kitchens and college cafeterias. Institutional food service still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The current trend toward stainless steel appliances will never be reflected at my house, as I associate the cold, gleaming stainless steel sinks and counters in those cafeterias with the hairnets and white polyester uniforms I was required to wear in those days. With my thin hair, hairnets aren’t my best accessory.

I graduated college and entered the world of work in the middle of the 1981 recession. I took a part-time job as a supervisor at a nursing home kitchen, and a second job as a dietary aid at Abbott-Northwestern Hospital. Drudgery, all of it. Over the years, I held many different positions, from public health case worker, to corporate jobs requiring 70 hour work weeks. My current position offers more balance and opportunity than any of these jobs.

My job as a floater is full of variety, always providing me with new challenges and opportunities. A typical day for me is, well, always changing. What might start out as a quiet day to play paperwork catch-up can change with a single phone call. Perhaps Sue at the Senior Center will call to say “Mary is out of the office today, do you think you could come over and help out?” “Sure, I can come until 2:30, but then Parks needs me until the end of the day”, may be my answer. Or maybe the Water Plant needs coverage, which means working 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the most beautiful offices in the City. It is great to get to know so many of my fellow employees, and learn what their job involves. I always appreciate their patience with me, as I try to get up to speed in my job of the day. It’s time for me to sign off; I need to get over to the Senior Center and cover their offices while they attend a staff meeting.

Porcupine Meatballs
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 pound lean ground beef
• 2/3 cup long-grain rice, uncooked
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 large can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Preparation:
Mix ground beef with rice, 1/2 cup of water, chopped onion, seasoned salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Shape porcupine ground beef mixture by tablespoon into 1 1/2-inch balls.
Place the porcupine meatballs in an ungreased 2-quart shallow baking dish. Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over the porcupine meatballs. Cover and bake at 350° F. oven for about 45 minutes. Uncover and bake porcupine meatballs 15 to 20 minutes longer. (Porcupine meatballs serve 4 to 6. )

My name is James McClean. I am a second year law student and an intern in the City Manager’s office. I went to high school in St. Anthony Village and currently live in Fridley.

Before starting my internship at the beginning of June, I had little exposure to the Southwest Metro area. Since beginning this internship, I’ve discovered that Eden Prairie is a beautiful city. Despite the distance from my home, high gas prices, and some terrible traffic, I always look forward to heading to work in the morning. Not only is Eden Prairie nice to look at, everyone I’ve met so far, from city staff to council members to residents, has been incredibly welcoming and encouraging.

In addition to the nice place and nice people, it helps that I truly enjoy the job itself. I should say internship rather than job because it is as much about the learning experience as it is the work experience and paycheck. I am fortunate that Scott Neal takes that learning aspect of internships very seriously. I am not stuck behind my desk all day doing data entry. Part of my job is to do specific research on projects that Scott and other staff members are working on or basically help out in any way I can. If that involves doing some data entry, I’m happy to do that, but the other part of my job is to learn everything I can about all the operations that go into maintaining a city of this quality on a day to day basis. And that involves A LOT.

After working here for a little over a month and a half, I’ve been to council meetings, met the mayor and all the council members, shook hands with the governor, met with high level executives of local businesses, and the superintendent of the school district. I’ve been on two police ride-alongs, sat in court with the city prosecutor, and toured the water treatment facility, the community center, all the city liquor stores, and many of the city’s great parks, just to name a few of the interesting people and places I’ve encountered so far. I can honestly say that I learn something new everyday, and most days it’s a lot more than one thing. Every city staff member I’ve had the opportunity to interact with, from department directors to police officers to administrative assistants, have all, despite busy schedules, been incredibly patient with me and seem genuinely enthusiastic about what they do and eager to answer all my questions and then some. If nothing else, I’ve learned that the city is in good hands.

What I find to be the greatest draw to working at the local government level is that you get to see the tangible effects of the work you do on a daily basis, whether it is beautiful parks, safe streets, or clean water coming out of the faucet. I’m just an intern and still have a lot to learn, but I hope by the end of my time here I am able to contribute something that makes the city even better than when I began, even if it is just helping a single resident with a problem, or making a small contribution to a major city wide project. I hope I can give back to the city at least a fraction of the value I have already gained in experience.

I’m out of the office next week, so it’s time to bring back one this blog’s favorite special features: Guest Blogger Week. Here’s what you’re going to get next week:

Monday: What’s like life for a young, hip, swinging City Manager Intern? You’ll find out first thing on Monday when you hear from Guest Blogger James McClean.

Tuesday: Dona Rowland is a Floating Admin. It’s one of the best job titles we’ve got in the city. Follow a day in the life of a Floater on Tuesday.

Wednesday: Most of you out there over the age of 30 may recall a Jimmy Fallon character from Saturday Night Live called “Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy“. Well, we’ve got a guy like that on our IT staff too, except he’s smarter and much, much less obnoxious than Nick Burns. It’s The Honorable Mr. Richfield himself - Scott Heddle. This could be interesting…

Thursday: So you think you’re smarter than the Police? News flash: You’re probably not. I’m not. Check in on the blog on Thursday to meet our Crime Information Analyst Ryan Kapaun. He’s a smart guy. A really smart guy.

Friday: Is there a better way to end Guest Blogger Week than an offering from Outside Utilities Guy and star of Guest Blogger Week 2007 - Mr. Andrew Sullivan? I think not. Will Andrew dazzle us with his experiences with the water distribution system or the sewer collection system? No hints today. Tune in next Friday. You’ll be glad you did!

Enjoy!

Eden Prairie Police, Fire, Public Works, and Communications staff members were all part of a multi-agency response this morning that saved the life of a construction worker who was trapped in a construction site that collapsed on him during construction. Here’s a link to the story with video and text from the KSTP website: Worker Trapped in hole in EP.

I talked to our Communications staff about the event. They talked about how amazing it was to watch the public safety employees from several different cities come together, form a plan and then execute the plan. It was just like a training exercise, except very real for everyone involved. A response like this, however, isn’t possible for a city our size just acting alone. We worked with our neighbors (Edina, Minneapolis, Bloomington, Minnetonka, Hopkins and others) to make this save today. We could not have done it without them.

A man is alive today because of the teamwork of the city employees that responded to the scene of his accident. In the words of Fire Chief George Esbensen, who was on the scene most of the day today, “Just another day in the Prairie.”

For those readers of this blog who are familiar with Eden Prairie, you know there is a large electrical transmission power line that cuts right through the middle of the commercial retail area just west of the Eden Prairie Center mall. We think this area is going to be the center of Eden Prairie’s future downtown. For years people have contemplated the potential development benefits to the City of moving or burying those power lines. This year we finally did something more than just contemplate it. The City hired the engineering consulting firm Black and Veatch to study the feasibility of the idea and to estimate its cost.

At our Council meeting last night, our Public Works Director Gene Dietz presented the Black & Veatch report on the power lines to the Council. Here are the salient facts of his report regarding the proposal to bury this power line underground:

· The new dielectric cable that they (Black & Veatch) are estimating is between 5 ½ and 6 inches in diameter and costs an estimated $180 per foot

· There are 12 cables required

· That would be $2160 per foot-just for the cable

· No one in the United States manufactures this kind of cable-it comes from Japan and one or two other places in Europe

· Splices in cable are the weak link-the first splice in the US of this kind of cable occurred only 2 years ago

· It may be cheaper to have two duct banks-one on each side of the right of way in order to dissipate the heat effectively

· A complication may occur-Xcel is considering modifying their “safety factor” for overhead wiring design. It turns out that they design the cable to have a somewhat steady wind velocity of 2 mph. They are considering changing their design philosophy to assume 4 mph. What does wind speed have to do with wire capacity you ask (my question precisely)-more wind more heat dissipation. With 4 mph wind speed, they can crank up the dial and increase the capacity from about 900 amps to 1100 amps with no hardware change in an overhead situation. But, in underground, more amps more heat-more heat more cost to bury.

· As noted by the cost, a burial project of this scope would be a tremendous undertaking.

The most notable fact from Gene’s report is that the cost of taking this large transmission line and converting it from its current status as an overhead line to an underground line is estimated at $21.5 million dollars.

If the project moves ahead, who would bear that cost? Well, it’s not likely to be Xcel Energy. They’re fine with the power line just as it is. Would the City pay this cost? Doubtful. I did not ask the Council last night, but I would not recommend it and I doubt very much the Council would authorize it. The most likely scenario is that a real estate developer would pay for this project, but only if the developer were going to do a massive redevelopment project in the area and the economics of burying the power line were favorable for the project. Short of that scenario, I don’t think this project is going to happen.

Nonetheless, if you’re interested in knowing more about the details of the Black & Veatch report, I’ve copied it into the blog below. Enjoy!

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City of Eden Prairie B&V Project 161935
Relocation of Existing 345kV Transmission Line B&V File No. 40.0000
Buried Route & Aerial Re-Route B&V Letter No. 002
June 26, 2008

Via Mail & Email

Attn: Eugene A. Dietz
Director of Public Works
City of Eden Prairie
8080 Mitchell Road
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Subject: Final Cost Estimate Report
Dear Mr. Dietz,

As requested by the City of Eden Prairie, Black & Veatch completed a Conceptual Estimate for the
relocation of an existing double circuit 345kV overhead transmission line. The cost estimates were
performed on two options: buried route and aerial route.

Option 1 - Buried Route: 3,700 feet 345kV Double Circuit Underground Transmission
Line

Black & Veatch estimates that the complete engineering, procurement and construction of the
underground lines would cost approximately $21.5 million. Minor changes in the route length (less than
500 feet) can be estimated by adjusting the total cost by $3,580 per foot of route length difference.

Cable Sizing

The required combined current capacity for both circuits was given as 3,928 amps (2,347 MVA). Each
individual circuit is required to carry 1,964 amps (1,174 MVA). No requirement was given for operation of
one circuit at a time or short term emergency loading.

Preliminary cable ampacity calculations indicate that a cable with a 3500 kcmil segmental copper
conductor can meet these requirements. These calculations are based on one common concrete duct
bank for two underground cable circuits with two cables per phase for each circuit, a maximum cover of

11.5 feet over the concrete duct bank (15 feet bottom of trench), ambient soil temperature of 25°C, native
soil thermal resistivity of 0.9°C-M/Watt, and daily load factor of 80 percent. These assumptions need to
be verified during design. The variations of assumptions will affect the cable size.
According to Tony Moore (612-330-6534) of Xcel Energy, a possible future re-rating of the existing
overhead line to 2,314 amps (1,920 MVA) per circuit may be required to be taken into account in planning
the project. The possibility of the future re-rating is now under internal evaluation by Xcel Energy. To
achieve this rating, the circuits would have to be installed in two separated concrete duct banks, which
requires a separation of approximately 20 feet to meet the loading requirement. This would double the
cost of paving replacement for an additional $760,000 added to the construction price, before
contingency or escalation.

Basis of Estimate

The estimate is based on the installation of a double circuit duct bank under city roads or parking lots for
the entire length. A conceptual duct bank cross section is included as an Attachment. The estimate is

1 of 3

BLACK & VEATCH CORPORATION · 11401 Lamar Avenue · Overland Park, KS 66211 · 913-458-2000 · Fax 913-458-2934

based on construction in an urban/suburban area. The estimate is based on 2008 costs with no
escalation for later construction.

The duct bank is based on two 3 x 3 arrangements of nine (9) 6 inch Schedule 40 PVC conduits for each
circuit. In each circuit, six (6) conduits will be used for 345kV power cable while three (3) more conduits
are reserved as spares and for communication circuits. The conduits are separated with a 3 inch edge to
edge spacing to diffuse heat and allow for the placement of concrete between the conduits. The two
circuits are separated by an empty duct spacer to increase the line capacity. The conduits are encased
in thermal concrete, which is a high density, low air entrainment concrete having a low thermal resistivity.

Above the duct bank, a corrective backfill such as fluidized thermal backfill (FTB) is required to meet the
cable ampacity. FTB is a low strength concrete mixture with a low thermal resistivity. Directly below the
pavement a suitable road material such as crushed rock or coarse sand should be used to allow for
drainage and expansion of the pavement. The estimate assumes pavement restoration will be for 10′
wide panels.

Right of Way, Easements

When in public roads, a separation of 3 feet is suggested between the duct bank and all other crossing or
parallel utilities. These separations should be increased for any utilities that generate heat.

For the permanent easement outside of the public right of way, space needs to be maintained for the
repair of possible cable faults. The widest portion of the installation, near the splicing vaults will be
approximately 18 feet wide. Adding space for a truck alongside for possible maintenance requires a
permanent easement of 30 feet wide.

Construction easements will be based on the room required to set the splicing vaults. The splicing vaults
will require excavations up to 26 feet wide. Adding space for a truck to either side of the excavation
requires a construction easement of 55 to 60 feet wide.

Separating the duct banks based on the possible future re-rating of the overhead line would increase both
the permanent and construction easements by 15 to 20 feet.

Option 2 - Aerial Re-Route: 6,200 Feet 345kV Double Circuit Overhead Transmission Line

Black & Veatch estimates that the complete engineering, procurement and construction of the overhead
line re-route would cost approximately $4.2 million. For this short project with mainly angled structures,
this estimate breaks down to approximately $678 per foot. The following sections describe the basis for
this estimate.

Structure Type

Single pole structures were used for this estimate due to right-of-way limitations. These double circuit
345kV monopole structures have shield wire and conductor arms, totaling eight (8) arms per structure.
The estimate assumes six (6) total structures, two (2) tangent structures, three (3) medium angle
deadend structures, and one (1) large angle deadend structure. Tangent structures are assumed to be I-
string configuration, and deadend structures are deadended and jumpered on arms. All structures are
assumed to be installed on drilled pier foundations.

Two (2) 795 ACSR “Drake” conductors were used per phase. A maximum span of 1,105 feet was
assumed.

The starting and ending cut-in structures are planed to be reused in this estimate. Reuse of the north
structure will likely require some rework of vangs or pole bands.

2 of 3

BLACK & VEATCH CORPORATION · 11401 Lamar Avenue · Overland Park, KS 66211 · 913-458-2000 · Fax 913-458-2934

The best small city (population 50,000-300,000) in which to live in America, according to Money magazine is…..Plymouth, Minnesota. Congratulations to our friends in Plymouth for receiving this wonderful recognition!

The Money magazine rankings are something we pay attention to in the City business. Landing a spot on Money’s Top 100 list is an honor worth noting for a small city. There are 716 cities in America with populations between 50,000 and 300,000. Making the Top 100 list means your city is in the Top 15% of cities nationwide in this population category. Money’s ranking for Eden Prairie this year was #40. Two years ago when Money ranked the small city category of cities, our ranking was #10. I’ll have to admit that while I’d rather have be on Money’s Top Ten list than it’s Top Forty list, I think it’s also worth noting that making the list at #40 means that Eden Prairie is in the top 5% of cities in the category, and being in the top 5% of anything nationwide is nothing to sneeze at.

Minnesota cities fared prominently on Money’s Top 100 list this year. In addition to Plymouth at #1 and Eden Prairie at #40, Eagan is #17, Apple Valley is #24, Lakeville is #26, Maple Grove is #41, Burnsville is #43, Rochester is #70 and Blaine is #93. So congratulations to all of the Minnesota cities that made the Top 100 list this year. If you’re interested in reading Money’s description of Eden Prairie, click this link: Eden Prairie, MN. If you’re interested in learning more about Eden Prairie from an alternative source called Sperling’s Bestplaces, try this link: Eden Prairie, MN.

Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah and I did one of our regular Meet & Greet visits to an Eden Prairie business yesterday. This time it was a visit to a local company called ThreeWire.

ThreeWire is an interesting story and an interesting company. We visited with their President, Mr. Mark Summers. Mark is a veteran Med-Tech executive originally from Texas who worked at several other places before starting ThreeWire in his home. Then is got too big for his home, so he rented some office space from someone who was renting some office space. Then it got too big for that, so he picked up the balance of a sublease from a company that was moving out of some space here in Eden Prairie. Then they rented that same space on their own. The company that started with three guys at Mark’s house nine years ago now employees 70 people here in Eden Prairie doing millions of dollars of business every month with companies from around the world.

ThreeWire’s tag line is “We deliver patients“. Their business is complex, but in a nutshell, they do a couple of basic things. They identify and recruit patients for medical trials. They do direct marketing of specialty medical devices and pharmacy products to patients. And they assist medical device companies with patient identification and consultation for such things as marketing, but also in the event of a medical device product recall. They have a thirty seat call center at their facility here in town that is operated by Register Nurses. They can receives calls from all over the English, Spanish, French and German speaking world right here in Eden Prairie.

Mark was extraordinarily frank with us. He told us that Minnesota is a corporate-friendly state. He likes being in business here. However, he also told us that he has been surprised by how the government (mine included, I think) has let our collective infrastructure (especially our transportation systems) slip into such poor repair and have not kept up with growing demands for increased capacity. Guilty. He’s right, but I also took the time to tell him about planned improvements at T.H. 169 & 494 and the future extension of LRT into Eden Prairie. He appreciated hearing that news.

We always ask the people we meet with at Meet & Greet visits what their experience has been with city government. They almost always tell us that they don’t have a lot of experiences with city government, but the experience they do have is almost always positive. This was the case with ThreeWire. They’ve had a couple of experiences with our Police and Fire Departments. Mark reported that the City personnel he dealt with were polite and helpful and did their jobs very well.

We completed our visit with a tour of the facility. Mark told us the company is doing some facilities planning this year because they believe the company will double in size again soon. He wants to stay in Eden Prairie. I told him that we wanted his company to stay in Eden Prairie and that we’d work with him to try and make that happen.

It was a good visit to ThreeWire. We’ll do our best to help them stay part of our vibrant local economy.

I attended the kick-off meeting last night of a new quasi-city committee that will be tasked with the opportunity (yes, opportunity) to raise money for the City’s new Art Center. When the City Council asked staff to organize a public fund raising effort, I wasn’t so sure who would step forward. But immediately after the story about the Council’s request made the local newspapers, we had about a dozen residents call and volunteer to be a part of the effort.

We got most of those dozen residents together last night - plus a few more that heard about the meeting and decided to pop in - to get the effort started. We told them the story of the Sampson family and their generous gift of the new Art Center building to the City. We told them about Art Center Task Force’s recommendations about necessary building renovations and proposed programs in the facility. Then, we told them the Council asked us to raise, at least, $326,000 to get the facility renovated and equipped.

The response was……enthusiasm! We fielded questions like “Are you sure that’s enough?”, and “Does that amount help keep operating costs low in the future?, and “When can we start asking our friends for money?. Nice.

We met for two hours. We decided that our next step would be to spend a little time thinking about the assets of the group that came together last night and then to reassemble the group next week on Wednesday, July 16 at 7pm at the Community Center to start the planning effort for the new committee. Everyone I talked to at the end of the night said they would see me next Wednesday night.

I bet they will, too.

As our city becomes more diverse it’s important for our city government to be prepared to respond to challenges created by that diversity. I thought it would be a good idea to figure out what resources we had on hand here among our city employees to address those challenges . So I put out the call among City employees for people who spoke other languages fluently. I gathered them all together today for lunch.

What a great lunch it was! I learned that we have city employees working here that are fluent in Mandarin (Chinese), Serbo-Croatian, Russian, Italian, Greek, Afrikaans, German, Somali and Spanish. In addition to learning who can speak what language, it was even more interesting to hear the stories of these employees about how they got this country from places as diverse as South Africa, China, Bosnia and Belarus. They were touching and inspiring stories of people who risked a lot to come to this country to start over and invest their time, talent and energy in our country.

It’s good to know that we have a broad range of languages spoken by the talented people that work for the City of Eden Prairie. I’m sure we’ll put them all to use some day.