Volume 16, Issue 2
February 2013
Employee of the Month
Inside this issue:
Employee of the 1 Month Quotable Quotes 1
LPW February Birthdays & 2 Anniversaries
Raffle Winners 2 Farewell 2-3 Interesting Fact 3
The Many Facets 4-5 Roger Paradis—January 2013
Safety Matters 4 Daniel F. (Diz) Ouellette—February 2013 Roger Paradis, W&S Meter Person & Diz Ouellette, W&S Meter Reader, Director’s Report 5 have been selected as EOM for January and February 2013, respectively! GIS Link 6 These gentlemen were nominated for going above and beyond during an incident that took place while they were working together on replacing/ Humor for Health 6 troubleshooting residential water meters. Diz asked Roger to go to a Storm Nemo customer’s house for a final water meter reading instead of the next meter 6 Comparison address because they had time and the business office had requested the From the Past 7 reading. On route, Diz noticed an elderly lady sitting on her front stairs on Judith St. and waving her arm in a high arc like she was trying to get attention. Diz asked Roger to stop and go back. When they reached her, they discovered she had fallen and severely broken her leg. She was not prepared for the cold and had been calling for help for at least several minutes. Roger and Diz called 911, gave her one of their jackets for warmth and cared for her while waiting for the ambulance. Both men commented on how tough this lady was for handling the pain of a broken lower leg and withstanding the cold without complaint. If not for Diz’s awareness of his surroundings and the training and compassion of both men to stop and assist, things may have turned out very differently. CONGRATULATIONS!
“A hug isn’t a hug until you give it away.” - submitted by Jeanne Raymond
“The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism, but February.” - Joseph Wood Krutch
“Winter is the time of promise because there is so little to do, or because you can now & then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so.” - Stanley Crawford FEBRUARY ANNOUNCEMENTS A Fond Farewell to Leo Lemay Leo Lemay leaves us after 15 years. Jon Elie stated he could not remember Leo ever taking a sick day in all those years. Always a smile on his face, and a LPW FEBRUARY spring in his step, Leo will be greatly missed. BIRTHDAYS 1st Dave Rioux, Garage 16th Maurice Dutil, Buildings 18th Norm Roy, W&S 21st Dennis Boudreau, Engineer. 22nd George Belanger, Hwy. 28th Wes Enman, Engineering
LPW FEBRUARY ANNIVERSARIES 18 years Denise Charest, Dispatch 9 years Andy Parker, Highway
50/50 Raffle Winners 01/04/13 Rene Lavoie $28.00 01/11/13 Dan Rodrigue $30.00 01/18/13 Wes Enman $24.00 01/25/13 Norm Saindon $23.00 Sponsored by R&R.com
Page 2 With recognitions from AFSCME, the City, and R&R.com, Leo’s farewell was filled with laughter, some tears, and a lot of hugs and handshakes.
INTERESTING FACT: STORM NEMO??
Since when do they name snow storms? I was a little baffled when I read an article in the paper recently referring to the bliz- zard of 2013 as Storm Nemo. Curiosity got the best of me so I googled “why did they call the blizzard of 2013 Nemo” and found the following information from alaskadispatch.com: You can thank The Weather Channel (TWC). Late last year, TWC bestowed upon itself the mantle of official designator of winter storms. The National Weather Service was not amused. Here is TWC’s rationale: Naming a storm raises awareness. Attaching a name makes it easier to follow a weather system’s progress. A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own, which adds to awareness. In today’s social media world, a name makes it much easier to reference in communication. A named storm is easier to remember and refer to in the future. In its explanation, TWC notes that Europe has named winter storms for years. And, it says, no U.S. government body has stepped up to tackle the task for the benefit of the public. Why Nemo? Well, TWC says winter Storm Nemo isn’t named Leo’s final punch, at 3:00 on the dot. after the 2003 Disney movie “Finding Nemo” or the Captain Nemo of Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” It says, Nemo is a Greek boys name meaning “from the valley;” it means “nobody” in Latin. Another website suggested that it was named after Captain Nemo for his ferocity and not the cute little cartoon fish. That makes a little more sense to me. One way or the other, I think we’re going to see this trend more often. Too bad they didn’t start in alphabetical order – perhaps, Storm Atlas … you know, the guy holding the globe. ‐ Jon
Page 3 THE MANY FACETS OF PUBLIC WORKS
Jacks of All Trades—the Highway Department Tackles a Variety of Winter Projects Up until storm Nemo, February 8-9, winter was off to a slow start with only five (5) snow storms dumping a mere combined total of 27 inches. Nemo alone added 25.5 inches in only about 36 hours and another 4 inches, Monday February 11th. As a result, the whole city was buried and Public Works has shifted gears. We started a night snow removal operation that began Wednesday, February 13 and is expected to run 3-4 weeks. Right before the big storm hit, Public Works crews had some time to get caught up with other maintenance issues that were left unfinished or put on the back burner. Listed below are a variety of productive tasks that Public Works staff were able to accomplish in between snow storms and sand/salt events: Workers from the Arborist crew have been busy limbing overhanging branches and cutting brush along sections of Jepson Brook and pruning/removing trees. While driving on East Ave. you may have noticed that the wooded area between the sidewalk and the LHS athletic facilities has been substantially thinned out and now provides a nice view of the sports fields. On rainy or extremely cold days we had workers remodeling the former main office which has since moved to City Hall. The goal is to convert the space to a large room for training seminars, conferences, etc. Other crews were getting a jump on Spring clean-up in parks and cemeteries by picking up broken branches, taking down Christmas decorations, servicing and reconditioning trucks and equipment, installing/replacing a variety of traffic signs and patching potholes with the new “hotbox”.
The photos show the enhanced view of LHS and Andy Parker, Rene Lavoie, and Dan Ouellette in the process of repairing and painting approximately (200) of our beat up, mismatched No Parking signs. Some were faded orange, some were white, some yellowish. Some had just lettering, while others had symbols. Now they all have a nice consistent red and black symbol on a white background. - Jon Elie
Safety Begins with You!! Members of the Safety Committee are always available to take questions and concerns you would like brought to the Committee. Please contact us. The next meeting is Thursday, March 21, 2013, at 1:00 p.m. in the PW Conference Room. Stay alert, work within your abilities, be a team. Work safe!! Norm Saindon, Chair Steve Damien, Vice Chair Don Mailhot, Sfty. Coord. Jim Ward, GIS Norm Roy, W&S Dave Saucier, Bldgs. Phil Brienza, Garage Jon Elie, Hwy. Hubie Affo, Hwy. Scott Bates, Hwy. Rob Stalford, SWF Lauren Shaw, Eng. Nick Poland, Hwy. “Safety doesn’t happen by accident.” -unknown
Page 4 Director’s Report for January 2013 The Many Facets continued….. The wild weather continues with extreme cold and highs in the single digits, then soaring within a week into the 50’s. It has certainly been crazy. We had two more plowable storms (5” on Jan 16th and 3” on Jan 28-29). Total snowfall to date for this winter is 27”. Our salt/sand trucks responded and treated roads 8 times during the month. Street/Road & Sidewalk Improvement Projects Upcoming construction projects. - Lewiston contract 2013-002 Walnut St Rehab and Sidewalk Improvements (Bates St to Horton St). Bid Opening is scheduled for March 5 (est cost ~$400K CDBG funding); - MDOT PIN 19007.00 Rte 126 Sabattus St Traffic Signal Improvements (Main St to Pond Rd) Bid Opening April 17 (est cost $700K 100% state & federal funds) - MDOT PIN 014049.24 New Freedom Grant - Park St (Oak St to Ash St) sidewalk & ADA access. Bid Opening March 20 (est. cost ~$55K -100% state and federal funds) The crews completed the following workload: - Storm Drain catch-basin repairs were completed at 2 locations and cleaning the culvert at 750 Sabattus St; - Snow removal at 27 locations -fire stations, Armory, congested dead-end streets, cul-de-sacs & trouble spots; - Guard rail repairs were made on Old Lisbon Rd, River Rd, Grove St and Alfred Plourde Pkwy; - Tree removal and pruning on 7 streets and Jepson Brook. - Removed decorations & chipped hundreds of Christmas trees brought to the PW yard and SWF by residents; - Replaced damaged or worn street & directional signs at 19 locations around the City and replaced ~200 outdated and worn No Parking signs on streets where parking is limited on at least 1 side during the winter. Water, Sewer and Stormwater – Upcoming construction projects. These projects are expected to be advertised in the next few months: - Oak St Sewer & Stormwater Improvements (final section - Sabattus to White) (est. cost of ~$1 million); -Jepson Brook Phase III of the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Sewer/Stormwater project (5 streets on north side of Sabattus near the intersection with Russell (est. cost ~$500K)); and Phase IV (south side of Sabattus - Genest St to Wildwood Dr.)(est. cost $700K) -Bartlett St Water line replacement project (Adams Ave to Sabattus St (est. cost ~$700K); Work performed by the Water & Sewer crews included: - Responded to a major overflow at the UV facility at Lake Auburn which flooded parts of the facility and damaged some equipment and walls. The facility was back up & running less than 20 hours later. The insurance company is assisting in the evaluation and repair costs, but total damage may be about $100k. - The King Ave and Fair St Water Main Replacement project bid was opened with the apparent low bidder Pratt & Sons, Inc. in the amount of $431,775.00 (well below the engineer estimate of $575,000) - Responded and repaired: 6 main leaks; 3 service leaks; 18 Customer Concerns (E-Govs) and 77 Digsafe requests; multiple sewer back-ups, both private and public; and repaired cross country manholes that were either hit by atv’s, snowmobiles or just old age - Continued to maintain all watershed and water & sewer facilities - Ongoing painting & rehab of hydrants and clearing snow from 750 hydrants City wide after each storm; - Ongoing sewer flushing, gate valve program, cleaning & operating, updates and locates for GIS, water meter reading & water meter replacement program, changing 241 5/8’’ and 3/4’’ meters during the month - Crews also aided PW in snow plowing operations on roads and sidewalks. Solid Waste – Regulatory Updates - Maine DEP notified the City of a new waste handling fee for Construction & Demolition Debris (CDD) disposed in municipal landfills, which went into effect January 1, 2013. This fee, which was approved by the Governor (P.L. 20112 Chap. 544) imposes a $1/ton fee for CDD disposed in the City’s secure landfill. The fee will increase to $2/ ton January 1, 2014. Over the past 5 years, approx. 900 tons/yr. of CDD waste is disposed in the City’s secure landfill. This will have an impact on the Solid Waste Budget. - Maine DEP staff requested additional monitoring for methane gas generated by the closed (attenuated) landfill. Monitoring by City staff, has detected methane gas in areas immediately adjacent to & within this landfill as would be expected. Methane gas has not been detected in any of the other monitoring sites away from this landfill. Recycling – - Over the past 4 months, Lewiston residents recycled a monthly average of 106 tons of Single Stream Recyclable Material. This is an 18% improvement over the same time period last year, resulting in the City sending 2% less garbage to MMWAC for disposal than last year. - City Council approved leasing the shredder building and ~ 3 acres of land to allow Casella Co. to construct and operate a Materials Recycle Facility (MRF) for single stream recycling. This will save the City money by not having to send our recycled materials to Massachusetts. Also, the City will increase revenues through the lease and tax payments for the underutilized facility and reduce other costs as Casella assumes responsibilities for the maintenance and utilities for the facility.
Page 5 The Many Facets continued….. How does Nemo “stack up” compared to other snowstorms?
Boston received 24.9” from Nemo, which would make it fifth on the below list.
Here’s a list of the top 10 storms in Boston: 1. February 17-18, 2003 27.5 inches 2. February 6-7, 1978 27.1 inches 3. February 24-27, 1969 26.3 inches 4. March 31 – April 1, 1997 25.4 inches 5. January 22-23, 2005 22.5 inches 6. January 20-21, 1978 21.4 inches Above: Boston 1978. 7. March 3-5, 1960 9.8 inches Below: Boston Storm Nemo, 2013. 8. February 16-17, 1958 19.4 inches 9. February 8-10, 1994 18.7 inches 10. December 26-27, 2010 18.2 inches 10. January 7-8, 1996 18.2 inches 10. December 20-22, 1975 18.2 inches
Nemo February 8-9, 2013 25.5 inches in Lewiston 31.9 in Portland (previous record 27.1 1979) - Jon Elie
If anyone knows where we can get historical snowfall rec- ords for Lewiston, please contact Lauren Shaw. We would NEXT MONTH: MORE ON NEMO & love to know how Nemo compares. THE CLEAN-UP EFFORTS OF LPW.
Check out the GIS Map Applications link: h p://www.lewistonmaine.gov/index.aspx?nid=194
VaLENTINE’S DAY HUMOR 1. A couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word. An earlier discussion had led to an argument and neither of them wanted to concede their position. As they pass a barnyard of mules, goats and pigs, the husband asked sarcastically, “Relatives of yours?” “Yep,” the wife replied, “in-laws.”
2. A smart, handsome and sexy young man dressed in the most sophisticated manner walked into the bar. He noticed a woman staring at him without blinking her eyes with an open mouth. Flattered, he approached the woman and said in his sexiest deep voice - "I'll do anything you wish, beautiful lady, for just $20 but on one condition." The woman was trapped in a moment and asked as if in a trance - "What's your condition?" The young man replied, "Tell me your wish in just three words." After a long pause, woman opened her purse, counted the money and handed it to the man along with her address. She then looked deeply into his eyes and whispered, "Clean my house."
3. After a quarrel, a wife said to her husband, You know, I was a fool when I married you.” And the husband replied, Yes, dear, but I was in love and didn’t notice it.”
4. A couple came upon a wishing well. The wife leaned over, made a wish and threw in a penny. The husband decided to make a wish, too, but he leaned over too much, fell in the well and drowned. The wife was stunned for a moment, but then smiled and said, “It really works!” - from the Internet
Page 6 Lots of Snow? That’s Nothing New for Us Mainers
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