6.3. ERMUSR 09-09-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River Municipal Utilities 322 King Avenue phone: 763.441.2020 Elk River,MN 55330 Fax:763.441.8099 September 3, 2003 To: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission John Dietz Jerry Takle James Tralle From: Bryan C. Adams Subject: Street Light Maintenance Both the City and Elk River Municipal Utilities, are in the budgeting process for 2004 and beyond. One issue that needs to be addressed is street light maintenance. The immediate issue is Main Street lights, but the broader issue is the steel and aluminum light poles on the major roadways and semaphores at the intersections. To the best of my understanding, the Elk River Municipal Utilities is to provide the electricity at no cost to the City and replace the lamps at no cost to the City, because we have the equipment to do so. We are starting to go far beyond this maintenance issue into much more repair work. My question to this commission is, should we be doing more than lamp replacement? City staff is under the impression, we do all street light maintenance. A typical example is Main Street lights. As these lights are hit by vehicles, we reinstall these lights and often replace the light post if damaged. Sometimes the persons hitting the pole, insurance reimburses us the cost, but often we absorb these costs. As the street light arms fail, we have paid to have new arms fabricated and we reinstall (see the attached pictures). The anchor bolts have been rusting off, so we designed, paid for installed new anchor bolts, and reinstalled the light. The anchor bolt issue was going to be a joint Utility/City project, but it just didn't happen due to scheduling available manpower. For safety reasons, the arm replacement and anchor bolt replacement needs to happen in a timely fashion. In the last purchase of replacement arms and anchor bolt assemblies, we have expensed approximately $7,000 in material only. My real concern, is the future painting or replacement costs of metal street light poles and semaphores (see the attached pictures). This will be expensive and an on going endeavor. Who is the party responsible for these costs? Staff solicits your comments on this issue.