{"id":27689,"date":"2012-03-08T21:59:46","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T01:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/?p=27689"},"modified":"2012-03-08T21:59:46","modified_gmt":"2012-03-09T01:59:46","slug":"city-managers-newsletter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/city-managers-newsletter\/","title":{"rendered":"City Manager's Newsletter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nCongratulations To St. Johns Wrestling Team<\/strong>: Winning a state championship is an amazing accomplishment for any high school sports team-winning three in a row is a much rarer feat. The St. Johns Redwings wrestling team did just that, taking home the 2011 Division II Michigan State Wrestling Championship, making them the champs for three years running. Special mention goes out to Taylor Massa, who concluded his high school wrestling career with four consecutive individual state titles, and was undefeated during his four years as a Redwing grappler. Congratulations to the team, the coaching staff and the proud families who support this great sports program.
\nCity To Begin Evaluation Of Storm And Sanitary Sewer Issues<\/strong>: The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) requires municipalities to comply with state and federal regulations regarding the collection and disposal of stormwater and sanitary waste. The City has two separate systems for this purpose: a stormwater collection system and a sanitary sewer system.
\nThe stormwater system is comprised mainly of curb, gutter, catch basins and underground pipes that move stormwater from properties and public streets to city and county drainage ditches. The sanitary sewer system is a separate arrangement of underground lines that connect businesses and residences to the underground sanitary sewer lines through which waste is transported to the St. Johns Wastewater Treatment Facility.
\nBecause the City sometimes experiences sanitary sewer overflows on the southernmost part of the city during heavy rain and snow thaw events, MDEQ is requiring the City to develop a comprehensive plan to address this environmental issue.
\nEvaluating the integrity and operation of public infrastructure that is mostly underground is no easy task, nor is it an inexpensive one. Fortunately the City has obtained a MDEQ “S2” grant from the State of Michigan to cover $306,175 of the $340,195 needed to evaluate the systems and develop a plan of improvement options. This comprehensive action plan will include the development of computer modeling and provide construction cost opinions.
\nA final Project Plan will then be presented to MDEQ for review and approval. The grant and underlying work will be undertaken by the C2AE engineering firm, which has a great deal of experience and expertise in the area of civil engineering.
\nSo what does this mean for property owners on the south side of town, where most of this evaluation will occur? The inspection, televising and cleaning out of public lines-which is a core part of this process-should not affect private property. “Lateral lines”, which are the underground pipes that connect residences and businesses to the public sanitary sewer system, will also be inspected.
\nWhile this overall inspection plan should not have any impact on the use or enjoyment of private properties, any questions or concerns should be directed to either Public Services Director Jeff Stephens (224-8944 ext. 281) or Wastewater Treatment Facility Supervisor Steven Martin (224-8944 ext. 230). This field inspection work is scheduled to begin during the week of March 12th and continue through April 30th.
\nControlled Burn Of Excess Vegetation In Water Retention Pond<\/strong>: As part of an overall plan to improve stormwater drainage, the City intends to clear out dead vegetation in its Steel and Walbridge Stormwater Detention Pond. This facility is on the north side of Townsend Road, approximately a quarter-mile west of BR US 27. The most cost-effective method to accomplish this is through a controlled burn of the wild grasses and other vegetation clogging the retention pond.
\nThe City Commission has authorized the Fire Department to conduct this activity, which will also provide a training experience for the firefighters. It is anticipated this controlled fire will be of short duration, and will pose no risk to the public. Scheduling of the controlled burn will depend on weather, but is anticipated to take place as soon as possible during the month of March. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-city"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}