COMMUNICATIONS AND NEWS FROM THE WEEK:
Meetings and Announcements:
The next regular City Council Meeting will be on Monday, May 8th.
The EDA has a special meeting on May 8th and the agenda will contain the following: 1) Consider modifications to the Reuter Walton Term Sheet and 2) Call for a special meeting of the EDA on June 26th
ADMINISTRATION
Two community updates to report this week.
3M Cutting 6000 Jobs - https://www.reuters.com/business/3m-cut-6000-positions-globally-2023-04-25/
Man charged with criminal sexual conduct and solicitation of ISD 622 girls - https://kstp.com/kstp-news/local-news/charges-st-paul-man-allegedly-solicited-sex-from-minor-girls-using-snapchat-and-email/
Parks and Natural Resources
Sherwood Park Playground Update
Northland Recreation has begun to dig the container for the new playground at Sherwood Park! We hope to have the new playground installed (weather permitting) by the end of May. To save on installation costs, the Park Maintenance Crew will be removing the old play equipment, repurposing the sand and filling in the old site with the dirt from the new playground container area.
Invasive Brush Removal at Gladstone Savanna
Buckthorn and other invasive plants at Gladstone Savanna Neighborhood Preserve are being cut and treated by a contractor this week.
Some brush will remain on site to discourage camping in the area this summer. Some brush will be piled this fall by Century College students for pickup and some will be left to help fuel a future prescribed fire. Prescribed burning will remove built up leaf litter and grass thatch, improving growth of native pollinator supporting flowering plants and grasses. Our goal is to provide habitat for the Rusty-Patched bumblebee, Monarch butterfly and other native pollinators.
Recruiting AMPACT Community Forestry Member
Maplewood’s Parks and Natural Resources Department is recruiting a new AmeriCorps/ AMPACT Community Forestry member to replace Dani LeMire when her term expires in July 2023.
Community Forestry members assist the City with tree tasks such as pruning, inspection, planting, education, events and more! Please spread the word and the attached flier if possible.
Questions? Contact Carole Gernes at (651) 249-2416
Maplewood Spring Clean Up FYI
While the weather was chilly, we had a steady flow of Maplewood residents attending the annual Spring Clean Up on Saturday, April 22 at Aldrich Arena. It takes many people and organizations to make the Spring Clean Up a success. Thank you to all of the Maplewood employees, volunteers, and vendors who assisted this year.
For the third year in a row, the City worked with Republic Services as its main contractor at the event. Republic Services covers the clean up at no cost to the City, as part of the overall residential trash hauling contract. Year’s past the City was spending close to $10,000 per year for this service.
Other vendors involved in collecting items and recycling include Re-Cycle Bikes, Pete’s Small Engines, USAgain used clothing, Second Chance Recycling mattress and box spring recycling, Retrofit electronics and appliance recycling, First State Tire collects all of the tires after the event for recycling, and all of the large bulky metals get recycled. This year the Ramsey-Washington Recycling and Energy Center have agreed to pay for the recycling of all of the mattresses. Second Chance recycling usually charges an event fee and per mattress or box spring collected. This is part of a larger program to assist cities in recycling more materials now that both counties have purchased and are managing the facility.
The Police Department was also at the Spring Clean Up this year collecting unused and expired medicine. Maplewood recently removed its drop off medicine recycling box in front of the Police Department due to challenges with the collection, so including the medicine collection at the Spring Clean Up was a welcome addition.
Finally, Maplewood residents were very generous with food and cash donations to Merrick Community Services and local food shelfs. There was 350 pounds of food and $757 in cash donations collected at the event!
Check out a comparison of vehicles attending and items collected at the last four Spring Clean Ups below.
Materials Collected | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Appliances (#) | 102 | 126 | 141 | 122 |
Attendance (# of vehicles) | 432 | 386 | 367 | 319 |
Bicycles Collected for Reuse (#) | 64 | 60 | 38 | 60 |
Food Shelf Donation (lbs) | 149 | 243 | 95 | 350 |
Food Shelf Donation ($) | $30 | $467 | $645 | $757 |
Garbage /MSW/Construction (Tons) | 28.51 | 37.07 | 32.25 | 42.87 |
Mattresses / Box Springs Recycled (#) | 98 | 216 | 139 | 149 |
Metal (Tons) | 6.98 | 8.51 | 7.48 | 6.43 |
Small Engines – lawn mowers, etc. (#) | 55 | 73 | 61 | 60 |
Televisions/Monitors (#) | 136 | 224 | 194 | 140 |
Tires (#) | 25 | 249* | 262* | 70 |
Used Clothing (lbs) | 573 | 515 | 350 | 537 |
Medicine (lbs) | | | | 150 |
*The number of tires in 2021 and 2022 included tires collected from illegal dumping, city vehicles, and the clean-up event.