December Office Hours, Winter Related Updates and Flood Mitigation Update

A few updates including my December Open Office Hours, winter-related news and some flood mitigation information.

Office Hours

In December, I will be holding open office hours twice:

If you have a question, concern or topic of interest that you would like to discuss, but the times above don't work for you, you can e-mail me or schedule a meeting with me online at http://calendar.keith.net.

Winter

My goal is to share relevant and important information on this blog, but I wanted to let people know that I won't be sharing winter weather related updates. The city does a fantastic job with their snow plow and sidewalk shoveling updates (via the web, e-mail, Twitter or Facebook). I find their updates very useful and timely and encourage you sign up if you haven't already. You can get more details and/or subscribe at http://www.cityofmadison.com/winter (check out the Stay Informed sidebar).

Here are some winter-related updates from Streets:

Final Weekend for Streets Division Drop-off Site Hours

This is the final weekend for the Streets Division's drop-off sites in 2018.  This is also the final weekend for Madison residents to use the yard waste only drop-off site at 402 South Point Rd until it closes for the season.

Winter drop-off site hours begins on Monday, December 3.  During winter availability, the drop-off sites located at 4602 Sycamore Ave. and 1501 W. Badger Rd. will be open 7:30am to 3:00pm Monday to Friday.  During winter availability, the South Point Rd. location is closed.

The hours for the drop-off sites are as follows the next four days:

Winter hours will remain in effect from Monday, December 3, 2018 through Friday, March 29, 2019.

Expanded hours will resume on March 30, 2019.  The yard-waste only drop-off site on South Point Rd. will also reopen on March 30, 2019.

For additional information regarding the drop-off sites and their hours, please visit the Streets Division website, www.cityofmadison.com/streets, consult the Recyclopedia, or contact the Streets Division offices.  Residents east of S. Park Street, including the isthmus, can call 608-246-4532. Residents west of S. Park Street can call 608-266-4681.

Season Over: Curbside Leaf and Yard Waste Collection Done for 2018

Curbside leaf and yard waste collection for the 2018 fall period has officially ended.  All areas of Madison have received their final official opportunity for curbside leaf collection.

City of Madison residents who still have yard waste for disposal should take the material to one of the Streets Division drop-off sites. 

Residents should not place yard waste and leaves to the terrace or road edge for collection again until the start of the spring collection rounds in 2019. The exact start date is weather dependent and will be announced when that date is known.

Streets Division drop-off sites are located at 1501 W. Badger Rd. on the southwest side and 4602 Sycamore Ave. on the east side.

While the weather is still relatively snow-free at present, the Streets Division can no longer guarantee that every Madison resident will receive an additional curbside collection before a winter event occurs. Since the Streets Division does not want residents stuck with piles of yard waste buried under snow or frozen to the terrace, the official curbside collection period has ended until the start of the regular spring collection window in 2019.

For additional information regarding leaf and yard waste collection, or any of the Streets Division services, please visit www.cityofmadison.com/streets. Residents can also contact the Streets Division office that services their home. Residents east of S. Park Street, including the isthmus, can call 608-246-4532 for the east side Streets Division, and residents west of S. Park Street can call 608-266-4681 for the west side office.

Curbside Sandbag Collection Complete

City of Madison Streets Division and Engineering crews have completed collecting sandbags that were placed out for pickup prior to the November 25 deadline.  Curbside sandbag collection for 2018 is now over.

Residents should not place sandbags out for pickup again until the spring 2019 curbside collection opportunity.

The start of the spring 2019 collection opportunity is weather dependent and will be announced when the date is known.

Residents with sandbags who wish to dispose of them can do one of the following:

• Store sandbags for future use. If the property was at risk of flooding during the summer of 2018, it may be at risk again.
• Cut open sandbags and spread the sand on your property. Throw the empty bags in the tan refuse cart. Do not place full sandbags into the tan refuse or green recycling containers.
• Return sandbags to 4141 Nakoosa Trail (the old Cub Foods location). Sandbag collection sites in parks have been cleared. The site at Nakoosa will remain available through the winter.

Additional information about flood event can be found at www.cityofmadison.com/flooding.

Flood Mitigation Update

On Tuesday, members of the City Engineering department attended Wexford Village's annual homeowner association meeting to discuss the response to the August 20th flooding that affected people in that area severely. Below is a copy of the presentation they gave to the residents. I have seen Engineering give a similar presentation about flooding 4 times already and I think this presentation was the best.

PDF Presentation

(You can also watch a video of a similar presentation that I link to in a previous blog post)

In addition, Gregory Fries (City Engineering) did provide the following update on work being done to address lake levels:

With regard to lake levels and how they can be managed better/differently in the future,  both Dane County and the City of Madison have passed Resolutions to create and staff a technical advisory team to review hydrologic and hydraulic changes that could be made to the lake system allowing Dane County more options and better flexibility in managing the lake levels.  This report will look largely only at the technical possibilities associated with managing the lake levels.  The team creating this report consists of staff from Dane County, WDNR, UW Madison Engineering, and the City of Madison.

This team is to provide a report and recommendations to Dane County Lakes and Watershed Commission by Mid-February.  At that time, the Lakes and Watershed Commission will take the report up with the community at large and eventually recommendations will be provided to the Dane County Board for action.

As always, if there is anything I can do to help, feel free to reach out: district19@cityofmadison.com

-Keith F