North American Marsupial

The other day I came home and was in the garage when my neighbor comes over to ask about a curious animal he had seen under his bird feeder. After talking about it we thought he had seen an Opossum. Generally I think most of us think these to be a southern creature not venturing this far north but over the past decade the opossum has moved into Minnesota presumably with warmer winters making it easier for them to survive.

Sure enough after getting a flashlight and looking under the nearby structure he had a full grown opossum. These are large cat sized creatures with pointy pink nose, grey or black fur with pink feet and a naked pink tail. These are solitary nocturnal animals. They generally move very slowly and when frightened could hiss or growl but generally become unable to flee and fall into a state of involuntary movement laying down and “playing possum”.

Although we’re not accustomed to these animals they are rather unique. They are North America’s only marsupial mammal. The female carries its young in a pouch until they are 2-3 months old and then carries them on her back for another 1-2 months. They eat insects, snails, rodents, berries, over ripe fruit, grasses, leaves, occasional snakes, corn or other vegetables. They are very adaptable and live wherever there is water, food and shelter. They are at home in trees and use their prehensile tail to stabilize themselves but don’t hang by their tail as many people think. They generally live 2- 4 years and are very prone to be killed by predators such as dogs and cats, owls, other wildlife and humans with cars.

Checking the next day the opossum had moved on to where ever it had been living but it got me to thinking. Perhaps I had been too quick to blame the squirrels with the bird feeder being empty in my backyard. I won’t be filling it soon. I don’t believe you have much to fear about opossums as they are very placid animals but I’d like him or her to move on. I don’t want my vegetable garden to get raided this summer.

Fast Thinking

Perhaps you have had one of those days when things just don’t go they way they should. I think we all have and sometimes, it seems nothings seems to go right. Well we had one of those moments in fire drill fashion just before the council meeting on February 19^th. Just before we’re about to broadcast the meeting we go to turn on the DVD recorder and it’s dead. No lights, no power, nothing. The meeting is about to start and the means for recording isn’t available.

No problem, in the past as we had two VCR’s that did the job. If one went down the other would be used. Our back up now is the VCR and having not used it for several years it wasn’t automatic to switch it over. Fast thinking was in play however to save the day. We had another VCR in the building set up so it could record the broadcast as it was accomplished live. The fast thinking was great but not fast enough to catch the start of the meeting and we didn’t capture the first 3 minutes or so.

In retrospect the equipment we have been using is coming to the point where reliability is an issue. The DVD recorders weren’t that old but had seen a number of year’s worth of service. Our backup is original equipment now about 12 years old. An investment in not one both two DVD recorders seems to be in order. And unfortunately with the VCR recording of the meeting the quality of the recording isn’t what we have had in the recent past.

Given most of the equipment is 12 years old and was never of TV studio quality it probably is time we look at some upgrades. I guess it takes a “now what do we do” moment to get back on track. Thanks to Greg Pruszinske for saving the meeting recording.

Celebrate the new Wastewater Treatment Facility

As some of you know the city has been in the process of building a new wastewater treatment facility. The plant was constructed to meet several needs of which the most pressing was that of meeting discharge requirements imposed with our permit issued by the Pollution Control Agency. We were at capacity with the old plant and it had exceeded its useful life.

In accomplishing the goal of a new facility a great deal of planning was accomplished. The effort of planning had the city looking at different approaches to not only the types of systems that could be utilized but also the collection system and the degree of treatment. The city now has tertiary treatment in place to protect the receiving water of the Elk River and the environment.

Dave Pesola, our Lead Wastewater Treatment Operator, has provided us with a look at what has occurred.

The many lift stations located throughout the city were improved with the installation of radio monitoring to ensure these are operating correctly. This was done prior to construction of the new facility.

The three existing wastewater treatment lagoons were drained and decommissioned. These have been filled in and graded. Taking these ponds out of service should greatly reduce odors from the plant.

The new facility was designed by Camp Dresser and McKee, Inc. The task of construction was awarded to John T. Jones Construction Company. The new plant was constructed on the site of the decommissioned lagoons.

The project included a number of changes and major items to the wastewater project included a new influent pumping station, a new headworks building, two oxidation basins, two clarifiers, a sludge pumping building with a chemical feed room, an effluent filtration building, an ultraviolet disinfection building, an effluent re-aeration chamber, and an odor control system.

This project also provided for the elimination of a heavily used lift station by construction of a new gravity sewer line to a deeper new influent pumping station.

Construction of the new facility started in October of 2006. On February 4, 2008, the facility began accepting wastewater from the city. Only one half of the facility is presently in use, while testing and construction continues on the other portions of the new facility. The transition has gone smoothly and without any major problems. As the use of the plant progresses the efficiency of operations will improve through both operations and efficient biological action.

The old facility has been taken off line and is presently being dismantled. The building which housed the old facility is be reused and remodeled into a new administration building which will contain a new laboratory, offices and a maintenance garage. The old administration building at the plant site will be used by the water department.

The projected completion date for complete project completion is scheduled for June of 2008. Once the plant is completed in entirety the capacity to treat domestic wastewater will be 1.25 million gallons a day. This will serve the community for a great number of years and position the city very well for future growth.

Thank you Dave for that great summary! It is gratifying to know we’re well set for the future and we’re meeting the more stringent requirements imposed by PCA and being environmentally responsible.

Annual Audit

Each year the city has accomplished through an independent auditor an audit of the city books. This audit process is time consuming and comprehensive. All funds of the city are reviewed including operating funds, community center, debt service, project funds and enterprise funds of golf, water and sewer. The activity involves verifying account activity of transactions and balances. The audit process generally takes 3 or more auditors about 3-5 days of activity in our office to accomplish and then assembling the reports takes a month or two before the process is completed with a report to the city council.

Looking at this in an organized manner the following activities occur during the audit:

• Verification of golf inventory
• Verification of fixed asset inventory
• Reconciliation of cash and investments
• Verification that revenues and expenditures are reported appropriately
• Comparisons of actual revenues and expenditures to budget are done
• Analysis of project costs is completed
• Verification that all liabilities are recorded
• Verification that all receivable are recorded
• Compliance with bid requirements is checked and verified
• Reconciliation of bond funds is accomplished
• Assessments and delinquencies are reconciled
• Tax revenues and delinquencies are also reconciled
• Internal controls are reviewed and tested

As the audit is accomplished the Auditors use Government Accounting Standards along with accepted accounting principles in reviewing the finances of the city. Over the past few years the Governmental Accounting Standards Board has changed the way governmental accounting is accomplished. There goals have been to create a more transparent view of the finances of a governmental entity by moving the reporting more towards that of business. They have also wanted to improve fiscal controls and accountability within the reports. Adding these requirements each year provides additional information but also more complexity to the audit process.

The goal when completed would be to achieve an unqualified opinion from the auditor concerning the finances of the city. Along with that would also include good fiscal health of the city’s finances. These have been achieved in the past and our expectation is that that would continue with the 2007 audit.