ST. PAUL – County of St. Paul Coun. Dale Hedrick is urging council and administration to explore mowing and mulching roadside vegetation along access roads to lake subdivisions to mitigate fire risks.
At the July 22 Public Works meeting, Hedrick said trees are growing under power lines near subdivisions like Mann Lake and St. Vincent Lake.
"Last year, the power companies went and mulched underneath the power lines in all our lakes and subdivisions, and now these trees are coming back up," said Hedrick.
He suggested that since County crews already mow roadsides, additional passes to manage regrowth would not significantly increase costs or workload.
Reeve Glen Ockerman and Coun. Dale Younghans said they have no problem with the idea, that is if the roads are located within County property.
Seeking clarification, Director of Community Services Jason Storch inquired whether the roads are gravel and located within the County's right-of-ways, as maintenance crews already maintain these areas under the current service plan.
Storch explained that mowing within subdivisions is typically done for aesthetic purposes and falls under a different service level.
Hedrick clarified that the roads are paved access roads leading into subdivisions.
After further discussion about crew mowing and maintenance routes, administration indicated it would consider the matter, although no formal motion was made as the discussion arose during a related agenda item.
“This does play very nicely into the level of service conversation I'd like to have about our subdivisions,” said Storch, adding, he is working on developing a plan for council’s consideration.
In a follow-up with Lakeland This Week, Hedrick said he hopes administration will look at the tree growth situation and bring something back to council.
"All the [subdivisions] - in my division anyway - they want [their subdivisions] looking nice as well," said Hedrick. "Once the County does this for a couple of years and the mulch is all gone . . . they can then go with their lawnmowers over and there's not pieces of trees that they're hitting."
Hedrick said having maintained roadways leading to subdivisions will improve aesthethics, which could help encourage more growth in those subdivisions.
"We're always promoting people moving to our lake subdivisions and all that stuff, so it makes them look a lot nicer too," he said.
