Blasting, the Council Packet and InfoHub
Menomonie needs more "sunshine."
This is the video submitted to the Menomonie City Council to give an idea of what this kind of blasting would be like.
Every good read should start with a video of something blowing up, right?
See pages 5 - 16.
The developers of Estover Terrace, which is west of the middle school near Dancing Oaks, received approval tonight from the City Council to do some rock blasting to speed up the construction process. Owners within 500’ of the blasting will be notified. If the owner responds to a sent letter within 24 hours, the company will do a pre-blast survey for free. This records the current condition of foundations, wall cracks, etc. Hmmm.
Here is some history. This video is from three years ago.
Here is an in-depth article that appeared in wis.community in 2020 about the original approval.
Now I know nothing about the safety or wisdom of doing this kind of blasting. I can see that this seems like a pretty populated part of town. The slower options for busting through this rock are called “ripping, rock trenching and hydraulic hammers.” Maybe the residents are better off with the quick in-and-out blasting.
The thing that bothers me about this is the seeming lack of respect for nearby property owners. I asked city administration when the city first heard about this blasting request and when the nearby residents were informed that this would be discussed at the meeting Monday.
Here is a timeline I made from Director of Public Works David Schofield’s response.
So the homeowners, as of the meeting to give permission for the blasting, had not been notified that this matter was coming before the Council.
Is this is how the City Council rolls now?
I remember last year* when a citizen was notified on a Friday that the Council would be deciding whether or not to put his home in a “TID District” the following Monday. They had a pre-meeting immediately before the deciding Council meeting to explain to everyone what a “TID District” even was. Then he was allowed to express his opinion using the three minutes given for Public Comment at the beginning of the meeting in which the fate of his home was to be discussed.
(Actually having your house put in a TID district is probably not a big deal. But my point is that the Council needs to slow down and COMMUNICATE and LISTEN.)
Good news and reasons to hope
To their credit, with the upgrading of the city website, the City Council meeting packet can now be found publicly online, if you know where to look for it.
To locate the packet on the website, select “Agendas and Minutes.” The various commissions are listed alphabetically, so scroll down until you come to the City Council. There should be a link for the agenda and below that, a link to the packet.
The packet contains all the background information (contracts, budgets, maps, etc.) for the agenda items. Council meetings are generally the first and third Mondays and the agendas and packets are available the previous Thursday afternoon.
Making the packet publicly available is a HUGE positive step for city administration! KUDOS!
There has been general concern in the community because the Dunn County News has fizzled to . . . not much. And there is little basic news coverage of local government meetings. A local news group has formed and is dedicated to solving that problem one way or another.
This group has produced, as a first step, a local news aggregator of what is currently available. Steve Hanson from wis.community put it together. Check it out here.
With so many concerned citizens starting to work together to bring sunshine to local government in the form of local news coverage, there is reason for hope.
7/25/23 Update: There are 11 City Council members. Jeff Luther was not present at the meeting. Gretchen Yonko, Chad Schlough and Ryland Erdman voted against the blasting. All others voted for it. A time limitation was added, allowing blasting only between 9 AM and 5 PM on Mondays - Fridays.
*7/26/23 Update: The meetings regarding the TID district were held on October 17, 2022.