The Wake

There’s a chance you received a phone call this winter from Minneapolis’s or St. Paul’s new automated snow emergency calling service, but according to a Minneapolis Public Works Department report submitted to Minneapolis City Council on March 22, the chances are slight.

The phone service is the latest attempt by Minneapolis and St. Paul to proactively reach citizens thus lowering ticketing, towing and ultimately to clear the streets faster during snow emergencies, says Mike Kennedy, director of Minneapolis Field Services.

A new service this winter

Minneapolis and St. Paul use many methods of reaching the public in a snow emergency. Both cities post information on their Web sites, broadcast information on local channels, inform the media and send email notices, Kennedy says.

“[The automated phone service] is just another weapon in our arsenal, another tool in our tool box, to try and get the word out to as many people as we can,” says Bruce Breese, St. Paul’s chief financial officer.

During a snow emergency in March 2003, St. Paul public works officials saw a need for a new system of contacting the public after a record 6500 tickets and 1200 tows, says Breese. The idea came from citizens who were inspired by a similar system that political candidates used to contact voters.

In October 2004, St. Paul signed a contract with SwiftReach Networks, a New Jersey telecommunications company that specializes in community notification. Later that fall Minneapolis also signed a contract with SwiftReach.

How the calling works

Minneapolis and St. Paul can record a message to send out to all their citizens through their SwiftReach’s Web site, says Breese. From there computers call automated lists of businesses, residents and local media informing them of the snow emergency. Calls that are not connected, people or answering machines that do not pick up, are sent back into the system for redialing.

One of the major obstacles is that state law prohibits such calls after 9 p.m..

Two cities are too much!

On Jan. 21, after a successful test in November, the City of St. Paul used the automated phone service to announce its first snow emergency of the season, says Breese.It was only after Minneapolis started using SwiftReach that the system was taxed.

On Feb. 10 Minneapolis tested the system for the first time during an actual snow emergency. During the calling period, the city reached only 30 percent of its goal, says Kennedy.

“In the evening we seem to be hitting congestion,” Kennedy says. “Were going from like 350 calls a minute, down to 50.”

SwiftReach thought the first system failure on Feb. 10 was just an isolated incident. However, after the Feb. 20 failure SwiftReach re-tested with simulators and talked with Qwest, the metro area’s phone service provider, says Kennedy.

“They seem to think that they have it solved … so we’re all kind of waiting for the next campaign,” Kennedy says.

However, in St. Paul that is not the case. “Quest and [SwiftReach] have both said ‘not us,’ leaving us in the middle scratching our heads,” Breese says. SwiftReach failed to return call.

“It’s brand new technology for us and it’s new to [SwiftReach] in this area,” Kennedy says. SwiftReach is successful in other areas, like Philadelphia, providing similar services.

Breese explained that the service provider has success out east because there are more lines available to compensate for the greater population size. “The Twin Cities is still at a place, population wise, where we only have [a limited number of lines] where calls can come in,” Breese says.

Since Minneapolis selected the same service provider, they have added more people to the system than the system can provide, says Breese.

The system also failed on Feb. 20 when the both cities declared snow emergencies, according to Kennedy. During this snow emergency Minneapolis reached 24 percent of its calling goal, says Kennedy.

A service worth providing?

In Minneapolis 95 percent of people are compliant with snow emergency rules, says Sara Dietrich, communications director for the public works department.

“We’re trying to reach that 5 percent of the population … who are getting towed,” Dietrich says.

Dietrich conducts surveys at the city impound lot after each snow emergency in hopes of finding a solution to the problem. However, to date the surveys do not show any obvious solutions.

The Minneapolis City Council believes the phone service is something Minneapolis should provide.

“Once it’s up and running and functioning, I think that people will be grateful to receive that notice,” Minneapolis City Council Vice President Robert Lilligren says. “It has an impact when someone’s car gets towed - especially when the weather is crappy.”

“If they can work out the kinks in this … its just another means to insure we get the streets plowed curb to curb,” Minneapolis council member Scott Benson says.

Both council members said that they have received little feedback because the automated messages are new and have not worked to their full potential.

Costs

The city of Minneapolis public works department budgeted $90,000 for the automated phone project this winter, according to Kennedy. Each snow emergency calling cost taxpayers $10,000, says Kennedy.

St. Paul public works department budgeted $125,000 for the project also said that making the calls for them costs roughly $10,000, says Breeze.

Both cities’ unused funds go back into the general public works fund, says Breeze and Kennedy.

“If we can get our equipment off the streets a little bit quicker and get it done because people are complying better, we’ll pay for this easily,” Kennedy says.

Future of citywide communication

The automated emergency-calling plan is a service that has potential beyond snow emergencies, says Kennedy. The cities could use the system for amber alerts, gas leaks, street sweeping and homeland security applications, says Kennedy.

“To me this is at best an interim solution,” Lilligren says. “Within a few years I’m guessing most people will be notified online by email subscriptions, which is something much easier we can manage.”

City contact information

For more information on city snow removal check their Web sites.

St, Paul - http://www.stpaul.gov/depts/publicworks/snowplow.html
Minneapolis - http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/snow/parking-info.asp