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Politics & Government

Fridley Pioneers Licenses for Sanitary-Sewer Contractors

Next year, those who clean sanitary sewers in Fridley will need a $35 license—the first such license requirement in the state. What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Contractors, plumbers and other sanitary sewer cleaners will need newly required annual $35 city licenses Jan. 1, 2012, to clean out sewers of residents and businesses in Fridley.

On a 4-1 vote, the Fridley City Council gave a second reading to an ordinance amending city licensing laws to include sanitary sewer cleaners and, in effect, adopted it Monday night at their meeting at .

Because backed-up sewers are sometimes emergency situations, a sewer cleaner can get a license after cleaning the sewer, according to public works director James Kosluchar.

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Fridley appears to be the first city in Minnesota to require sanitary sewer cleaners to get licenses. , Kosluchar and other officials said the licensing was needed so the cleaners could be educated to call the city to report the cleaning.

Council Member Ann Bolkcom said she received two emails in opposition. Hers was the one vote against the licensing.

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Council member Robert Barnette said Monday night that he’d had the unfortunate experience of needing his sanitary sewer cleaned in the past few weeks and had had “quite a discussion” with the cleaner. The sewer cleaner did not see a problem with a $35 license, Barnette said.

2010 street project assessments adopted
After a public hearing, the city council adopted assessment rolls for a 2010 street project that will have individual homeowners pay $1370.62 each as their share of the cost of the road work.

Levying the assessments was postponed for the eastern part of the street project last year because of concerns about the appearance and durability of the work, according to public works director Kosluchar. Residents in the western area of the work were assessed a year ago.

Two residents objected at the hearing to the quality of additional work done for the project. One asserted that seal coating of an area would shorten the life of the street. Another objected to tar being up on some gutters, uneven manhole covers, late work hours and rude contractor employees.

Mayor Scott Lund said a consultant had inspected the work Monday and called the streets sound and normal in appearance. He added that the city heard about hours worked later at night and took the concerns to the contractor and that he believed a supervisor was let go.

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