Will Fridley Be First to License Sanitary Sewer Rooters?

Fridley City Council members seemed a bit reluctant to proceed with a proposal to license businesses that clean out sanitary sewers for residents and businesses in the city after a public hearing Monday night at .

Fridley would be the first city in the metro area—maybe the entire state—to license sewer contractors.

Council Member Ann Bolkcum said she couldn’t see how the licensing would accomplish what was intended. She said she would vote no on it. Others questioned why other cities or the state weren’t licensing sewer contractors.

The matter is to come before the council Sept. 19 for a possible decision.

A staff proposal called for licensing plumbers or other sewer rooters so they or the resident or business whose sewer got cleaned would know to notify the city the job had been done. City Manager William Burns said he heard about concerns in a survey of city employees.

Mayor Scott Lund said he had brought the issue up too. Since the city offers free televised looks into residents’ and businesses’ sewers, he said the city would like people to take advantage of the service and call the city when they have sewer problems.

Also, it seemed, the staff wanted to be able check areas where private sewers have been cleaned to make sure that public mains hadn’t been blocked as a result, which could cause backups for neighbors.

Lund said the number to call when city offices aren’t open is 763-427-1212 (central dispatch). Others opined that when residents were having sewer backups, they wouldn’t be calling the city first.

The only person to testify at the public hearing was a professional sewer cleaner who said he didn’t mind paying $35 a year for a city license; instead, he objected to the city requiring detailed information in a proposed application form.

And he noted that when he cleans out tree roots with his auger, as much as 100 feet of water backed up in a four-inch sewer main has to go someplace when he opens the clog.

When asked how many times backup problems occurred, Public Works Director James Kosluchar said that in 2010 there were about half a dozen instances when contractors “left behind debris” in city mains.