Happy Holidays - New Districts - Vaccines - DoubleUps - Pipes - Salt Routes

Felices Fiestas

Hope you had a Feliz Navidad!  It was a quiet celebration around here, the kiddo is on a sunny vacation and I returned from my sunny vacation a few days before Christmas.  Stayed home to quarantine but plan a family gathering for early next year.  Nevertheless, from my family to yours have a safe and wonderful welcoming of 2022.  Celebrate!!

New alder districts

Don't forget! New alder districts and wards go into effect on January 1, 2022.

• PDF map of new boundaries
• Interactive map of new boundaries
• City's redistricting process

Omicron & Vaccine Scheduling

Nearly 150 Omicron cases have been identified in Dane County as of December 21. This indicates the rapid growth of Omicron from the initial three cases that were first identified five days ago on December 16. The number of Omicron cases is expected to continue rising quickly as more cases are sequenced.  Read more here

For the latest data on Covid cases in the area visit Covid Act Now site, the search box accepts city, county, state, Zip Code values.  From this site, you can also initiate a search for vaccination locations.

Looking for Covid or Flu vaccine's clinic or site?  Click here to make an appointment.

Houseless: Double Up

Please join us for a screening of a short film, "Not Homeless Enough" created by Ms. Nilan, which features the story of four families in Madison and Dane County who experienced homelessness. This film in particular highlights the struggle of living in doubled-up situations, or self-paying to live in a hotel and how it disqualifies these families for federal HUD homeless programs. Following the film, learn ways you can support these families in our community.   Register here!  January 20, 2022, from 6-7 PM

Be Good to Your Pipes

Pay attention to what you put down your drain to avoid a sanitary sewer backup while hosting this holiday season.

FOG is the term used to describe the fats, oils, and grease that create a hard layer of material that can clog private sanitary service laterals and public sanitary sewer main lines. A private service lateral is the smaller pipe that takes wastewater from your home to the City's main pipe underground, which then takes wastewater to a wastewater treatment center. FOG builds up and sticks to pipe walls that can cause backups into homes and basements. Backups are messy, inconvenient, and sometimes expensive to clean up. They can also create health and environmental hazards. Read more here.

Salt Routes Restored

A message from the City of Madison Streets Division -Recycling Coordinator

"Here are the street sections that were restored to the salt routes:

• Mohawk Drive from Whenona Way to Nakoma Rd
• Russett Rd from Whitney Way to Gilbert Rd
• Cherokee Dr from S. Midvale Blvd to Nakoma Rd
• Lovell Ln from Allied Dr to Carling Dr

What are salt routes?

• Salt routes are the roadways the Streets Division plows and salts during every snowstorm.
• These are roads around schools, hospitals, Madison Metro routes, and other critical transportation corridors. 
• Due to the salt and traffic, these roads are usually clear pavement following snowstorms.
• Around 48% of all traffic lanes of Madison fall into this category.

What happens to the streets that aren't salt routes?

• These are the residential neighborhood streets. They are never salted. They are plowed when there are three or more inches of snow on the road.
• These roads get little traffic and since they are not salted, they will have a layer of snow and ice on them throughout the winter. 
• The Streets Division will apply sand as needed to these streets if the roadways become slippery.

 Why were the above streets removed from the salt route network?

• For the winter of 2020/2021, we carefully evaluated our salt route network.  We found many segments of streets no longer met the criteria to be salted.  Therefore, we removed them from the salt route network.
• And as Madison Metro changes the routes of their buses, it changes the roads where we spread salt in the winter.

 What's the benefit of removing streets from the salt route network?

• We need to reduce the amount of salt that's put down on the roads.
• All of the salt we deploy – that includes the salt the Streets Division uses, and the salt used by residents on their sidewalks and driveways, and the salt used on parking lots, and the salt used by Dane County –  winds up in our local waters. Including the water we drink.
• We are doing the best we can to control the Streets Division's salt usage right now. We installed scales at our sites and will be working to incorporate GPS data into our salt reduction methodology this year. This is on top of already being very careful with how much salt is put out on our roads. 
• However, the only way for us to really reduce salt is to stop salting some streets.

 Why add back salt routes that were removed last year?

• Since schools have returned to in-person instruction, the roads around the schools will once again be salted for the school buses.
• Also, some of the other reductions were due to Madison Metro changing its routes. If Metro returned to using some of these roadways, we should salt them for their buses.

 What to know more?

• Winter maintenance is not straightforward. We try to strike that balance between what's safe for the roads, what makes people feel safe on the roads and the environmental cost of the maintenance techniques.

Further information about our winter operations can also be found at www.cityofmadison.com/Winter."

It takes all of us to protect our lakes and water sources.  More information can be found:

1. https://www.cityofmadison.com/live-work/sustainability/winter-salt-certification/road-salt-madisons-drinking-water
2. https://www.cityofmadison.com/live-work/sustainability/winter-salt-certification/road-salt-our-lakes-and-waterways