Escanaba City Council Meeting (August 03, 2023 ) Updating Equipment, Trucks Fixing the Pot Holes and Crushing Rocks with SMM

 

The Stone Breakers
1849
Gustave Courbet

Escanaba continues to hum along and things are for the most part getting done. It was a relatively short meeting. Some interesting things going on in terms of improving the roads and updating equipment. You may notice the down is repurposing waste into something useful such as roads. Escanaba found that they can save money and use waste materials wisely. The city is doing the green thing and trying to maximize its resources while limiting its expenses at the same time (See Sustainable Materials Management). 

August 3rd, 2023 Escanaba Agenda

-Updating equipment and maintenance.

-Clearing out rubble and stuff.

-Improvements in roads through grants.

Some of the discussion revolved around expenses and that is generally a big part of management (This is why finance, economics, and data analytics can help.). Since there are lots of expenses its important to think about how to save money and reuse materials when possible. We are in the era where wise use of resources through repurposing is helpful. For example, in this case Escanaba has 18,000 tons of rock that will crushed and reused versus just paying for removal. There was a discussion of the options and the eventual resolution. In the end it came down to like $5.50 per ton if my math is correct. Yabba Dabba Doo! 

You may want to read 'How to Cut Costs Strategically' because it helps to understand the benefits of finding places to reduce costs and then how to think of long-term growth. Escanaba has profits and expenses and ran into a few budgeting issues until marijuana revenue came into the coffers (When you get an economic boost never waste it, try and spark a bigger economic boost through other revenue streams. Shoring up expenses is one thing but fixing it for next time is another.). 

A big discussion in prior meetings on libraries and costs. The community wanted to find other ways to save money and encouraged budget tweaking from other departments. It makes sense to continuously scour the financial metrics to save money. Saving money should not be the only strategy as the focus should also be on how to raise revenue through improvements in tourism, attracting new small businesses downtown, recreation and fun, industrial investment as well as others (I have a few ideas on marketing, social media, focused reaching out to good match industries domestically or internationally, etc.).

They are also considering purchasing a heavy duty 4.6L v8 Hemi Dodge pickup. Has awesome pull power and can used for multiple purposes. I suspect this would be against the policy for the first few years 'This AIN'T no Pavement Princess'. Maybe we can have it pull the floats during the parade.