Ask Us: Durability, performance outshine style when choosing street light poles | Local News | mankatofreepress.com

Q: Did Mankato get an 11% off rebate on all of those brushed steel light standards that have popped up all over town? Riverfront Drive had stylish lighting, but the new road construction has now been given the “one design fits anywhere in Mankato” poles. I suggest that the person responsible for ordering these monstrosities be transferred to answering phones or pulling weeds. Mankato should hire the guy who purchased the nicer looking “bell” lighting near roundabouts and elsewhere in upper North Mankato.

A: The response to this question came from former Mankato Assistant City Engineer Michael McCarty. The “former” isn’t because McCarty was demoted to weed-pulling or otherwise blamed for ordering street-light-pole monstrosities rather than nicer-looking North-Mankato-style poles. McCarty actually was hired to a higher-level position as Watonwan County’s public works director.

Ask Us Guy assumes McCarty took the new job because he welcomed the opportunity to lead a department and serve as county engineer, but it’s also the case that the St. James Plaindealer does not have an Ask Us column. So there’s the added potential benefit of not having to answer snarky road infrastructure questions, which McCarty has done promptly and politely for many years in his Mankato gig. Before he left for St. James, McCarty tackled two farewell queries.

“To answer the question, the city does not receive rebates for the lights,” McCarty said. “The stainless-steel lights are installed for durability. The light fixtures are designed to provide road and pedestrian lighting while complying with City Code requiring light not trespass on to adjacent properties or shine into adjacent windows. The fixtures minimize glare, especially in wet conditions.”

Q: Similar to the recent set of questions on road repairs in Mankato, why is it that all manhole covers on Mankato roads seem to need to be 2 inches below the road surface (or at least that is what it feels like when driving over one).

Yes, I get the snowplow thing. But, come on, these are far enough below the roadway that it feels as though you drove over a regular pothole in the road. We have enough of those without having to add these manhole covers to what you need to avoid when driving.

Thank you.

A: The height of the manhole covers changes in relation to the road surface as the seasons change in Mankato, but it’s not the manholes that are shifting in elevation — it’s the streets.

“Generally manhole castings are set flush to ¼ inch below the pavement level during installation or repaving of a road,” McCarty said. “Over time frost action will raise the road surface relative to the manhole casting. As a part of ongoing maintenance of our streets and utilities, castings are adjusted to reduce the difference between the pavement and casting to match the installation.”

Keeping up with any variations that occur from that that ¼-inch standard is not a simple task.

“The city of Mankato owns 8,484 manholes,” McCarty noted.

Drivers who have a concern about a particular manhole are encouraged to call the municipal information line at 311 or place a customer service request on the city website.

And if Watonwan County readers of The Free Press ever have any infrastructure related questions, they should send them in using the contact information listed below. McCarty will have to go farther than St. James to escape Ask Us Guy.

Contact Ask Us at The Free Press, 418 S. Second St., Mankato, MN 56001. Call Mark Fischenich at 344-6321 or email your question to [email protected]; put Ask Us in the subject line.