Project Communications in Public Works with Sara Renney

We are back for our 30th episode here at The Public Works Nerds!

Here is the AI Generated Description. I have to call it out because I can't take credit for this prose:

Unlock the secrets to transforming public perception and securing project funding through masterful communication with our esteemed guest, Sara Renney, Carver County's communications guru. Her rich tapestry of experiences, from corporate corridors to the heartwarming chapters of motherhood, culminates in a pivotal role where her voice shapes the future of public works. Bond with us over tales of strategic outreach that bridges the divide between government entities and the communities they serve, and learn how Sara's journey has equipped her to navigate the complexities of conveying the right message to varied audiences.

Witness the evolution of social media's role in the dynamic landscape of public works as we dissect its influence alongside Sara. We're trading perspectives on why Facebook clicks for Public Works while Instagram paints a vibrant scene for Parks departments, all the while circumventing the challenges of curating content sans a dedicated coordinator. Our conversation goes visual as we spotlight the emotive power of video storytelling, a tool that's proving to be both a heart-tugger and a catalyst in rallying support for projects that pave the way to a better tomorrow.

Lastly, wade into the murky waters of online discourse where the First Amendment meets the digital age. I'll share my mantra for professional poise in the click-happy world of social media as Sarah and I muse on the future's horizon, scanning it for signs of new platforms and AI's role in our sector. Every word and click matters in this dance of democracy and development, and we're here to guide you through it—step by intricate step.

Show Notes:

Carver County Highway 5 Project Information Video
https://youtu.be/fd25TyZuAiQ

Highway 5 Project Funding information
https://www.carvercountymn.gov/departments/public-works/projects-studies/highway-5-improvements/highway-5-funding

20 Tips to Up Your Social Media Game
https://lrrb.org/20-tips-to-up-your-social-media-game/

Transcript

Marc Culver: 0:01

Welcome to the Public Works Nerds Podcast. Welcome to the Public Works Nerds Podcast, a Public Works Podcast of the nerds, by the nerds and for the nerds. I'm your host, Mark Culver. Today we're going to talk about communication, specifically effective communication in our profession. As Public Works professionals, we are constantly communicating to our staff, to our higher ups, to our council or county boards and, perhaps most importantly, to the public. So let's talk about that what works, what doesn't work for communicating to and with the public, how we can use communications maybe to even advocate for project funding and such. And, yeah, just kind of learn about what's being done out there. And today we welcome Sarah. Rennie. I should have asked you, I should have confirmed that that's how you pronounce your last name.

Sara Renney: 0:51

You could not have been more perfect there you go Today.

Marc Culver: 0:54

we welcome Sarah Rennie, who is the communications manager at Carver County. Welcome, Sarah.

Sara Renney: 0:59

Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here, yeah thanks for being here.

Marc Culver: 1:02

First of all, let's just start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up at this role at Carver County.

Sara Renney: 1:10

Yeah, so I've been in the communications world since 2000. I accidentally stumbled into the communications profession Halfway through my college career. I had no idea what I wanted to do and a college roommate said you know, you really love talking to people and getting into the brains of people, and I was obsessed with popular culture and she just thought it'd be a good fit. And she was right. So I quickly figured out that it was something that I enjoyed very much and was good at and enjoyed it very much, and so I started out my career after college in the corporate retail space, specifically with Best Buy, and I was there for a handful of years, learned a great deal about the promotional advertising piece while there, and then was a stay-at-home mom for about a decade.

Sara Renney: 2:13

Oh cool, and yeah, it was definitely the hardest job I've ever had and by far the most rewarding. But it also really helped me when I moved back into the professional space, helped me have sort of a different focus and a different enthusiasm for what I do. I moved then into a um communications position, part-time communications coordinator with a large church outside of the metro, and grew that into a director of communications position with a team of phenomenal communicators, and then, in July of 2021, was hired by Carver County Public Works for a new, brand new communications position, one of two within the county, to oversee all things public works. So, um, I support um program delivery, parks and operations, um, which keeps me very busy. There's a lot of, uh, exciting things that are always happening within public works for for the county, within all public works divisions, for sure.

Marc Culver: 3:25

Yeah, so so you, your focus is on public works. Yes, that's the, that's your primary role there.

Sara Renney: 3:33

Does that qualify me as a nerd? Yeah?

Marc Culver: 3:35

it's getting there. It's getting there. Absolutely, Absolutely no, I think it's great that Carver County has got I mean, the foresight to have a dedicated communications person within the department.

Sara Renney: 3:45

Yeah, I agree, and from what I've learned, of course I wasn't part of the creation of my role, but what I've learned is that prior to me, there was one person doing all communications for the county and it was just entirely he did. There wasn't enough bandwidth for all that there is to communicate properly and, of course, we're a large county and, I hear, up until recent, the fastest growing county in the state. I think Wright County has recently taken over that title, but so there's a lot going on and most certainly within public works alone. So, yes, I agree with you. I think it says a lot about the county that it was recognized the need for my position back in 2021.

Marc Culver: 4:34

Yeah, so how has it been working for a government agency? I mean, it's kind of interesting because you came from a church which is almost like a I don't want to say like a government agency of its own, but it's, you know, it's it. There's some similar structures and such, but how does it feel working for the government?

Sara Renney: 4:53

You know I agree with you. I think there are a lot of parallels. It feels very much like being at the church was very similar to being part of the public sector, so I agree with you in that regard. There are so many elements to working for the public sector that is a huge motivation for what I do every day.

Sara Renney: 5:19

I'm going back to what I said about how I even fell into my communications career in the first place is that I love people and I like diving into their minds, I like learning how people work, and communications is really the biggest piece of that and so working for government enables me every day to feel like I'm very much making an impact and impacting people's lives in a positive way. Of course, there's a negative connotation that comes sometimes with working for government, but now, being on this side of it and I am relatively new to government it's only been just about three years so I see that and I understand that side of things. But I also see and understand that the majority of people, like within probably any organization working for the government, working for Carver County, it's very much, by and large, a group of people who very much are passionate about what they do and want to work as hard as they can and have challenges, like anyone else does in any other role or in any other organization.

Marc Culver: 6:40

Yeah, no, well said, well said. I think that is so true for their organization. Yeah, no, well said, well. So I think that's that is so true for uh I. You know there's always the exceptions to the rule. You know, there are some people that I think are probably feel trapped in the industry and maybe just don't care. They're just there to to do what they have to do and and get by. But I think the vast majority of people that that I've had the privilege of working with, um do have some sort of passion, some level of passion for the job, and they, they, you know, like the maintenance workers, they care about the work that they do, that it's done right and it's done well, um, and and they take pride in that, you know. So, yeah, it's good to see that and it's, you know, certainly not true, yeah, yeah.

Sara Renney: 7:39

So you know what is like a typical day for you then at this role at Carver County. It depends on the day, it depends on the time of the year for this year's project. So that's going to look very different, for example, from November of this year when our construction projects for this calendar year have all come to a close, um, at which point then, kind of from November, december to April, may, it's all about the planning and the prep and creating communications, um calendars and um communicating internally with project managers um to gather information so I can put together communication strategy around each different project. Each different project has a different scale and scope to it and has different interests from the public. So my goal, my responsibility, is to try my best to tap into the minds of our residents to understand what they need from us and what they want from us. So now I'm executing those plans that I've put into place. Now it's, you know, checking in regularly with internal stakeholders to see where we're at with projects um myself being part of meetings to hear updates on our projects Um and and just really then executing the plans that I've put into place and getting that information out to the public.

Sara Renney: 9:40

Um, I had a colleague say to me earlier this week a colleague on the operations team, actually he asked we have this happening this week what's the quickest way to get the information out to our residents? And I kind of chuckled and I said, well, that's the million dollar question, right, and that's kind of what we try to do every day as communicators try to figure out how to best get the information out to a huge number of residents spanning many different demographics, and to do it in a way that meets everyone's needs as quickly and as accurately as possible. And so sometimes for me, it's often facebook. But if you ask my 18 year old daughter, she'd say I go on facebook maybe once a week. Yeah, and she gets her information from Instagram stories, and so it's just really tapping into all the different communications, communication channels available to our residents, and that doesn't always have a one size fits all answer.

Marc Culver: 10:59

Yeah, I was going to ask that, you know, because we did. We did have a and for those listening, if you haven't heard the podcast episode from last year from season one with Kevin Wright from Chaska, I encourage you to go back and listen to that. But you know we had a good conversation with him and he had worked with a group called the Local Road Research Report to put together like this guide on public communications or something yeah, I'm familiar with yep, yep, and so you know, we kind of asked him about you know what what he thought was effective in this at the other.

Marc Culver: 11:32

So I'll ask you again a year later, because maybe the answers are changing a little bit, they might be shifting. Um, you know, you mentioned facebook, you mentioned instagram. Um, I mean, those are the primary ones and and know what kind of demographics you're reaching and how many of those people actually see it. Do you think, you know? I mean because with Instagram in particular and I've tried to learn more of it but it look at like the reels or the feed or whatever, and there's no guarantee that somebody is going to see your post Correct, even if they're following you, that that somebody is going to see your post Correct, even if they're following you, that they're actually going to. You know they might stop scrolling before they get to yours. So, yeah, just talk about that. I mean, like what tips or tricks you use and what other platforms you might use.

Sara Renney: 12:16

Well, I'm by no means the expert I'm, you know. I think one of my favorite quotes is from a guy actually in the church communications world by the name of Brady Shearer. He always points out that we're currently living in the greatest communications shift of the last 500 years. Wow, and that's huge. And so, as communicators, it's our responsibility to stay on top of the trends and to continue to follow what that looks like, so that, because our audiences are also trying to navigate the greatest communications shift of 500 years, so they're trying to learn it at the same time, and so we, it's our job and responsibility to stay two steps ahead of them so that we know how to best support their needs Today. Again, that answer, the answer to your question, I feel just really goes back to what is the topic, what is who's our audience and what is our purpose behind this communication. You know, last night I, for example, speaking of City of Chaska myself and one of asset to the county and to the city of Chaska once complete but of course, as we all know, with any road construction project, it'll be a lot to navigate in the meantime chose that particular event because we knew that there were a lot of residents that were planning to be there, that drive that intersection daily, that care, that have kids at the middle schools, that work out at the Chaska Community Center regularly, that live in the neighborhoods, et cetera, and so for that project, we chose to be part of this huge community event.

Sara Renney: 14:46

We have, you know, for different projects, whether it's parks, operations or program delivery. We have what many government agencies use is GovDelivery, which is basically a mass email source and right now, a huge really. The primary social media platform that we're using within Public Works, because it fits the majority of our demographic, is Facebook. For parks, we utilize Instagram quite a bit, but another interesting thing too is that kind of the one of the number one rules in social media is that it's really important to master one social media coordinator. A dedicated social media person is huge. We don't have that right now at the county, and so when you are able to find resources to tap into all that, it absolutely opens up the world to you, and so we just simply, right now don't have the means to be or the resources, the people, the staffing to be able to move, to properly navigate all of the platforms the way I'd like to be. But that's changing. And again back to what you said, the county very much recognizes the need for it and so more positions are coming.

Sara Renney: 16:27

Um, yeah and so. And with social media too, um, every, every day is different. You can post something that you have absolutely no idea that's going to be a hit, and it's a huge hit and it's like what, what just happened? And then things you're really proud of and excited to share, it gets mediocre engagement. So there really is a supernatural element to social media as well. We all kind of get it. Us communicators sort of get that natural high off of when we hit it.

Marc Culver: 16:58

Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, I haven't had anything go viral yet, so I wouldn't know what that feels like Same.

Sara Renney: 17:04

I'll let you know We'll have a big party.

Marc Culver: 17:07

Are you guys using more video now?

Sara Renney: 17:12

It's so funny you say that we do not have a videography team within the county, but we have a lot of support for video. So what we have done is we hire out communications consultants, um, hdr being our primary one for our road construction projects. Um who who does have a videography resources? And so, um, and then, like you and I chatted about uh right before we began, um bolt and mink created a tremendous to video video tool for us, um earlier this year in support of our highway 5 project funding.

Sara Renney: 17:52

Um video has this amazing way of capturing storytelling elements that resonate with people, that helps draw people in, that shows emotion, that that tells the story that words and an image alone just simply cannot. Right now, I'm beginning the process of putting together a promotional video piece for our parks department. We have a brand new building out at Lake Waconia Regional Park, paradise Commons that was just complete earlier this year and we're going to be putting together a promotional video for that, very much inspired by what the videography team from Bolton and Mank did for the Highway 5 funding project, because it really just drives home the storytelling aspect that is so hard to capture in other ways.

Marc Culver: 18:52

Yeah, yeah, I find it interesting that you know both Instagram and now with TikTok, and I think TikTok is kind of driving all of this video stuff. I agree, you know like Instagram is trying to play catch up now on using the stories and the reads and stuff like that with video more. But you're right, it's amazing how different it is in absorbing that content. You know, in a video format versus, um, you know just a little blurb and particularly like you know with instagram or with twitter, you know you have the character limitations anyway. And yeah, you know tiktok, I don't know, the video length limits seem fluid. It's dynamic somehow and I don't know enough about it to know when you get to post longer videos.

Marc Culver: 19:38

But right um, they still have some limits, but it just seems like you can get more of your message across. Like you said, I think there's that emotional component to it and then you know, you just get the inflection, the voice and things like that. Those are things you can't get out of text.

Sara Renney: 19:52

You know absolutely. So, yeah, absolutely. And one of the greatest marketing tools at our disposal as communicators is storytelling, and what better way to do it than via video? It just drives the story home. So project.

Marc Culver: 20:14

So let's maybe uh, talk a little bit about that, particularly since bolt and mac did the video, right, I'm kind of compelled to talk about it. Um, but yeah, and I think this this is what kind of kicked off this idea to bring you in and talk to you about it um, maybe just give a little background about the project and and why you guys did this video and and um, you know how that helped yeah, let's.

Sara Renney: 20:37

So just to give a little background personally, I personally moved out to the city of Victoria back in 2003. And just to give you some perspective back then, if I'm not mistaken, the population of Victoria which of course is right off of Highway 5, for those who aren't super familiar was around 4,000. And I think today the last population count is close to 11,000, if I'm not mistaken. Bottom line, that entire portion of Carver county is growing exponentially. Back then in 2003, I remember feeling frustrated, um, with the bottleneck that happened every day on my commute to and from work at on highway 5, at county road 41, all the way through downtown victoria. I remember being frustrated back in 2003.

Sara Renney: 21:40

It's 2024 yeah and nothing has changed except for the fact that we are working behind the scenes diligently uh, an army of people are working behind the scenes diligently to ensure that these projects happen, um, what we lovingly referred to as the Arboretum Area Transportation Project, which is a mouthful um, which I will sum up as the as AATP.

Sara Renney: 22:15

um encompasses tp, um encompasses of a number of smaller projects, but I say small with air quotes, because nothing about this is small yeah um, but the the main upcoming ones right now that we are heavily working toward accomplishing um would be the 82nd street project which is behind the Arboretum Okay, currently a gravel road, and that I was just looking over my notes before I came. If I'm not mistaken, utility work will begin for that project end of 2024 construction season, um, and the bulk of the construction will be 25? Um. The highway 5 improvements project, which is being primarily led by city of chanhassen, um, that is slated right now for end of 25 and completion anticipated sometime in 27. Um, and then really the, the third big one right now would be the downtown Victoria highway five West project, um, and that two is slated, I believe, for end of 25, but I'll give you the most common road construction term I believe out there is. It's all weather and schedule dependent.

Marc Culver: 23:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the asterisk. That's the asterisk for absolutely everything.

Sara Renney: 23:52

But the 82nd street project is fully funded and, thanks to the help of the Bolton and Mink video that we put together for the Highway 5 funding ask, we back in early March learned that we're now just into the teens for the funding gap for the Highway 5 improvement project.

Sara Renney: 24:17

So it's happening, yeah, it's coming, and you know, just kind of coming full circle in that conversation. You know, one of the biggest realizations for me when I moved into this role was how it really does take an army of people crossing all their t's, dotting all the i's um, working with countless different project partners to ensure that any road construction project happens. Yeah, never mind one of this magnitude, right, um, gosh, I? I feel like the last number I heard was when it's all said and done. Right now, the AATP will improved safety in a variety of different ways, and so it's our job to ensure that we do this for the next generation. And that's what that's ultimately, at the end of the day, the driving force and motivation for what we do.

Marc Culver: 25:34

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Hey everyone. I just want to take a quick moment to thank our sponsor, Bolton Mink, who is producing and editing our podcasts.

Bolton & Menk: 25:44

At Bolton Mink, we believe all people should live in a safe, sustainable and beautiful community. We promise every client two things We'll work hard for you and we'll do a good job. We take a personal interest in the work being done around us and, at the end of the day, we're real people offering real solutions.

Marc Culver: 26:06

So, talking about Highway 5, and, like you know, we'll post a link to the video that was put together by Bolton Bank if I haven't said that already.

Marc Culver: 26:17

But it's a nice video and I can see where it could be very helpful. Um again, you know we can send cut sheets to um. You know our legislators and our, our congressmen and senators and such, we can send these little cut sheets and pieces of paper that talk about the project. But you put it into video and it's showing the roads and showing the backups and you know you get the stakeholders talking. It just adds a whole new element to it. So it would be interesting to I don't know if you'd ever you could ever get a straight answer out of anybody on this, but it'd be really interesting to try to figure out how influential that video really was. You know, ultimately in the final decision, Agreed.

Marc Culver: 27:02

But you know, the fact of the matter is and this is the same with any project that goes on and you're looking for state or federal funding for it you're competing with other projects across the state or across the country and you've got to do something to separate yourself out in that competition. So I think this is a really uh, uh good idea and very interesting and, um, and I'll I'll let the listeners judge from the selves after watching uh, the video, but I, you know it it'll be interesting to see how much more uh agencies start doing things like this. Um, yeah, to try to to get that, you know, with with highway five, um, and I don't know how much involved you've been on this, but how have you worked to keep the public informed about this? You know, I guess partly. You know, probably mostly through that aatp, the arboretum transportation plan that you talked about.

Sara Renney: 27:54

But yeah, well, the aatp dates back before my time. Um, there was a huge study done prior to my time with the county, so I can't speak to that. However, I do know for a fact public engagement has been ongoing since for years regarding all of this. Um, right, what's happening is we have somebody heading up all communications for AATP and overseeing each individual communications group. If you will, that fall into each individual project.

Sara Renney: 28:34

Okay project Um regular, regular meetings um to connect on updated information from the project teams, um the project managers, the design teams um all nested the communities, the city engineers, the you know every, all necessary people that are driving these projects we're meeting with regularly to get updated information. We've had multiple public meetings. We have more to come, specifically for 82nd Street and the Highway 5 improvements project later this summer. Not at the same time, they're going to be held separately, but that's just because they're on different, a different pace at this point, which is right and good, because we don't want them happening at the exact same time.

Sara Renney: 29:27

Um, and side note, specific to uh public meetings, last fall we had a public meeting for Highway 5, 82nd Street and it was, and I believe Highway 5 downtown was, or downtown Victoria. Highway 5 West was there, but it was the. Everyone said it was the most heavily attended public meeting that they had ever seen. It was at the arboretum. Um, there was literally a line out the door. We had I I want to say close to 300 people in attendance for a public meeting yeah um, this is a very uh, people are very interested about the in this project.

Sara Renney: 30:15

Um, and now I just forgot your original question. I got no that's okay.

Marc Culver: 30:19

I was just asking about public engagement.

Sara Renney: 30:22

Yeah, oh, public engagement, thank you, yeah, so public meetings, and we have regular elected official and public emails that are going out regularly on the project websites, which can be found on Carver County's website. People can sign up for these email updates that are happening now, either monthly or bimonthly, and it will always outline what's coming and how more information can be found. Um, the communications teams are actively engaging with business partners and residents, social media, um project, uh, informational handouts, community events. I mean the goal is to be able to share as much information as possible because, like I said, a lot of people are very interested in this project and, understandably, it's going to impact a lot of people's lives a lot of schedules, a lot of daily routines, businesses um, it's a sensitive subject as well. So, while we're all mostly excited that it's happening, we also want to ensure that it's done properly with respect to all necessary individuals involved.

Marc Culver: 31:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's no way of avoiding impact to the people who live around the corridor or, even more so, the businesses around the corridor. There's no way to avoid that. But, yeah, trying to minimize that as much as possible.

Sara Renney: 31:56

Yeah, and getting the information out as much as possible to your question. I mean, that, at the end of the day, is the goal, because knowledge is power and our goal is to be always forthcoming with the information that we have. And then, going back to the start of the conversation, figuring out the best way to do that for each individual project. Yeah, have you guys done anything with, like public virtual meetings, conversation, figuring out the best way to do that for each individual project?

Marc Culver: 32:17

yeah, do you have you guys done anything with like public uh, virtual meetings?

Sara Renney: 32:24

yeah, but really um more so during covid and immediately following um in the last gosh for sure year, close to two. I personally have tried to move away from that. I feel like providing an opportunity for residents, property owners, constituents who are interested in different projects to come in and ask questions personally has has proven to be very, very beneficial. Um, but you know, phone calls, emails, things like that do the trick too, but I've just found it to be a better use of everybody's time having it in person, of course, when when safety measures are in place and when?

Marc Culver: 33:16

when you have these meetings, are they more like an open house type of format or is there like a formal presentation? Both Okay.

Sara Renney: 33:22

Yeah, it really just depends. Like the Highway 4110 project that I mentioned a year ago, march of 23,. We had our first public meeting for that project and there were two presentations within the public meeting, um, because it it warranted them given the stage that it was at that where we were at in the design process. But now, just this past April, we had our second public meeting and it was just an open house style where people could come in and see information boards, grab handouts, talk to the designers, talk to the project management team, see layouts, um. So yeah, it just really depends, um, and you know, not every project has an open house either right so yeah yeah it's.

Marc Culver: 34:11

I always struggle between the the different formats. The one thing I don't like about the public presentation um, like and sometimes I've tried to do both like, okay, we're going to start with with a presentation that everybody sees and then we're going to move to an open house type of right format. Well, it never leaves the that meeting part, because you, they start asking you questions from the audience and then you're stuck there and then, like, the questions build off of each other and if there's opposition they start feeding off of each other and it just I don't like that. I I much prefer talking to the participants one-on-one or maybe even a small group, yeah, I.

Marc Culver: 34:51

Just it's too hard to lose control of it in that big audience format. So I still don't know what the perfect format is, but I definitely like the open house uh format better yeah, and it's nice to be able to have those personal conversations too.

Sara Renney: 35:07

Yeah, I agree yep.

Marc Culver: 35:10

so, um, I want to ask you a couple other just general questions about communications. But, uh, sure, what's sure, what's the worst and I don't know how much you get involved in actually responding to. You know something, a response to a Instagram post or a Facebook post or something, but, like, what's the worst response that you're willing to share anyway?

Sara Renney: 35:30

um post or response that you had to respond to um well, I think that's sort of a a tricky question, because it's not always right to respond to quote unquote the worst, yeah, yeah um, but I'll share what.

Sara Renney: 35:55

This is just probably government humor yeah now that I've been doing this for a few years, but I think it was like six months ago or I can't even remember what federal holiday it was and, like we usually do, um, on social I posted that our government, county offices, public offices, were going to be closed for the federal holiday, and somebody posted something to the effect of of course, they are one more day that we're paying for our employees to have a day. You know something like that.

Sara Renney: 36:30

And I did not respond to it. You know something like that and I did not respond to it. But I thought it was kind of funny because I felt like, and what doesn't? I was just recently last month, actually at a phenomenal conference. It's called GSM Con Government Social Media Conference. Sm con government social media conference and it was incredibly informative on all in all different areas really not just specific to social recent years into this really brand new thing that is social media very seriously and our jobs with social media very seriously.

Marc Culver: 37:59

um, because it is a first amendment, right, yeah, and so, um, there's just a lot, there's a lot of responsibility there, so, yeah, I, I would love to do uh, maybe not a public works nerds podcast and We'll call it something else, but I'd love to to participate in a in a podcast. Just breaking down the first amendment, right.

Sara Renney: 38:20

Yes, what does?

Marc Culver: 38:20

that really mean and what does that really entitle you to and what doesn't it entitle you? To Exactly I think a lot of people think that it's their first amendment right To be able to say whatever the heck is on their mind to whomever the heck they want to, Whether it's appropriate or not. And then sometimes it's a very hostile cases.

Sara Renney: 38:38

But in any event, yeah, it is and that's a. It's a very, to me, a very interesting and exciting one professionally. But just side note, I have two teenagers and I always tell them when you're on social media, only say on social media what you would say if that person was standing right in front of your face. It's just sort of a good rule of thumb.

Marc Culver: 39:01

But back to first, or only say what you would put up on a billboard.

Sara Renney: 39:05

Oh, that too, Absolutely With your name under it, right? Because?

Marc Culver: 39:10

it just takes a few retweets for for the avalanche to start following that thing to go viral yeah, you know, yeah, and speaking of tweets, um, that's a whole nother topic. Yeah, and x and sort of I, you know I still use that as like, my primary like a lot of people do yeah I have a. I mean I have some very focused, focused areas that I depend on X I still call Twitter, but that I depend on to feed me.

Marc Culver: 39:40

You know that's a lot of that's related to baseball. My son plays baseball college and you know, following that and a lot of his old teammates in the set and the other through X and I still try to get some of my news through X but it's become so jaded and one-sided you know, it's hard to really rely on it anymore.

Sara Renney: 39:59

And that's really what people are saying.

Marc Culver: 40:02

Right.

Sara Renney: 40:03

How about Threads?

Marc Culver: 40:05

You know, I opened an account on Threads when that whole thing started and I think I opened up a threads account for this, for the podcast, but I don't think I've used it at all and I just haven't like jumped on there. It just feels different. You know I must be getting old. I don't like change. You know I'm an old curmudgeon. Get off my grass.

Sara Renney: 40:25

That's what they say. It happens, I guess.

Marc Culver: 40:29

But uh, um, but, uh, um. Yeah, I just haven't, I just haven't jumped, or every once in a while I'll get a notification.

Sara Renney: 40:36

I'll go over there and, yeah, what's going on? But yeah, same, personally, and for the county, same. I have not jumped into that realm yet, simply because I haven't had the bandwidth to do it. Um, I think I'm. I'll just say I'm, I'm interested to see where it goes. Yeah, very interested to see where it goes. It's, in its infancy for sure, much like AI.

Marc Culver: 40:59

Yeah.

Sara Renney: 40:59

And I think yeah.

Marc Culver: 41:02

The interesting thing about threads is, you know, we've talked about Facebook and Instagram, which are both Facebook products Meta. And now threads is a meta. Right. So I'm a little worried about that. I mean, I'm not the kind of person who subscribes to a lot of conspiracy theories or anything like that or the sky is falling or whatever. But you know, it's a little weird if, if the top three social media platforms that we rely on are all owned by one company.

Sara Renney: 41:30

I think that gets a little dicey it does, I agree, but to argue that I would, I would say tiktok is probably yeah, yeah, there's obviously that's been in the news a lot.

Marc Culver: 41:40

Does the city. Has the city talked about opening uh? Or the county, I'm sorry? Has the county talked about opening a? Uh, a tiktok account?

Sara Renney: 41:48

the we have not opened a tiktok account, um I I would say that it's for the same reason that I I just cited, that I just don't have the bandwidth to properly navigate, um. But also tiktok is a sensitive you know a bit of a sensitive platform, um, but I know that there are multiple government agencies using it in spectacular kinds of ways. So yeah, I think different things work for for different agencies.

Marc Culver: 42:22

Yeah, you know. The fact of the matter is is that the kids that are using TikTok now at some point are going to be the adults that are kind of the focus group, right, you know, or our target audience, and so at some point we're going to have to find something that aligns better with that platform, and I think Instagram's close.

Sara Renney: 42:46

Yeah.

Marc Culver: 42:46

But it's you know, they're trying to be a little bit more like TikTok, I think. Instagram stories yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but it'll be interesting, you know, in five years where are we? Because I'm gonna just think where we were five years ago or ten even more so, but so it'll be really interesting to see how this all evolves um in there um, and how it all evolves too with ai.

Sara Renney: 43:09

Yeah. Yeah Well, yeah yeah, I mean, that's just a whole nother frontier that's going to impact everything. Yeah, yep. Yep.

Marc Culver: 43:19

I think I'll leave you with. We'll end or get close to the end anyway, on this question of what have you learned about public works that has shocked or surprised you, that you didn't know going in.

Sara Renney: 43:34

You know, I guess to that answer I'll plug our operations team a little bit. I've talked about how hard you know our road construction teams are. You know our parks, with the new building that we just put out and all the other programming that parks has available throughout the year and especially right now. But really, operations I've been blown away by the lack of pomp and circumstance. The celebration, what have you that? That our operations team, and I'm sure it's not specific to carver county um, but the the.

Sara Renney: 44:19

It's a group of people that work around the clock, literally, and around the calendar, and they're the people that enable our emergency personnel to get out onto roads during a blizzard or that allow us to get our kids to and from school on icy roads.

Sara Renney: 44:40

Or right now, our operations team is working on maintenance projects throughout the summer crack filling, seal coating.

Sara Renney: 44:51

These are things that don't get the visibility that the AATP gets, or that Highway 4110 or Highway 212 or whatever, because we just expect it to be done, but these are incredibly hardworking individuals that guilty as charged.

Sara Renney: 45:10

I never realized how hard these people work and now, when I'm driving my youngest daughter to school in the winter and we see a snow plow, I say always just kind of give them a wave and a nod as a thank you. These people are getting call outs at one, two, three, four, five, six in the morning while the rest of us sleep. They're out ensuring that we have roadways that are safe to drive ourselves and our families on, or they're out right now in the excruciating heat and sun, making sure that our roads are properly cared for for the next however many years. So I think you know that's been my biggest surprise. I did not realize how hard that team works and unfortunately, you know or fortunately whatever I my responsibilities often at this time of year are are more focused on the road construction project, the high profile projects, so they don't get the visibility that they deserve, but they are a group of hardworking people.

Marc Culver: 46:15

Yeah, no, well said, you know we. We have a recurring quote that we use on the podcast and I have to credit Mark Ray every time I see it say it. But we make normal happen, that's that's public work.

Sara Renney: 46:30

I love that.

Marc Culver: 46:30

Yeah, and it really is. And it's interesting because, you know, I and I don't, I don't want to talk, I would never talk down about our public, public safety, uh, people, the police and fire, because they do some amazing things a lot of amazing things.

Marc Culver: 46:44

You know they're jumping, they're running towards something when everybody else is running away from it. But, um, you know they they do, they have time or they make time. They go out round and they're doing like you know little public awareness things in the community for themselves. You know they're, they're showing up at different events and things like that, and the public works people and the parks people are working at those events, absolutely, and so it's just a little different, because then the public sees them differently and it's not necessarily fair, but I will say that most public works people want it that way.

Sara Renney: 47:26

Yeah.

Marc Culver: 47:26

I mean the vast majority of public works. People are modest and they don't want, they don't need the accolade. You know, yeah, they enjoy a pat on the back and that, and you know it's. It's up to the agencies to make sure that that there is some appreciation. You know whether it's a little barbecue type of thing or something for them, but the vast majority of them are you know what. They're fine with what it is. I'm out there plowing the road and I go home and I sleep and I got my job done.

Sara Renney: 47:54

I don't need to be on a poster anywhere you know, it's true, and I think if I tried to put them on posters they would not like that. Right, right, but it's they do deserve.

Marc Culver: 48:06

Uh, quite the kudos for all of the work that they do, so couldn't agree, yeah, thanks for mentioning that. Yep, well, this has been great.

Sara Renney: 48:18

Anything else you want to say, just probably, if anybody's interested in current or upcoming Carver County Road construction projects, that all that information can be found on our public works Carver County public works website, including signing up for regular project updates, and that also includes parks. All of our summer programming is well underway Sign up. Paradise Commons, the brand new building out at Lake Wakoni Regional Park, is available for rental space. Beautiful, beautiful building. All that information can also be found in our carver county parks page. Um, and actually june 21st we're having a first ever beach bash out at lake waconia regional park. Um, with the city of waconia and their chamber. Um to celebrate that building, but to celebrate summer and to celebrate our parks facilities and the beautiful lake, that whole area, cool.

Marc Culver: 49:18

Yeah, great. Well, thank you, absolutely All right, everybody. Thank you for listening today. And one last thing before you go, if you've enjoyed this episode and the podcast in general. I say it every episode we ask that you help us spread the word, particularly on LinkedIn, if you can comment on one of the Public Works Nerds posts or comment on our YouTube page, but, most importantly, tell your colleagues about the podcast. Thanks, everybody, nerds out.