The Public Services Department has begun its annual spring street sweeping operations. Once the weather breaks and the opportunity presents itself, sweeping units are brought out of storage, dusted off, thoroughly checked over, and put into service. You may have already seen the sweepers out earlier this month. The department likes to get a jump on sweeping at every opportunity because there is so much sweeping to be done. The operations run throughout the year, with the bulk of it taking place during the months of March, April, and May.
Night sweeping operations usually commence sometime in mid to late April. However, that may be delayed a bit this year due to the 100 inches of snow fall this past winter. The night sweeping operations last anywhere from one to two weeks typically – depending on how much sand is out there on the streets, sidewalks etc… Together with day sweeping operations the Department likes to get through the entire city twice in a three week period resulting in minimal night sweeping operations.
The department has been called out to treat the roads at least 65 times this winter since Nov. 15, 2006, and over that period we have dispensed approximately 2,500 yards of sand on sidewalks, parking lots, islands and roughly 85 miles of streets. Staffing for night sweeping operations usually consists of two sweeper operators, and two truck drivers to transport the sweeping debris. During sidewalk sweeping operations at least two more employees are needed, and this process is carefully orchestrated between the sidewalk sweeping crew, and the street sweeping crew. The first pass is to get the bulk of the sand and debris, with the second to tidy up and pick up areas that were missed on the first.
If you have any questions about the sweeping operations, please feel free to contact the Public Services Department at 854-0660 between the hours of 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.
(Submitted by Arty Ledoux, deputy director of Westbrook Public Services)
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