Council approves street sweeper services

(11/10) At their November 9th meeting, members of the Town Council voted unanimously to approve having the town’s streets swept by a professional street sweeping company at least three times a year.

Residents have expressed frustration with debris in the streets, especially grass clippings from moving of lawns, and while they gave high marks for the town staff’s use of the handheld sweeper the town currently owns, they felt more needed to be done. Commissioner John Cutshall mentioned pinecones and needles being a big part of the issue, as the needles can become compacted in potholes and other crevasses in the road.

Burgess Barnes noted that it is particularly important to have the streets swept before the winter as storm drains fill with natural debris, making it difficult to tend to them in the colder weather. Barnes also suggested, and the council concurred, on sweeping the streets at the start of spring and at least once in the summer.

Barnes mused on the option of buying a street sweeper, which could be paid for using funds from the grant the town received from the American Recovery Act (ACT). He recommended against it, saying, "I don’t think it’s beneficial for us to buy a street sweeper with as little as they will be used—they’re pretty costly."

Town Manager Mary Rice seconded that opinion and pointed out that while the purchase price of the sweeper could be funded out of the ACT grant, long term maintenance would not be, and over the years, Rice warned, the cost of maintaining a little-used street sweeper would quickly add up.

Barnes told the council that Rice had reached out to the company that Walkersville uses and had received an estimate for $1,440 to $1,920 per sweep. As the sweeper will be rented by the town by the hour, the difference in final cost per sweep will be predicated upon the condition of the streets at the time. The Town is looking at between $4,500 and $6,000 for three sweeps, Rice said. "We can add another [sweep] if three ends up not being enough," added Barnes.

While the council was sportive of the idea, questions were raised on how best to notify residents as to when the streets will be swept and where the debris will be dumped.

Many residents in town don’t have garages, and as a result will park on streets, as noted by the commissioners. Unless an effective notification system can be set up, the drivers of the street sweeper will find themselves forced to weave around parked cars, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the effort.

The potential need to weave around parked cars also raised concerns over the town’s liability if the sweeper hits a car. Rice noted this is the same situation the town faces when removing snow on streets with parked cars, and to date, no car has been hit or damaged, which allied the concerns of the commissioners. Rice previously mentioned that the company includes their insurance in the cost per sweep.

While no decision was reached on where to dump debris collected during the sweeping, Rice said that if push comes to shove, the contractor can dump them at the treatment plant’s brush/tree limb drop-off area.