Sweepers Hit The Streets

Donald Guest joked that he emerged with ​“no damaged equipment and no damaged people” after his first day of the season training to drive a street sweeper to clean winter’s gunk from the side of the curb.

Guest joined 28-year Department of Public Works veteran Jeff Powers in one of a train of three Elgin Pelican street sweepers as they powered slowly along one side of the roads in Wooster Square and Fair Haven neighborhoods . City officials posted notices along the streets earlier this week warning people to move their cars from the route, and sent out an electronic notice.

This past Friday was the first day of citywide street sweeping season, which runs through October. The full schedule is here.

A morning downpour made the job a little easier on Guest and the other drivers, tamping down the dust cloud that would otherwise envelop them in the open cab of the machine, said Lynwood Dorsey, city superintendent of streets.

When it doesn’t rain, they send out a water truck to do the job, he said.

“This came out real nice,” Dorsey remarked, driving down a spotless stretch of Grand Avenue between James and East Streets. The debris at the side of the curb includes leaf debris and sand that the city put down during the winter snows, he said.

Guest has been in the department for six years; he first got the opportunity to train to use the sweeping equipment last week. Last year, he tried to get trained, but it was too late in the season.

“I like to learn how to do everything in the department,” Guest said.

The first step: simultaneously avoiding hitting the curb below and tree branches ominously projecting out above.

“Accidents are going to happen,” said veteran street sweeper Powers, who admitted he has had a few. Once he drove into a branch that smashed the glass ​“bubble” at the side of the machine protecting passengers from the elements. He thought the tree appendage might have ​“more give,” but it did not. Powers reported the damage, and the ​“bubble” was replaced.

Sweeping the route through Wooster Square and Fair Haven varies in difficulty, he said. Wooster Square is not too hard to sweep, but car owners often have trouble moving their cars because fewer people have driveways.

But Fair Haven has more debris to sweep than neighborhoods like Westville and East Shore, where more neighbors rake leaves during the fall, he said.

Guest was learning in an older vehicle, in use in the department for about 12 years. ​“You got to drive the Toyota before the Cadillac,” he said, with a laugh.

Only one of the three vehicles sweeping Friday was new, about three years old, Dorsey said. The cabs are sealed in the newer machine, making the driver less susceptible to breathing in materials flying up from the road.

Transit officials and tow truck operators were simultaneously towing and tagging cars parked in violation of the parking ban Friday. Just before noon, a few tow trucks stalled just off East and State Streets, as they waited for the sweepers to catch up. If they move too far ahead of the sweepers, ​“cars might re-park” in the empty spaces before they’re cleaned, said Mike Granucci, a parking enforcement officer with the city transit department.

About 36 cars had been towed in Fair Haven between 8:15 a.m. and 12 p.m., Granucci said. That’s low for the first sweep day of the season, he said, though Fair Haven tends to have fewer cars on the street than a neighborhood like East Rock.

He attributed that to the difference in ​“the way people use cars.” More Yale affiliates live in East Rock, and they tend to leave their cars on the street during the day. Fair Haven neighbors are more likely to use their cars during the day.

Sweepers and transit officials will repeat the route April 7.