Street sweepers called to action

By Roger Knox - Vernon Morning Star - March 26, 2008

A Vernon councillor wants a clean sweep of all city roads. Barry Beardsell told his colleagues Tuesday morning that the conditions of city roads “are not a good state of affairs.” “I know staff have to be working at this, but it is really pathetic,” said Beardsell. “We had an advisory in the early part of March where our air conditions were atrocious.” Beardsell said he contacted city yards about having the sweepers do the bus route streets after the main arteries were done. “The buses, which have two people on them at all times, one driver and one passenger, are the greatest maneuverers for spreading dust and sand because they speed along their roads,” said Beardsell. James Rice, manager of public works for the City of Vernon, said he did look at Beardsell’s suggestion, but found there would be a five per cent loss of efficiency on the bus routes if that happened. “Maybe we should shut the buses down till we clean the roads,” joked Beardsell.

Shirley Koenig, the city’s manager of operations, said 75 per cent of the city’s street sweeping has been done with three sweepers and two staff members working on cleaning the roads. “We’re doing all we can,” said Koenig. “This has been a bad year for sand on the road. We had 40 events of snow where sand was needed, and that’s higher than a normal year. “We’re doing the best we can given the resources we have.” Mayor Wayne Lippert agreed it’s been a poor year for having sand and rocks on the roads. “If we didn’t sand the roads during the snow, people would complain about that,” he said. Rice said the city looked into contracting out some extra equipment. “Everybody’s busy at this time of the year,” he said. “We had no success in getting additional machines.”

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Don Quixote NOTE: A look at equipment used and program re Vernon's Street Sweeping is available here.