Craig Hanson is cleaning the city’s streets and preparing for the next flood at the same time.
The street-sweeper crews supervised by Hanson — a self-proclaimed industrial-engineering geek who serves as the city’s public works maintenance manager — pick up from 8,000 to 9,000 tons of sand, dirt, litter and small road kill each year.
In years past, the loads would end up in the local landfill, used to help cover garbage.
Not anymore. Everything picked up by a fleet of 10 sweepers ends up in an ever-growing pile outside the former Sinclair meatpacking plant, now owned by the city.
“Oh, it’s impressive,” Hanson says of the pile of sweepings. It must be 100-by-50 feet and 20 feet tall, he says.
This is the stuff that will be used, after sifting out debris, to fill wire Hesco baskets, which the city will deploy as temporary flood protection if the Cedar River should threaten the city with flooding again. The longer range plan is to build, with congressional funding, a permanent flood-protection system. Until then, Hanson’s pile of Hesco fill will continue to grow and be at the ready.
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