Thursday, January 28, 2010
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1. Keeping the streets clear is a year-round job. Though outside of winter, he works as a city street sweeper.
2. Drivers work 12-hour shifts. Felice's shift is 7 p.m.-7 a.m. This time of year, though, 40-hour weeks are not the norm. "It's whenever they need you. If they need you to come in, you come in no matter how many hours or days you've already worked."
3. Felice estimates he's plowed upwards of 150 miles of city streets in a single night.
4. If a storm is predicted, drivers are out laying down sand and salt to try to keep things safe when the storm actually hits. And when the temperatures get warmer, plow drivers are still out there, keeping an eye on bridges, which can get icy as the temperature rises.
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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A company that has been in the street sweeper business for more than 30 years knows how to keep its customers happy. That’s why Schwarze Industries is eager to begin 2010 with an array of product changes based on customer requests.
The Huntsville, Alabama-based company is releasing its new GS6 Regenerative Air Street Sweeper this year, debuting after a successful introduction in the European market, according to company head Raymond Massey.
“Based on these extremely positive results, we have decided to move forward with distribution of this new machine for the North and South American markets. The GS6 includes a 6.5 cubic yard debris hopper, 39 inch diameter gutter brooms with optional hydraulic tilt and GEO (and) a 250 gallon dust suppression system,” Massey said.
The machine has a “standard sweeping head with our new hydraulic curtain lifter and our new automated sweeper standby system. The engineering on the new GS6 is cutting edge with a completely new approach to sweeper frame design and auxiliary engine mounting.”
To further meet customers’ demands, Schwarze is introducing standard LED lighting for all of its sweeper products this year, with the exception of the floodlights. “While the floodlights are still incandescent, we are offering an LED option. The addition of LEDs lowers the overall electric draw and increases the life expectancy of the light and alternator,” Massey explained. More importantly, the LED lighting has lower maintenance costs.
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Easton City Council plans to spend at least part of tonight's workshop meeting discussing plans to dramatically expand the city's street cleaning program. Council meets 6 o'clock on the fifth floor of City Hall, 1 S. Third St.
City officials unveiled their shiny new street sweeper earlier this month. The addition of a second sweeper will allow Easton to nearly triple its existing routes, according to Public Works Director David Hopkins. The densely populated West Ward will see the greatest increase in new routes.
But the new routes also mean more parking restrictions of up to three hours. City crews need to post about 700 new parking restriction signs from which parking enforcement officers will initially offer a 30-day amnesty period. After that, you can expect a ticket for failing to make way for the sweeper.
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
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The worst winter in many years will most likely cause some of the worst road conditions in many years, since wet weather and freezing temperatures provide ideal conditions for pothole formation.
In fact, some area road departments are already seeing “alligator cracking” and other signs of road deterioration exacerbated by the bad weather, and they’re gearing up to make pothole repairs.
In Kingsport, those repairs may last much longer than they have in the past thanks to a new piece of equipment that requires less manpower, provides the city with a cost savings, and creates a durable patch against winter potholes.
A pressurized patching machine that can fill an almost crater-sized pothole with liquefied asphalt was purchased by the city last spring and has helped repair a record number of potholes, said Kingsport Community Relations Coordinator Tim Whaley.
A combination of the traditional five-man road repair crew and the new Schwarze Road Patcher repaired 3,013 potholes on city streets last year — compared with 1,371 in 2008.
“(The Road Patcher) is going to come in handy, I’m afraid, because I anticipate all this snow and really cold temperatures are going to break asphalt very soon,” said Kingsport Streets and Sanitation Manager Ronnie Hammonds.
“The new system is a spray-injected asphalt and rock combination that gives us another tool in our toolbox to repair potholes quickly and efficiently,” Hammonds said. “We only have to send one worker out with the sprayer, drive to the repair location, and fix things in under an hour.
“According to federal studies, this method we use is probably the best to use for patching holes because the patch is very durable. A regular cold patch repair is labor intensive, with guys using jackhammers, cutting and removing asphalt, and filling with new material. This new machine lets you work with what you have and go on.”
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Monday, January 25, 2010
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Norwood’s director of public works wants funding in the 2011 town budget to build a salt and sand storage structure. Mark Ryan asked the Finance Commission for $120,000 Wednesday night.
“The salt now is stored on Winter Street underneath a tarp held down with tires,” Ryan said.
Ryan also requested money for some new equipment for the DPW, including a $52,000 water utility truck to help with water main breaks.
Last year, the DPW received $70,000 to buy a used garbage truck and now is asking for an additional $60,000 to buy a new garbage truck.
Ryan said he decided not to buy a used truck because a new truck would last longer. He is looking for a truck that can fit three workers in the cab because having one sit on the back of the truck is “a safety issue,” he said.
“It is a very useful vehicle,” Ryan said. “It is used year round for Christmas tree pick up, Norwood Day, Recycling Day, and to pick up leaf bags.”
Ryan also asked for $150,000 to buy a new street sweeper. The 1995 street sweeper the DPW now uses as a backup is “rotting and beyond repair,” Ryan said. With the purchase of a new one, he said, the 2005 model now used as the primary sweeper would become the backup.
“We want to have two running in the spring,” he said.
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The sale of a government fire truck in Montgomery County used to be a process teeming with paperwork.
The required mailings, bid applications, and newspaper advertising cost money, and often resulted in selling government property on the cheap.
The Pottstown-based municibid.com has changed that. Township merchandise is now a click away from a vast online audience, resulting in more bids and more money. And the selling process has been streamlined. It's post, bid, and pick up.
"I can absolutely say that it has broadened what we are able to sell," F. Thomas Snyder, chief procurement officer for Montgomery County, said of municibid.com. "It has been a tremendous increase in revenue, actually to the taxpayers, because they are the ones that ultimately benefit from increased revenue."
About 200 local government entities have joined municibid.com, including Montgomery County, Media, West Conshohocken, Delaware County, Hatfield Township, East Whiteland, and Upper Makefield.
Hatfield recently sold an old street sweeper for $5,000 to a buyer from Massachusetts, said Andrew Haines, township manager. The winning bidder drove down and picked it up.
West Conshohocken sold a 1980 dump truck for $30,050, soliciting 67 bids. Upper Salford sold a 2005 tractor for $25,200, getting 13 bids.
East Whiteland has taken in as much as $1,000 more than it typically received for a used car before online auctions, said William Steele, township director of public works.
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
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San Rafael city leaders will take another week before laying off workers as part of a cost-cutting strategy aimed at continuing to chip away at the city's multi-million dollar budget deficit.
The city staff asked for more time Tuesday following a series of public sessions last week, pushing off a planned vote to cut about 10 positions.
Positions to be eliminated include the assistant to the city manager, an associate planner, a part-time program coordinator, an employee benefits analyst, a parks ranger, the police personnel manager, a police dispatcher, a police call taker/records specialist. Also eliminated will be a vacant street sweeper operator position. An accounting assistant position will be reallocated so as not to draw from the general fund.
The cuts, if approved, would save $840,000 this year and $1.3 million in 2010-11. The council will hold a special meeting Jan. 26 to consider the reductions, which will affect, among other things, how frequently streets are swept, the way planning applications are processed, when the city communicates with the community and how the police department delivers its services.
City leaders have been working feverishly to close a $3.5 million gap in the $56.2 million general fund operating budget.ÊEarlier this month, city leaders slashed $1.9 million from this year's rolls and $2.7 million next year by suspending or eliminating 12.75 vacant positions, and reducing temporary seasonal help, supply accounts and contract services from police, fire, parks, streets, public works and community service.
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Orangeville property owners could see their taxes rise by about $50 this year — provided there are no further changes to the budget.
At the end of Monday night’s finance committee meeting (Jan. 18), a few minor adjustments saw the proposed tax levy increase drop to 2.6 from a projected 2.9 per cent hike.
Should council stick with that, the average homeowner with a house valued at $250,000 would see their taxes rise by $51, according to Treasurer Bill McKennan.
Coun. Sylvia Bradley, who chairs the finance committee, says that increase is just fine with her.
“I’m comfortable with that,” she said. “We need to take a look at the whole tax bill. The other two (county and education portions) are coming in at zero and we really need to address that reserve problem.”
The town’s reserves have been depleted in the past few years, with a little less than $3 million available in the discretionary funds and less than $1 million on hand to be used toward capital projects, McKennan said.
Coun. Scott Wilson was fine with it being even higher. “I think that’s a brilliant budget,” Wilson said of the initial 2.9 per cent hike. “Many municipalities would love to be able to deliver a budget like that.”
Mayor Rob Adams agrees it’s important to replenish the municipality’s reserves, however, he favours a smaller tax increase.
“I think it’s in the right ballpark, but I think we can do a little better,” he said. “We can’t have it at zero because we have to at least have rate of inflation ... otherwise it will catch up with us later on.”
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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Some workers in downtown Jefferson City on Monday morning saw what may have looked like kitty litter spread across the street.
The Fire Department spread a sand-like substance in the 100 block of East High Street after a vehicle came through the block, apparently with a leaking fuel tank.
The sand is the same material the department often uses at accidents where fuel has been spilled.
The fire department said the material was used to soak up the gasoline, because the street was too wet to let the fuel evaporate naturally, without creating slick spots that might have caused an accident.
About 15 minutes after spreading the sand, the city's street sweeper was called in to clean up the sand and fuel, so the wet sand didn't become too slick to cause wrecks.
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MINERSVILLE - A tri-axle truck spilled clumps of mud, dirt and rock on the 400 and 500 blocks Sunbury Street on Monday afternoon, then the driver fled, according to borough Manager James Cleary.
Eight borough workers spent an hour cleaning up the road using brooms, a backhoe, dump trucks and a street sweeper, Cleary said.
"If we catch him, we'll bill him for our time here and charge him with littering. You're looking at several hundred dollars," he said.
The incident occurred at 2:25 p.m., according to a call taker at the Schuylkill County Communications Center.
According to borough police Chief Michael Combs, the truck, which he said had a red cab and a gray box, was northbound on Route 901, which is Sunbury Street. Its load of dirt started to spill between North Fourth and North Fifth streets
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Monday, January 18, 2010
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San Clemente's Coastal Advisory Committee will ask the City Council to consider prohibiting parking during street-sweeping hours on publicly maintained streets citywide – and to ticket violators.
The goal isn't revenue, said committee Chairman Bill Hart, but to stop residents' cars from blocking the path of the sweeper so it can suck up debris from curbs. Otherwise, the debris washes into storm drains, onto the beaches and into the ocean.
Select neighborhoods are posted "No parking" during designated sweeper hours each month. Officials say the risk of a $50 ticket has improved curb access for the sweeper. A citywide expansion would apply ticketing to all publicly maintained streets.
Dave Dendel, the city's maintenance-services manager, said 442 people have signed up for free phone and e-mail reminders the day before sweeping day. The service is available to residents citywide. Call 949-361-8200 or visit san-clemente.org.
On Thursday, the advisory committee looked at a survey done last summer, counting cars on sweeper routes. The most parked cars were on unposted streets west of El Camino Real between Trafalgar Lane and West Lobos Marinos, officials said. On one run, the sweeper had to go around 29 cars along West Cordoba, 25 on Avenida Barcelona and 23 on Trafalgar Lane, according to the survey.
"It's always been troubling to me that large areas of the city aren't posted," Hart said. Colleague Bob Maltinsky said he once lived in a city that enforced sweeper hours citywide, and he can't see why San Clemente doesn't.
Parking during street-sweeping hours has been an issue recently in other Orange County cities. Dana Point expanded its restrictions and ticketing to more areas of town. A Huntington Beach councilman, outraged at repeatedly receiving street-sweeping parking tickets, called for changes in the ticketing process. High school students' cars in Anaheim were towed from a shopping center where they had parked to avoid sweeping on streets near the school.
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Friday, January 15, 2010
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STANTON – A large pile of recyclable trash caught fire in a recycling center today, authorities said, where firefighters had difficulty reaching the flames and finding a working fire hydrant to extinguish the blaze.
A large plume of smoke and fire was reported at 11232 Knott Avenue at 12:31 p.m., said Capt. Greg McKeown of the Orange County Fire Authority.
The fire was burning inside a 200 by 100 feet structure, where a small trash hauler had just recently dumped trash, he said. Either the truck, or something inside the truck, caught fire and then extended the flames to the large trash pile.
The flames were sending a large plume of smoke into the air, McKeown said, until firefighters were able to douse the flames at 1 p.m.
Firefighters had difficulty reaching the flames because the large pile of trash was unstable, and firefighters could not simply walk toward the flames, he said.
When firefighters searched for a water hydrant, two of the hydrants in the plant were not working properly, he said.
"Some of the hydrants in the property were not operating," he said. Construction in the area may have affected the hydrants, he said. Firefighters were able to use a third hydrant.
Automatic sprinklers from the building were activated, helping authorities control the fire, he said. Firefighters also plugged a hose into the sprinkler system to help add pressure to the overhead sprinklers.
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
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![[MBX] Utility truck by a r b o.](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2758/4283678704_89c29eb8bc.jpg)
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