Street Sweeping on Trash Days

Dear Editor,

In response to your column in letters to the editor on Wednesday November 24th, a reader stated that he didn’t understand why the county sweeper would come in and try to sweep on a trash pick-up day.

As one of only two full-time sweeper operators for Alameda County that are responsible for  473 miles of unincorporated roads in the county, I can state that in practice we do not go in the neighborhoods on trash day. It would be ineffective and too time-consuming to maneuver around all the obstacles. But if we receive a work order, we have to go out and check it out as soon as we get them. It could be a spill, or reported broken glass. But we have to check it out and try to get whatever we can. this may have been what your reader saw. Or sometimes, we travel in sweep mode for a block or two before we turn our brooms off to ensure all the debris is loaded into the sweeper. We try to do the best we can, especially this time of year in the fall. There are so many leaves which sweepers aren’t really designed for. The leaves are so light, sometimes it takes two or three passes to get them to load. I hope this might explain what your reader saw.

–Jack Adams, Hayward