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Cincinnati Residents Will Soon Be Seeing More Street Sweepers

City of Cincinnati
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Provided
Map of proposed street sweeping plan that is scheduled to begin July 1st.

Starting in July, Cincinnati public service workers will be sweeping almost every street in the city at least once a month.  

Right now, drivers are testing the routes throughout the city.  
Public Services Director Marakeshia Smith told a city council committee this week that the plan is possible because the city replaced some outdated equipment.

"It went 5 to 10 to 15 miles per hour," Smith said. "So we decided to purchase sweepers that are on truck chassis.  So it can drive highway miles. So anytime you need to get to the outskirts of the city, you deploy those sweepers to the outskirts of the city. And you use your smaller sweepers inside the city."

The entire city will be swept every four weeks on a rotating schedule with some areas done on the first and third weeks of the month, and others on the second and fourth weeks.  

On the first and second weeks, crews will do the even numbered sides of the street and the third and fourth weeks the odd numbered sides.  

Smith said the goal is to have a schedule residents can follow.

"My garbage day is on Monday; my sweeping day is every Tuesday, the first and third of the month," Smith said. "We'll go through that for the next couple of months, we'll see what issues we have, and then we'll make adjustments. What we wanted to do was create a program where we're not locked into it, we want to be able to make changes."

City Manager Harry Black said it will be a major achievement.

"We're going to be going from, at best, sweeping a little more than 1,000 miles of streets in one year," Black said, "to sweeping 1,600 miles per month."

The city will release additional details for residents closer to when the sweeping begins.

Jay Hanselman brings more than 10 years experience as a news anchor and reporter to 91.7 WVXU. He came to WVXU from WNKU, where he hosted the local broadcast of All Things Considered. Hanselman has been recognized for his reporting by the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and the Ohio AP Broadcasters.