Street sweeping money on hold

By Shawn Regan
Staff writer

May 14, 2008 05:55 am

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HAVERHILL — The City Council will wait two weeks before deciding whether to give Mayor James Fiorentini $7,500 to hire a private company to sweep city streets.

The chief critic of the mayor's proposal, Councilor William Macek, was away and therefore unable to attend last night's meeting. His colleagues said they did not want to vote until he is back. Macek has questioned the rate the city would pay the private street-sweeping company and why the city cannot use its own workers and street sweepers to do the job.

Last week, councilors rejected Fiorentini's request by a vote of 5-4 to spend the money to hire American Sweeping of North Andover.

American Sweeping has been contracted by the Merrimack Valley Planning Consortium to clean streets in several nearby communities, including Lawrence, Methuen, Newburyport, Amesbury and North Andover, the mayor said. The regional consortium buys goods and services for its member communities in bulk quantities to get better prices.

The mayor said the Highway Department does not have enough workers to sweep the city's 424 curb miles without help. He said using a private company is faster and cheaper than trying to do the job with city workers who would have to be paid overtime rates.

The Highway Department provides regular street sweeping through its regular budget, but it would have to pay workers overtime wages for the large cleaning operation planned this spring, Fiorentini said.

It would cost the city $247 per curb mile at the overtime rate, the mayor said. At regular highway wages, it costs the city $222 per curb mile, he said.

Fiorentini said he will use $6,000 in the highway budget to start the street-cleaning operation, but that he needs the $7,500 to finish the job. The $7,500 is enough to do about 60 miles of the city's worst roads, most of which are the Acre and Mount Washington areas of the city, the mayor said.

"There were 2,800 tons of sand dumped on our roads this winter," Fiorentini said. "And we have an agreement with the EPA to clean our streets every spring to keep our storm drains cleaned. We just don't have the manpower to do it with the DPW alone."

Councilor David Hall said the mayor should use the money to pay its own workers to do the job, even if it means paying them at overtime rates.

"Why not give the $13,000 to our own people that have been doing the job for years and have experience," he said. "Let them make some OT. Give them a boost rather than a private company."

There are about 212 miles of public roadway in the city, or 424 curb miles, in the city. The 424 curb miles is equal to the distance from Haverhill to Buffalo, N.Y. Even with the full $13,500, the city will not be able to sweep every public road, he said.