The Albany street sweeper steers around yet another obstacle on Thursday.
If you live in Albany and want the street in front of your house swept, you can get out a broom and shovel and sweep it yourself. Or you can check the schedule and make sure you don’t block the city’s sweeper when it comes around, like clockwork, at least once a month.
Unlike the neatness police in some cities elsewhere, the Albany City Council has seen fit not to prohibit curbside parking on the days when the sweeper makes his rounds. Presumably that’s because the council is considerate and doesn’t want to pile yet another requirement or rule on residents and taxpayers of the town. A one-day-a month parking ban would necessarily be violated because people would forget. Or they would just ignore it. Then there would have to be enforcement — tickets and fines. Who needs the hassle?
So it’s up to people to show a little foresight on their own. It’s easy. On its website, the city of Albany has published a street-sweeping map and schedule. On the map, you find the neighborhood where you live. On the schedule below the map, you learn the date when sweeping is done each month.
If you live in the Willamette Neighborhood, for instance, that puts you in Area C, one of 14 zones covering the city. The schedule shows that in July, the sweeping day was Thursday, the seventh. In North Albany, the Benton Woods subdivision is in Zone E, and this month the sweeping date is the 12th. And so forth.
The schedule also lists the 20 major streets where sweeping takes place every other Monday.
I don’t know how much Albany spends on sweeping the streets. The budget doesn’t say (or if it does, I couldn’t find it). The budget does list the expense of “sweeper debris” as $35,000, presumably meaning the bill for taking it to the dump. Speaking of debris, the budget says the city wants to “develop a sweeper debris recycling program.” Really?
Albany says it sweeps an accumulated total of 4,816 miles of streets a year. And so, if you want to take full advantage of this service, try to park some place other than the street on the day the sweeper comes. (hh)
Clear sailing and a straight shot on this part of Front Avenue.
https://www.cityofalbany.net/departments/public-works/streets/street-sweeping-schedule
It would be nice if they did an extra sweep each month on some of the major bike routes.
Pacific/9th, Salem, Santiam, Waverly etc.
Some are “state highways” whereas the city is afraid to confront the state about “infringing” on their “territory”, cyclists be damned.
Hey Bill, at the bottom of the schedule it says the following streets are swept every other week. I see a couple you mention on that list. Here you go:
The following streets are swept every other Monday:
34th Ave
Belmont Ave
Broadway St
Center St
Columbus St (off Waverly Dr)
Elm St
Ferry St (off Queen Ave)
Geary St
Grand Prairie Rd
Hickory St
Hill St (S. of Pacific Blvd)
Jackson St (S. of overpass)
Liberty St (N. of 24th Ave)
Marion St
Price Rd
Queen Ave
Salem Ave
Timber St
Washington St (N. of Pacific Blvd)
Waverly Dr
Out of those streets, I use-
Geary St- Usually pretty decent.
Hill St.- Too rough S of Queen and frequent glass/ceramic debris near the Boys Club.
Queen Ave- Good for the part I use E. of Hill
Salem Ave- Quite variable.
Waverly Dr- Apparently they don’t like to get close to the curb in parts.
Pacific, near Goodwill, can be “filthy” with headlight/taillight remains etc.
Santiam can be especially filthy from 9th street on out past Fred Meyer.
Often, it’s small stuff that you wouldn’t see in a car.
Thanks Stan