Santa Ana : New Equipment to Aid Weekly Street Cleaning

Twelve new street sweepers, one dump-loader truck, eight parking control vehicles and a pickup truck will be purchased at a cost of about $900,000 so that streets can be swept at twice the current pace.

The City Council on Tuesday approved doubling the sweeping at a cost--not including the $900,000 for new equipment--of about $1.13 million. Residential streets and commercial and industrial areas will be cleaned weekly, major arterials twice a week and on a nightly schedule in the downtown area.

Public Services Director David Grosse pointed out that many other cities, including Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Orange, Tustin and Fullerton, already have weekly service. The program is expected to go into effect by May, 1986.

“Santa Ana is probably one of the last cities to move into once-a-week sweeping,” he said. Garden Grove and Fountain Valley sweep monthly and Huntington Beach scours the asphalt every two weeks.

Those who ignore the posted “no parking” warnings for street-sweeping face $27 citations, an estimated 60% of which would be returned to the city by the court system, according to a report by Maintenance Manager Larry Christian. At that rate, he said, the city can expect to take in more than $1 million each year from citations.