Street sweepers pick up hundreds of cubic yards of material to protect water quality

Oct 04, 2023

BRAINERD — To protect the Mississippi River, both Brainerd and Baxter undertake street sweepings at least twice a year.

In the spring, street sweepers are clearing the sand mixture leftover from its use on icy streets, making cleanup additionally important after a long winter. Both cities started street cleaning April 10 as part of their yearly city cleaning.

Jessie Dehn, Brainerd city engineer and Public Works director, said they wait until the nighttime lows are above freezing to start. However, both cities said they had to take a few days off with a late-season snowstorm April 20.

Brainerd uses city employees and equipment to clean city streets and parking lots while Baxter contracts out its cleaning.

"It was a late winter so all of our spring work has been compressed," Dehn said. "So it's made it a little bit tougher to get it all punched out at once because you have other things that are demanding your time."

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The stormwater permits mandate the removal of sediments, trash and debris from the stormwater system as well as phosphorus reduction, said Brian Berent, Baxter streets and utilities supervisor.

Finishing their cleaning of the streets May 10, Berent said they collected around 478 cubic yards of material in Baxter. A cubic yard is 3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet. A single cubic yard covers approximately 100 square feet to a depth of 3 inches.

"That was all through the streets and parks of Baxter," Berent said. "And we do sweep the trails as well as the City Hall parking lot and Public Works facilities."

Brainerd has a few more weeks of cleaning, Dehn said May 23, as city employees are also responsible for multiple things in the city, which may require cleaning to be put on pause for a short period of time.

"We prioritize it in the spring, just kind of clean things up after winter," Dehn said. "But it does take us a little bit of time because we only have a limited staff to be able to do that as well as all the other things."

As of May 23, Brainerd collected about 400 cubic yards of material and they expect to finish spring cleaning collecting around 800 to 1,000 cubic yards of material.

Additionally, on Wednesday mornings during the summer months, Dehn said the city sweeps the downtown district as it is a high-traffic area and they work to maintain its cleanliness.

TIM SPEIER, staff writer, can be reached on Twitter @timmy2thyme , call 218-855-5859 or email [email protected] .

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