City street vacuum to be ordered soon
By Barbara Arntsen
Published in News on April 23, 2004 2:05 PM
Getting that trash vacuumed up from the sides of city streets is still a few weeks away, but the machine should be ordered by the beginning of next week.
On April 5 the Goldsboro City Council approved buying a portable litter vacuum machine. The vacuum, which will remove debris and trash from roadways and rights of way, will cost the city $14,000.
But Joseph Sawyer, the general services manager for the city, said that before a purchase order could be submitted to the Finance Department, he had to put specifications together.
The machine will be built, because it has to have a neoprene hose that will be light weight enough to pull around, Sawyer said. There are some minor changes and adjustments to the regular street vacuum.
A test was conducted by the General Services Department to see if a self-propelled leaf vacuum machine could suck up the trash efficiently and economically.
Test results were positive. The machine will be attached to a dump truck. The litter vacuum will have an extended boom so it can reach about 25 feet from the side of the street to collect litter and trash.
Based upon the test, the machine should collect paper, cardboard, Styrofoam and other similar debris.
"This should be ordered by next week," Sawyer said. "We wanted to make sure we got one that could do the job, and not break down all the time."
In other business, the City Council did the following:
*Condemned dilapidated dwellings within the city. Those structures are at 612 Pittman St., 410 Denmark St. and three mobile homes at 3012 Thoroughfare Road.
*Approved a contiguous annexation petition from the Goldsboro Worship Center Property on the south side of New Hope Road between Hare Road and Reedy Branch.