REGINA – In the springtime, the garbage, dirt and dust that stays hidden over the winter, ends up on display and often gets blown around with the wind.
“It’s always typical once the snow melts,” said Mayor Michael Fougere. “As soon as the ground becomes thawed and there’s not so much water, we will begin a city-wide clean up.”
Winter waste litters the fence line along the Ring Road but some crews have already began picking up garbage and the street sweeping equipment is also making its rounds.
“Now we’re focusing on boulevards and main street fairs and downtown. We’ll start the residential areas on the 28th of this month, weather permitting,” said Fougere.
In order to control all the dust in the air, the city spends $1.5 million on street sweeping.
“What’s key there is that people keep their cars off the street when there are signs that go around,” said Fougere.
Once crews have completed street sweeping, they will begin repainting the lines on the roads. Most major routes get repainted twice a year.
A massive inner city cleanup happens every October in North Central but there are some smaller scale cleanups that happen during the spring. The city councillor that represents the area says he’s seen improvements in the amount of waste on streets and in yards.
“Some blocks are perfect and you don’t see a thing out of place and others can be a quite a mess and really it’s just about the expectations of the community,” said Ward 6 Councillor Wade Murray. “We really have a higher expectation than we once did.”
One concern if you’re picking up trash is coming across a needle.
“If people get a needle stick, things that have been out laying around in the dirt, tetanus is a concern for that,” said Kathy Lloyd, manager of communicable disease and sexual health with the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region. “They find actually quite a variety of things, some of it is tied to injected drug use and some of it is just other medical paraphernalia.”
If you’re not comfortable removing the needle yourself, you can call the Street Project at 766-7799 or the Fire Department at 777-7830.
The needle pickup line received more than 250 calls last year, most of them in the spring.
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