Street Sweeping Will Come to Early End

After receiving numerous complaints from both residents and emergency personnel, voted Monday to temporarily suspend the street sweeping program, effective Sept. 1.

Street sweeping will continue to run on through the end of August. As of Sept. 1, the street sweeping schedule will not be in effect.

The motion passed by a 4-3 vote, with Mayor Tom Lloyd casting the tie-breaking vote to suspend the program. Councilwoman Laurie Malka did not
attend the meeting.

The decision was made to give council time to re-evaluate the program and consider scheduling alternatives. Council President Bill McCartney said the suspension of the program is temporary.

At past meetings, council members, as well as Dormont police Chief Phil Ross, said that emergency vehicles such as fire trucks and ambulances were often not able to navigate streets with cars parked on both sides. That situation reportedly occurred frequently in some areas of the borough, when cars were not moved per the street sweeping schedule.

“This is a public safety issue,” Councilwoman Joan Hodson said Monday. “Fire trucks cannot get through when cars are parked on both sides of the street. I don’t know what the solution is. This was just not thought out very well.”

But not all council members thought that stopping the program was the best solution.

“I think there’s a happy medium,” said Councilwoman Valerie Martino. “I just don’t think the happy medium right now is ‘let’s not clean our streets.’”

Martino said council should set a date for when the program would begin again. Mayor Tom Lloyd suggested that the program begin again in April or May, when it normally would start, but an official vote on the matter was
not made.

Leaf collection still will occur in October. Borough solicitor John Rushford said spot cleaning likely would be done where needed over the next few months.

Lloyd said cars would not be ticketed for street-sweeping related violations after the program ends. Hodson said the signs would likely be taken down if council did not make a decision about the program by that time.

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