Mwlo by Mirba*l WfilMin
At the helm of Mobile Street Sweeper. Nick Voller. veteran sweeper of 30 yearn, prepares for
another night of sweeping up leaves and dodging parked cars.
Sweeping Eugene clean
There are 106,000 residents
in Eugene. Only eight are street
sweepers.
Only a couple of those work
the night shift.
Last fall, every Wednesday, at
2:30 a.m.. I was awakened by a
flashing yellow light, a roaring
diesel engine, a clanging of
steel, and the whirr of bristles
on a powerized broom. It's a lit
tle ironic because I lived in a
house by Serenity Lane.
Reporter’s
notebook
By Chris Norred
I'm from Rainier. Ore. where
all the roads are still gravel and
street sweepers would be ab
surd. So 1 was a little bit scared
the first time I saw that
machine, which looks a little
like the people mover from the
movie "Soilent Green.”
But gradually I grew more
and more interested in the
machine, and in the man who
operates it
What do street sweepers do?
Why do they do it? Do they like
it? Where do they come from?
Where do they go? What do
they see?
Sunday. 11 p.m.: Michael the
photographer and I arrive at the
end of Garfield Street where we
are to meet street sweeper Nick
Voller.
Nick has been cleaning up
this town for nearly 30 years
now. He started when the job
was still done with three
wheeled, tractor-like vehicles.
Tonight. Nick's Mobile Street
Sushi
Lunch Special
Dim Sum
Lunch
*2.25
And Try Us For Dinner
CHINA
BLUE
Restaurant
879 E. 13th. 343-2832
Sweeper has a cab with comfor
table seating for two. air condi
tioning and heating, an
automatic transmission, power
steering and brakes and a two
way radio.
Nick greets us in the truck
yard. I sign the release form (in
case I'm killed or something).
He revs up the powerful diesel
engines, turns on the brooms,
flashes the bright yellow light
and we're off into the night to
clean some streets.
Fall has begun and a lot of
people spent the weekend rak
ing leaves from their front yards
into the street. Nick tells me this
is the first night of the season
that he's had to sweep a lot of
leaves. "1 like the trees, but I
don't like the leaves,” he says.
"When it's just dirt I’ll have to
unload the sweeper maybe once
or twice a night.” We have four
loads of leaves by lunchtime
this night. Hut the streets look
cleaner.
Bill, the other street sweeper
on the nightshift is going to
sweep the downtown tonight.
Nick and 1 are heading off to
wake up the neighborhoods bet
ween Chambers and lefferson
streets
Nick sits on the right side of
the cab. There are two steering
wheels so the operator can
watch the curb on either side if
he cleans a one-way street.
With expert precision. Nick
smoothly guides the massive
machine as close as possible
along the curb at a pace of about
10 mph. He explains how the
gutter broom throws the dirt
away from the curb and the
pickup broom sweeps it into the
truck.
We're edging along the curb
The fifth Annual Pacts
Northwest Compuh-r ( a ip’ 1
Conference Applications
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OCTOBER 26-28,1966
E ugene Conference Centef A
the Mutt Center 'or the
Performing Arts
Reduced rales lor Students &
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A information call or stop by
the University of Oregon
Continuation Center 1553
Mo&s Street, 686 3537
and talking when suddenly I
become extremely aware that
Continued on Page 6
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