Street sweepers have begun their spring cleaning in Steinbach. Randy Reimer, Head of Public Works says their two machines got going Tuesday.

"Usually it takes us close to six weeks to clean everything up," says Reimer. "That's providing we get good weather and we don't have a lot of rain in between."

Reimer says right now they are concentrating on some collector streets and main thoroughfares. He notes there is still frost in the ground and it will probably be next week before they start sweeping sand off boulevards. He notes with all the snow this winter and then a couple of mild spells, crews put down a lot of sand.

"If all goes well we're going to try and do as much street sweeping here this week if possible," notes Reimer. "It will depend on the weather and how much drying time we get."

He notes the boulevards have to be dry before they start sweeping, especially within residential developments. As best they can, they want to make sure they don't damage lawns. He says it was already a bad winter for snow removal. With several snow dumps in December, before a lot of frost, Reimer says heavy equipment damaged some of the boulevards.

According to Reimer, once the snow has melted and the frost is coming out of the boulevards that is when they decide to send out the street sweepers. He notes it is usually in early April. But the earliest recorded start date he can recall was a couple of years ago when they began on March 17.

"We want to make sure that it's dry enough that we're not damaging too much grass in the process," says Reimer.

Reimer says if people can refrain from parking on streets, especially in residential areas, it will help with the street sweeping process.