Are You Bothered By the Street Sweeper?

Once or twice a month in the early hours of the morning, Shorewood's 1999 Tymco 600 Air Sweeper tours every village street, spraying air and water, and vacuuming up debris with its regenerative air system that was state of the art when the village purchased the vehicle in 2000 with Whitefish Bay.

Starting its street-cleaning trips around 3 a.m., most residents have never seen the truck, but many have heard it.

Shorewood resident Dan Eder said the noise has startled him awake many a morning.

"I wonder if anyone else is woken up in the middle of the night like I am by the rocket engine driving up and down my street," Eder said.

Director Leeann Butschlick said the village is required by the Department of Natural Resources to clean the streets twice a month to pick up metals and chemicals that would otherwise make their way into the sewers and waterways. Twice a month is a goal, but not always a reality, she said. 

She said 3 to 4 a.m. is the optimal time for cleaning because cars are not allowed to be parked on the streets.

"In order to do it efficiently and effectively, that's when it needs to be done," Butschlick said. "You can't do it when there are cars parked on the street. That defeats the purpose."

Butschlick said another option that municipalities use is to post signage that prohibits street parking during cleaning hours on certain days. She said this could be especially difficult in Shorewood because of parking demands from UW-Milwaukee students and the village's high population density.

However, Butschlick said the village has received calls from residents complaining of the noise.

The village does have a noise ordinance that requires loud construction projects to be done between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., but Butschlick said she was told by village police that this ordinance does not apply to Public Works activities.

Butschlick said the village is due to buy a new truck next year, but that it likely won't be much quieter.

"Because of its nature — spraying water over the street and vacuuming it all up — it has to be loud," she said.