Growth has been a common theme for Peoria — the city is experiencing more homes, more shops and more municipal employees.

But one aspect of the city that has not increased employees is the street sweeping division, which has had remained static in the last decade.

However, City Manager Jeff Tyne said Peoria has a great story to tell about its street sweep operation.

“Through their hard work we have seen amazing efficiency improvements in the last couple years, from increasing the street cycles and reducing citizen complaints,” he said.

Since 2008, the city added 260 lane miles of roads going from 1,340 to nearly 1,600 lane miles, still using four operators.

During that time, street sweeping cycles climbed from four weeks to nearly 12 weeks, and residents and complaints increased as operators struggled to complete their routes on time.

Additionally, the city’s growth and increased traffic meant more spills and accidents operators were forced to clean up.

But Public Works Operations Manager Janet Ramsay said the sweeper operation has steadily increased its level of service in the past three years by decreasing sweeping cycle intervals, without additional staff.

The current sweeping cycle for residential streets is at seven weeks and the team has a goal to hit six weeks in the near future. Ms. Ramsay said the results are an impressive 41% increase in the level of service with the same number of staff.

The division brought in better equipment and GPS technology to all units to run routes more efficiently and better respond to emergency calls.

The division also committed to a diligent maintenance program of avoiding downtime to keep the units in service and added one sweeper to the fleet bringing the total to six sweepers, all funded by grants.

Ms. Ramsay said sweeping cycles have steadily decreased and they are back down to 2008 levels with the same number of operators — the roads are clean and customer calls for service are down.

“But the real results came from the commitment of the team,” she said. “They show up every day with great attitudes and the drive, literally, to do more and better.”

The sweeper operations team was honored at a recent city council meeting — Streets Supervisor Adam Stapleton, Lead Equipment Operator Domingo Cadena and Operators Charlie Matos, Art Vasquez and Darryll LeDuff

“(They) take great pride in the service that they provide,” Ms. Ramsay said. “It is only through their commitment that these incredible improvements in levels of service to our citizens could be accomplished and this is a great example of Peoria’s values and commitment to serving our citizens.”

The city uses street sweeping services to reduce airborne dust and particulate matter generated by heavy traffic, dirt roads and construction. Sweepers also clear dirt and debris along curbs and gutters to make the city aesthetically pleasing.

Philip Haldiman can be reached at 623-876-3697, phaldiman@newszap.com, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman.