BEATRICE – The street sweeper in Beatrice will be making a few more passes through the city, before it gives way to snowplows, this season.
Street Superintendent Jason Moore says he expects sweeping will cover the entire city two or three more times, this season. That’s different from last year, when significant snow arrived in October.
This fall, leaves coming off the trees are making sweeping a slower process.

"The sweepers will make it about three blocks, on one side of the street before they have to dump....the leaves are so heavy", Moore said. He said the northeast part of town has the most mature streets that reach over the streets.
A dump truck trails the sweeper, and piles are hauled to a location off Center Street, eventually trucked to the landfill. Street crews during October also cleared low hanging branches from some streets where they were blocking street signs. Crews also used 18-thousand pounds of patching material to fill potholes throughout the city, among other duties.

In department reports given to the Board of Public Works on Wednesday, Electric Superintendent Pat Feist said crews have been doing some work at Southeast Community College.
"On the west side at the substation and the college...we're putting in a new underground primary line for the new classroom building".
Feist said electric workers have been upgrading a distribution line along the north side of Lincoln Street between 6th and 8th…with related work to the south. Replacement of overhead lines has been completed from 4th to 6th….and Lincoln to Hoyt.

Water Superintendent Steve Kelley said crews have worked on a leak in a water valve at Monroe and Paddock Streets. Kelley says the water main there is scheduled to be replaced next year.
"What we ended up doing is we cut everything out once we got those valves in there. We capped the existing main to the north, so it will be just one direction, as this time".

Kelley says his department is also conducting flow testing and annual maintenance on 718 fire hydrants in the city….which is expected to be finished in a couple of weeks.