We have a new addition to the team, and I’m delighted to introduce you to Vacsquatch – one of the most unique “employees” at the County.
You may remember we just finished a public truck naming process and Vacsquatch was the winner by a landslide!
As with all our Planning & Public Works (PPW) equipment, it takes a skilled operator and often a team of employees to get the work done – and Vacsquatch is no different. In this case, it takes a two-person crew – and sometimes flaggers — to keep them safe on the roadside. While still new to the work and honing their skills, they have already made quite a mark!
I recently had the chance to meet Vacsquatch and try my hand at sucking up litter. Check out this latest edition of Inside Pierce County.
My thanks to Jordan Hatch, Charles “Cletis” Heaton and Gary Resnik for showing me how Vacsquatch cleans up our roadsides. I will tell you that it’s much more difficult to operate the vacuum truck than you might imagine. The vacuum head is behind the operator, so the operator is controlling the vacuum with the joystick, while looking in the mirror, coordinating with the ground crew, and driving the truck! Cletis and Gary are getting up to speed quickly and ridding our roads of a tremendous amount of garbage.
Since starting on February 29, the crew has traveled 73 miles across unincorporated Pierce County and have removed 11 tons of garbage from our roads! Those are impressive – and depressing – numbers! I am sure a social scientist could tell a lot about some people in our community by looking at what Vacsqatch collects. And I believe that keeping our roadsides clean, makes people less likely to litter, and promotes pride in our community!
While I wish the truck wasn’t necessary, I am thankful our Vacsquatch team is stalking litter on our roadsides!
Enjoy the long weekend – but be sure to take a moment to remember the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep us free. The 80th anniversary of D-Day is only two weeks away.
Thanks for reading,
Bruce