Sweeping Beauty, Grim Sweeper among names selected for Sheboygan DPW vehicles
Department of Public Works refuses to release all of the submissions
SHEBOYGAN — Seven vehicles assigned to the city’s Department of Public Works fleet will be receiving names after the department sought submissions from the public.
The Name That Truck contest was held during the month of July and sought ideas from the public to name street sweepers, garbage trucks and dump trucks, which also function as snow plows. According to Travis Peterson, the city’s DPW Director, it was an engaging and creative opportunity to name the fleet. He did not say how many vehicles the department has in total or how the contest came about.
After tallying staff votes, two garbage trucks will be named Trash Gordon and Bin Diesel. Three street sweepers will be named Sweeping Beauty, Gutter Hugger and The Grim Sweeper. Two dump trucks will be referred to as The Big LePlowski and Earl. WKTS News submitted an Open Records Request to obtain all contest submissions. Joel Kolste, Deputy Director of Field Operations at DPW, acknowledged our request on August 5th but failed to turn over the documents as of Friday morning. Peterson also did not say how many submissions were received during the month-long contest.
It is not clear why the department has chosen not to release the entries. According to Wisconsin State Law, simple requests should be answered within 10 working days. Transparency has been at an all-time low at the Department of Public Works under Peterson. Under his leadership, there has been a growing backlog of deferred maintenance affecting city parks, streets and trees. In some cases, the backlog is affecting public safety. The city has received multiple reports over the summer of a missing life-ring along the Sheboygan River at Camp Marina Park. Despite knowing about this, the life-ring has not been replaced as of Friday morning.
DPW will notify the winning entrants next week and Peterson has confirmed there was no added cost to taxpayers for the contest.
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