Belleair Street Sweeping Schedule

Last updated on March 11, 2022

Belleair Street Sweeping Schedule.

This was on Belleair's website. Street Sweeping Schedule April 27, 2021 Update - The Town of Belleair partners with a contractor to conduct regular street sweeping in Belleair. As we have recently switched to a new vendor, we are in the process of finalizing a regular schedule. Once a schedule is set, additional information will be posted here. Out of courtesy to our contractor (and in order to keep your street as clean as possible), please move vehicles off of the roads during street sweeping days. Also, do not blow leaves, lawn clippings, or other debris into the road for street sweeping.

We wrote the below article 7 months ago. Street sweeping in and of itself to me is as important as a royal scandal. However, when something as inconsequential as street sweeping is worth misrepresenting and being deceitful. I hate to imagine what happens with important town undertakings, and it makes me think. Streets aren’t the only thing that needs cleaning. And since I’m still waiting for the requested records. I hope Belleair got a refund!

Agreements between state, county, and towns are more confusing than a Stanley Kubrick movie. One example of the confusion deals with Belleair and Pinellas County. Belleair is not allowed to do maintenance on Mehlenbacher Rd. Because of its status as a county right of way road.

Who sweeps the streets in the Belleair Bluffs – Belleair Beach , and surrounding towns?

Yet Belleair contracts the City of Largo to conduct street sweeping, including Mehlenbacher. A fact both Belleair and Largo agreed too.

Here is where I get confused. If Belleair isn’t allowed to do maintenance on Mehlenbacher, what do they consider street sweeping?

To be honest. It’s not about sweeping a small section of a bad road that’s so neglected; sweeping it only moves around dust and dirt. It actually concerning requesting records from Belleair concerning contractors they employ to perform maintenance for Belleair. Then being told I had to contact the City of Largo to get the records. Which I find alarming.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Belleair has been telling me residents were receiving equal and identical Belleair town services, including street sweeping of Mehlenbacher.

Then I found the above map of Belleair’s “Street Sweeping Schedule” on the town’s website. I noticed something strange. Mehlenbacher was also on the Belleair website map. Only a blank space.

It was an oversight. Telling me, Largo conducted street sweeping within the Town of Belleair in the third week of each month. That Mehlenbacher gets cleaned on Tuesdays. According to the town’s website marked in red.

So, for 3 Tuesdays in a row, I sat in my front room. Like a teenager waiting for a date. A date that never showed up! Waiting to see a street sweeper that never showed! I also checked security tapes and my Ring doorbell cloud.

So, on 3/11/2020, once again, I contacted Michael Shumaker from Belleair, who reached Michael Weaver Streets and Stormwater Supervisor | City of Largo, who told Mr. Shumaker for me to contact Matthew R York Public Works Director for Largo, which I did. Mr. Matt York emailed me saying he would get me requested records. That’s a lot of people. For something I would think would only take a few keystrokes?

Will wonders never cease. On Wednesday the 18th at 10:19 am. I saw something as rare as a passenger pigeon—something I had not seen or heard in years. What I saw was an actual working street sweeper on the north side of Mehlenbacher. A rare sight indeed. While cleaning the pool, the dog barked, something Charlie rarely does. I then heard a loud, unfamiliar sound coming from the front of our home. I rushed to see what the noise was.

The noise alone made by an operational working street sweeper confirmed my reality that Mehlenbacher Rd, like the hypothetical maintenance performed by Pinellas County. The that City of Largo hasn’t been sweeping Mehlenbacher on a regular schedule for years.

As I said, it’s not about cleaning a few hundred feet of a road that hasn’t seen surface treatments or even thin overlays for 20 years.

It’s about things like Belleair sending me to Largo to retrieve records. That I presume since Belleair pays Largo for sweeping street services. I would have records of when and what work Largo performed unless they get invoiced and pay it blindly!

It’s about employing procedures to make sure individual citizens and interested groups don’t have easy access to public recorders. They do not offer a modern system for alerting residents to the policymaking process, allowing Belleair’s political officials to make decisions that may not be in the best interest of all constituents.

It’s about the adage, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you,” until it does.

By far, a persistent theme and the number one criticism of many local citizens!