Moraga’s mean streets may get a helping spritz from its immediate neighbor if a brewing agreement comes to pass.
The Town of Moraga is seeking a contractual agreement with its Big City neighbor calling for Orinda to provide street cleaning services – using equipment (slightly more modern than the device pictured) and person power the larger city already has available.
Moraga has previously contracted street sweeping services through a private firm hired to clean all of its public streets on a semi-annual basis – once in June and again in November.
But, perhaps driven by rising dust levels and drain-clogging piles of falling leaves, Moraga put out feelers requesting a one-time pilot sweeping program from January through March and leaving the door open for future, contracted sweeping service from Orinda if things go smoothly.
Both Moraga and Orinda have been actively drafting terms of an agreement between them, with the Orinda city council studying the terms of that agreement at their Jan. 7 meeting. If approved, the Memorandum of Understanding between the city and town would go to Moraga’s council for review and approval – with residents seeing the sweeper on their streets this month.
Staff estimates that sweeping Moraga’s 109 curb miles could be done using Orinda’s sweeper and an operator at a cost to Moraga of under $10,000 a year. The proposed schedule would provide services within Moraga on Mondays, Tuesday, and Thursdays and will not interrupt ongoing sweeping services in Orinda.
Moraga, for its part, would be responsible for notifying residents of the sweeper schedule; providing water for the machine itself; providing a location and disposal of all sweeper debris with Orinda charging its neighbor a fee of $84.50 based on each curb mile (approx. $9,210) swept to recover costs of providing the service.
