Many in Salem have probably lost sleep waiting for the list of finalists for the city’s electric street sweeper naming contest, but the verdict is finally in with the top five.
The community suggestions that made the cut from more nearly 650 submissions are:
- Z.E.U.S (Zero Emissions Utility Sweeper)
- Chew-Vac-Uh
- Sweepy Wonder
- Whiskers
- Sweep Force One
Now, the city is asking the public to help make the final selection by voting for the winner via a survey available online until Nov. 15. The street sweeper’s official name will be announced on Nov. 18.
City spokesman Trevor Smith said there were a lot of great name suggestions that didn’t make the cut.
A list provided to Salem Reporter included Sir Sweep-A-Lot, Little Go Sweep, Buffy the Leaf Slayer, Clearopathra, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sweep? and Clean Latifa.
“There were great ones that we couldn’t use because other communities had already selected them,” Smith said. “There are also some great ones that had corporate name puns that we didn’t use because we didn’t want to … get into a fight with that company over trademarks.”
Smith said roughly 10% of the suggestions were “Sweepy McSweepface.”
“That was definitely the most popular. But we didn’t go with that one,” Smith said. Public works employees selected the finalists.
The vehicle in question is a fully electric compact eSwingo 200+ capable of picking up leaves and debris even in narrow spaces like park trails, bike baths and narrow alleyways. The vehicle puts out no carbon emissions and can operate for 10 hours before needing a charge. Smith said the sweeper will be deployed primarily downtown where it will sweep alleyways, parking lots, sidewalks and bike lanes that are too narrow to fit bigger street sweepers.
The new street sweeper was paid for with $337,000 awarded to the city by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The city paid 10% of the costs, or $37,494, from the city’s utility fund. That money comes from people paying city utility bills.
The new vehicle will also sweep certain park pathways and parking lots at Bush’s Pasture Park and Riverfront Park and will be deployed later this fall.
The new street sweeper is part of the city’s climate action plan which includes a push to eventually convert the city’s entire vehicle fleet to electric vehicles.
Similar street sweeper naming contests in other cities in Oregon have yielded delightful results.
In Oregon City, a 7-year-old named Kennedy Gibb won her city’s street sweeper naming contest in March by naming the city’s vehicle “C-SweePO,” a play on C-3P0, the loquacious gold-colored android from the Star Wars movies.
Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.
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Joe Siess is a reporter for Salem Reporter. Joe joined Salem Reporter in 2024 and primarily covers city and county government but loves surprises. Joe previously reported for the Redmond Spokesman, the Bulletin in Bend, Klamath Falls Herald and News and the Malheur Enterprise. He was born in Independence, MO, where the Oregon Trail officially starts, and grew up in the Kansas City area.
