Z.E.U.S.: Turner eighth grader picks winning name for Salem’s electric street sweeper

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Z.E.U.S. will get to work on Salem’s streets next month.

That’s short for Zero Emission Utility Sweeper — the new name for Salem’s first electric street sweeper, city officials announced Monday.

Cascade Junior High student Zaidee Salazar suggested the name, which beat out four other finalists in a city poll conducted earlier this month. The city is currently working on a new design for the street sweeper which will incorporate the city’s logo and the vehicle’s new name, city spokesman Trevor Smith said. The street sweeper will begin clearing narrow pathways, sidewalks, alleyways and other tight spaces starting in December.

It’s a practical name for the vehicle which is, you guessed it, a zero emission utility sweeper. Salazar said she came up with the name after her social studies class started learning about the Greek god Zeus. Salazar said social studies is her favorite class in school.

“I don’t really know how I came up with the name. I was trying to come up with something with emission in it, and it came to me, about zero emissions,” Salazar said. “I thought about it a little bit more and came up with Z.E.U.S., Zero Emission Utility Sweeper.”

Salazar said helping the environment is important to her but was surprised when the city reached out to her mother to let her know Z.E.U.S. was the winner.

“It feels really weird because I didn’t think I would win,” Salazar said.

The name was suggested by Salazar after the city asked for community input on possible names for the new vehicle. The community suggested nearly 650 possibilities. Finalists along with Z.E.U.S. included Chew-Vac-Uh, Sweepy Wonder, Whiskers, and Sweep Force One. 

Z.E.U.S. beat out the rest getting the majority of the 1,300 votes submitted after the city asked the public to select the name from the top five.  

Some of the other names submitted by community members included Sir Sweep-A-Lot, Little Go Sweep, Buffy the Leaf Slayer, Clearopathra, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sweep? and Clean Latifa. 

The sweeper is a fully electric compact eSwingo 200+ that can operate in narrower places like alleyways and bike lanes that regular street sweepers can’t access. 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.

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.

Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.

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