The roads in downtown Selma might look a little cleaner if the Selma City Council were to approve a resolution to refurbish an old and broken down road sweeper which has been permanently parked for the last year.

Selma Mayor George Evans brought the resolution before the council at Tuesday’s work session and informed the council the refurbishment of the Elgin Whirlwind Sweeper for the Public Works Department had been bid out in early March.

While bids were sent to three companies, only Sansom Equipment Company had the parts in-house to fix the sweeper, Evans said, when asked why there was only one bid for the project.

Evans said the total cost would be $75,868.23 — $32,346 to be paid from the remaining Bond Account and $43,521.48 would be paid from the Gas Tax Fund.

“Its just old and worn out,” Evans said about the sweeper, and its transmission that is broken. “We need the sweeper — we have got to have it. The money, we already have it, and we are going to get it repaired. We need [the sweeper] in order to clean up the streets like main, downtown streets and some neighborhoods.”

Ward 3 Councilman Greg Bjelke also said he would be happy to see the sweeper up and running again because, “the leaves in Ward 3 are piled high.”

Evans said the sweeper is also needed because the public works department workers who operate the machinery that vacuums up debris from the road, have had to work extra hard to make up for the sweeper being broken.

“When the sweeper is fixed, should make it even cleaner,” Evans said.

The city council will vote on the bid to refurbish the sweeper on Tuesday, April 9.