It was a unique experience for fifth graders in Billings on Friday morning.
The city of Billings public works department rolled up to two schools with its newly named street sweepers.
Watch the video below:
It’s all part of a naming contest during an Atomic Circus event at MSU Billings earlier this year.
Billings Mayor Bill Cole and city employees announced the winners and presented then with certificates.
“Sweep, there it is” and “Sweeping Beauty” arrived at Boulder Elementary School.
The sweepers were given those names by two students.
Callen Chilcoat came up with “Sweep there it is.”
“It's kind of popped into my head,” Chilcoat said. “Our teacher says, ‘so swoop there it is’ for math and I guess sweep there it is just pops.”
His classmate, a Boulder fifth grader, came up with the name “Sweeping Beauty.”
And two miles away, students at Meadowlark Elementary were also celebrating with “Kaiju Cleaner.”
“So I like Godzilla and he's a Kaiju,” said Dominic Feist, a fifth grader at Meadolwlark. “So I just thought of it because I was watching Godzilla a lot.”
“It's Lightning McClean so now he's going to clean the streets and go really fast because he's lightning,” said Brody Oelkers, also in fifth grade at Meadowlark, said about his winning entry, “Lightning McClean.”
Dominic and Brody came up with the names.They're buddies and live three houses down from each other.
Principal Stacey Lemelin says it was great for Dominic and Brody and also for the classmates.
“Their classmates were so proud of them,” Lemelin said. “It was fun to watch the kids all go, 'oh wow,' because they all kind of shared with each other what their names were when they were doing it up at MSUB that day.”
It wasn't just about winning. It was about learning.
“From the conveyor belts and how some have suctions some that don't,” said Clay Herron, Boulder principal. “Just that knowledge that they learn from it. Yeah, added knowledge is always good.”
The public works department also had a chance to teach the students, saying that those sweeper trucks pick up and vacuum up about 12,000 cubic yards of dirt and debris every year on 1,200 lane miles throughout the city of Billings, and that helps with air pollution and also keeping things out of the river.
“We have a good amount of a rainstorms and all that washes down right into the intakes and then we got floods,” said Monty Branunstadter, city of Billings equipment operator.
“So this is how we prevent floods?” Cole asked.
“This machine is how we prevent floods,” Branunstadter said. “It's one of the most effective ways we can do it time-wise, sweeping the curves and gutters.”
“Then also getting that debris,” said Derick Miller, city of Billings streets superintendent. “If it sits in the curb line and starts deteriorating, then we have air quality issues with it as well.”And those involved believe the students will never look at street sweepers the same.
“The kids are going to be really excited every time they see one of these sweepers,” Herron said.
