Page 7 - Sept-Oct 2024 Vol 42 No 3

camping, grilling steaks or visiting the Mennonite
farmers’ markets in Delano and Tellico Plains. TCAPWA at TML
Currently, Strickland’s main responsibility is sweeping
Maryville’s streets. He sweeps curbed streets five
days weekly as long as the temperature is at 32º F or
higher. His days are spent in the city’s subdivisions and
neighborhoods.
On Thursday and Sunday nights, he can be found
sweeping the busy state roads within the city limits.
(Due to the heavy traffic on Hwy 411 S and US 321, he
runs those routes at night when traffic is significantly
lighter.)
Accident Scenes and Everyday Road Spills
Strickland often is called to accident scenes to sweep
up the glass and debris left behind, but also is called in
to sweep up spilled rock or other materials falling from
truck beds and trailers. When his truck gets full, he
dumps it on the hill behind the Operation Center in a
containment area built just for this purpose.
His truck requires water to keep the swept dust on
the streets to a minimum. That water is sucked into the
hopper along with all the debris, so when the truck is
emptied, the debris is wet and heavy. One of our biggest honors at the TML
To keep the landfill fees lower, it is allowed to sit in the Conference is the opportunity to
containment area until it is dried out and much lighter. celebrate the contributions of one of
Over the last five years, 350 tons of dirt, leaves, bottles, our own. Shane Snoderly, Alcoa Public
rocks, cigarette butts, glass, and other trash were yearly Works Director and Upper East Branch
Director presented Murphy Snoderly
taken to the landfill. This is debris that otherwise likely Award winner Doug Strickland with his
would have ended up in nearby creeks and waterways. plaque.
Oh, the Stories He Can Tell TCAPWA has a presence every year at
After 20 years as the street sweeper, Strickland the Tennessee Municipal League Trade
certainly has his share of stories to tell. For example, Show sharing information about the
one night a driver ran right into the back of his street organization, the Annual Conference
sweeper on Broadway just after she left a downtown bar. and TPWI Classes. Representatives from
across the state stop by our booth to
Another favorite story is the time he was called to discuss the benefits of TCAPWA for their
sweep up thousands of soybeans that had been spilled Public Works employees. One of the
on US 411 near the old Co-op. He says it was “like a sea visitors to our booth was Calvin Clifton
of marbles on the road. Rolling everywhere, more of the with Mattern & Craig who proudly
soybeans rolled away from the truck than were swept showed off his two young grandsons
up. It took forever to get the mess cleaned up.” And a who were having a terrific time.
few weeks later, there was a healthy crop of soybeans Nicholas Bradshaw, City of Knoxville
growing at the Op-Center where he empties out his Fleet Services, facilitated the Public
hopper. Works round table discussion.
On another occasion, a lady called and said the cul-
de-sac in front of her home was full of white worms, and
they were raising a stink. Sure enough, the street was
littered with thousands of worms who had crawled out
of her yard and moved into the circle where they had
died and were decaying! Just another day at the office for
Strickland…
Day in and day out, Strickland’s loyalty and
perseverance at his job is well appreciated by supervisors
and coworkers, and certainly is a big reason he received
the Murphy Snoderly recognition.
Quite a few folks in his department had a hand
in writing his award nomination, ending it with
“thankfully, we can all count on Doug to keep our streets
neat and tidy because he’s a man of his word.” And as
always, his response is, “yes sir, I’ll take care of it.”

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