Coincidentally, this just showed up in the news:
Retired Wilmington street-sweeping machine to be put to work in San Pedro, Belize
By Sam Scott
Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 10:54 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 11:07 p.m.
This street sweeper will be donated to the city of San Pedro, Belize, a sister city of Wilmington. San Pedro recently got paved streets and the sweeper will perform the country's first ever street sweep. The city will have a street festival to celebrate.
All grime, dust and baked-on chewing gum, the working life of a street-sweeping machine isn't one of glamour. Retirement, though, hasn't been much sexier for the old man among Wilmington's curb cleaners.
Since the fall, the 1999 Athey "Topgun" model sweeper has sat largely forgotten among scores of other municipal vehicles at the city's operations center. Maintaining the aging vehicle had become a growing challenge after the manufacturer's demise forced workers to fabricate parts they could no longer buy.
But what is obsolete to a relatively rich American city might be optimal for a poorer relation. And Wilmington's aging asset may soon be reborn as a small-scale, Central American celebrity - the first street sweeper in Belize.
In March, the Wilmington City Council approved donating the vehicle to San Pedro, an island town on Belize's coast with a population of 8,400, which is also one of Wilmington's four sister cities. Now local officials are waiting for the town to wire $12,000 so they can order and make parts ahead of the arrival of a Belizean mechanic who will learn the ropes before the sweeper's trip south.
"They are going to close Main Street in San Pedro for a street dance celebrating the arrival," said Ed Paul, a local optometrist who is honorary consul to Belize. "The entire country of Belize does not have a street sweeper."
Until recently the country, which is about the size of Massachusetts, hasn't had much need for street-sweeping machines with few paved roads besides highways, Paul said. But two years ago, San Pedro covered its downtown with cobblestones, he said.
Progress, though, came with a problem, Paul said. Wind, runoff, and passers-by coated the newly paved streets with enough dust and sand from surrounding areas that a half dozen city workers had to regularly deploy with brooms and dustpans, said Paul, who resigned as a Wrightsville Beach alderman in 2005 to take the consul position.
He received the honor at the invitation of the former prime minister's wife after years of medical missions to the country. His relationship with the country helped result in the recent sister-city bond between Wilmington and San Pedro, and ultimately to the sweeper's international future.
When leaders from the island town toured Wilmington last June, they grew intrigued by the street sweepers.
"When they saw our street sweepers, they said, 'Hey, a great solution to our problem,'●" said former Sister City Commission Chairman Scott Czechlewski, communications director for the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce.
The visitors asked about help getting one, and the city eventually volunteered the Athey, which was already scheduled to be mothballed.
Even with its problems, the sweeper is still a deal for San Pedro, Paul said. Estimated to cost $12,000 to repair and $5,000 to ship, the town would still get a sweeper well below the price of a new model, which can cost more than 10 times that amount.
Still the question is when San Pedro will send the money. Wilmington officials said they are just waiting. Paul expected the funds to come two weeks ago - they didn't. But on Wednesday, he said the town was in the process of sending the money. He is exuberant about the deal.
"This is the absolute perfect example of how sister-city relationships work," Paul said.
Attempts to reach Elsa Paz, mayor of San Pedro, by phone and e-mail were not successful last week.