One City ready to clean up downtown again

The One City Peterborough team of cleaners is returning to downtown this summer. The program will feature a team of people with various barriers to employment who will be cleaning the downtown, the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area announced Thursday. The program was made possible this year because the DBIA sought street-cleaning proposals from contractors willing to have a social procurement element in the contract (meaning a One City team of local workers with barriers to employment would be included), according to a news release from the DBIA.

In January, the DBIA rehired its contractor, Clint’s Maintenance, for street cleaning with the idea that the One City team would work alongside Clint’s workers. “We’re excited to have One City Peterborough back,” stated Terry Guiel, executive director of the DBIA, in the press release. “This partnership with Clint’s Property Maintenance shows what organizations can do when they add social procurement into their contracts.”

Starting this month, the One City team will be downtown during the day with cleaning carts. They will be sweeping litter, for instance, as well as removing old posters from lampposts, safely disposing of needles and doing other cleaning. The One City Peterborough program was launched in 2018 with a team of street cleaners plus a pair of outreach workers who would help marginalized people in the downtown. Last summer, there was the two outreach workers but no cleaning team, whereas this summer it will be cleaners only (and no outreach workers).