Crews with Ground Zero Services (GZS) went to work picking up Sunday what they had laid down Friday. GZS owner Jason Kuester said they used several types of machinery to get the job done.

“We use skid loaders with buckets, brooms, and a pickup broom,” he said. “We had quad axle trucks and side dumpers we used to haul them away.”

Sand was piled for scooping, skid loaders used cylindrical vacuum brooms to suck up residual sand to add to the pile, and whatever was left was blown away with leaf blowers. Kuester said it went even better than last year.

“Lots of compliments, people said they loved it and it went over smoothly,” he said. “We got one block cleaned up by 11 a.m. and should have the other one done by 2 p.m.”

A Ground Zero Services worker blows sand away Sunday.

Twice the amount of sand put down last year meant crews started at around 8 a.m. to clean up when they waited until noon last year. Unless it is an emergency, GZS usually never works Sundays. Besides this and doing twice the work, Kuester said it wasn’t any more strenuous than usual.

With everything going smoothly, Kuester said this was a model year to look up to moving forward.

“I don’t see anything we would need to change,” he said. “Everybody worked and did what we needed to do, the street closures worked really well. Talking with the people on the street, people were really excited and looking forward to next year.”

None of it would have been possible without the GZS crew’s dedication. Kuester said he feels they gave it their all.

“They went in at 100% commitment,” he said. “Working hard on Friday and giving up their Sunday to get the streets back open.”

A skid loader sweeps up sand from downtown New Ulm after Spikin in the Street.