On the Job: One man knows, sees all in downtown Auburn

Ever wonder how all the beer bottles and plastic cups vanish after big nights in downtown Auburn?

Alvin Willis collects them. All of them.

Willis, an employee with the City of Auburn’s environmental services department, has swept the sidewalks in downtown Auburn for 10 years.

“I started helping (the employee before me) on weekends,” he said. “I told them I could do it if they needed me.”

And they did. Willis picks up trash and rides the miniature blue street sweeper before dawn every day of the week. On weekdays, he’ll pick up two 60-gallon bags of trash. He has help on weekends and the mornings after football games, when his crew picks up 20 or more bags of debris.

Willis sees all kinds of trash on the downtown Auburn streets, some of it pretty unusual.

“Beer bottles and cups, always,” he said. “I’ve seen anywhere from drugs to ladies undergarments.”

He finds more than trash on the street, he said, nodding toward a man lying on the sidewalk beside an SUV Sunday morning. It’s not unusual to see late-night revelers stretched out on the sidewalk, getting their bearings, he said.

Willis said early risers often thank him for keeping downtown clean, a job most people rarely see done.

It can be a challenge keeping up with the trash, he said. His biggest frustration is cigarette butts, but one of the most difficult jobs is dealing with graffiti, he said. Most people don’t even know it’s a problem downtown.

“We either scrub it off or, more often, we just paint over it,” Willis said. “When we come in and see it, we get it taken care of pretty quick. And when you’re in at five (in the morning), most people won’t see it.”

What keeps Willis going day after day is his love for the job and the city, he said.

“I really enjoy doing what I do,” he said. “… I love Auburn, and I want to see it do well. A lot of people want to see downtown. That’s what makes me want to do my job. Downtown really stands out.”

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