A new acquisition by Sand City will save time and help keep the Rec Trail clear for bikes.

On windy days, mostly in the spring, the Rec Trail in Sand City can get covered with sand so thick it’s difficult, if not impossible, to ride a bike through it.

Those days are no more.

In July, Sand City bought a used high-powered industrial broom – the Laymor Sweepmaster 300 – for about $20,000 from a Southern California dealer. It’s a three-wheeled vehicle about the size of a forklift that is narrow enough to drive down the Rec Trail and sweep sand back into the dunes as needed.

The idea for the broom came from City Administrator Todd Bodem, who arrived to Sand City by way of Minnesota, where he had seen similar types of equipment used to clear snow.

Previously, public works crews had to take a backhoe down the pathway, scraping off as much sand as possible before finishing the job with blowers and shovels, a process that took hours.

For that reason, Bodem is confident the new broom will lead to a cost savings in the long run and free up public works crews to work on other projects.

Sand City Police Chief Brian Ferrante, who’s also the head of public works, adds the Sweepmaster will extend the life of the city’s street sweeper by clearing most of the sand on coastal roads before the street sweeper passes through; the street sweeper is mostly a vacuum, Ferrante says, and sand is highly abrasive to its machinery.

On a recent morning, maintenance worker Fred Menezes put the Laymor to work where California Avenue meets the Rec Trail. He donned earmuffs, turned on the ignition, then pushed into a two-inch thick layer of sand that disappeared in the Laymor’s wake.