The Nation: Broom at the Top

Like the weather, the sorry state of Main Street in Cheney, Kans. (pop. 1,200) was something everybody complained about but nobody did much to alter. The trouble began when the town's mechanical street sweeper broke down and there was no money in the budget for repairs. Refuse and dirt started to pile high, trucks carrying groaning loads of wheat to the elevators added to the mess, and so much sand from a water main project drifted around Main Street that Cheney began to resemble a grain belt Sahara.

What to do? Other mayors might have applied for state or federal aid...

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