Duluth's Clean and Safe Team remains a positive presence downtown during pandemic

You've seen them. The Clean and Safe Team , wearing neon-yellow shirts, sweeps streets, hangs plants and removes graffiti in downtown Duluth.

The group's workers have been deemed essential by state guidelines. In many ways, they help people who are still working downtown, said Scott Jenkins, operations manager.

Their regular objectives are environmental cleaning, soft security and hospitality, helping tourists, answering questions, acting as an escort and lending an extra hand to downtown businesses.

Dubh Linn Irish Pub owner Mike Maxim needed an easy entry and exit so he could add curbside pickup, and a member of the Clean and Safe Team cleared graffiti and helped open the alleyway.

“It’s a huge benefit for downtown Duluth to have somebody that’s paying attention to the details. Giving a nice face-lift and a smile to downtown,” Maxim said.

The Clean and Safe coverage area is 10th Avenue East to Mesaba Avenue, and Second Street to the Aerial Lift Bridge. In addition to spring preparation, they’ve started disinfecting external fixtures on crosswalks, handicap-accessibility posts, mailboxes and parking kiosks.

The Clean and Safe Team are employees of Louisville, Kentucky-based facilities service provider Block by Block. They’re managed by the Greater Downtown Council and compensated with a special service fee paid by businesses in the downtown Duluth district. And with reduced commerce as a result of the stay-at-home order, Jenkins said they’ve furloughed about half their employees.

“If businesses are not back to work, that impacts everybody, including us. In the long term, potentially it could severely affect us,” Jenkins said.

“If we didn’t have them, I think it would be difficult to imagine what it would be like to return to downtown,” said Kristi Stokes, president of the Greater Downtown Council.

They’re “hospitality ambassadors,” she said, and the job takes great people skills.

Their hospitality and safety work often includes welfare checks and acting as a contact for homeless or unsheltered people, Jenkins said. Team members help connect those people to social services for shelter, food, clothing and mental health. Many are dealing with collateral issues such as chemical dependency, Jenkins said.

“In many cases, these folks don’t want a lot of contact with people. We’re that in-between. We’re not the police, we’re also not (the) government, so they tend to be a little more communicative from time to time,” Jenkins said. “We may be the only ones who acknowledge their existence through the day.”

So far, his team members have not expressed fear about contracting the virus, Jenkins said. They’re following protocols, and most of the time they don’t have direct contact with people in close quarters, with the skywalk, a normal area for them, closed indefinitely.

Most of all, Jenkins said he hopes seeing their bright uniforms and traffic vests may be a positive presence for passersby and downtown Duluth essential workers.

“We’re part of the fabric of the downtown," he said. “Many people depend on us, not only for cleaning, but to provide that sense of normalcy and calm and reassurance that someone downtown is still working, still protecting them and still there for them if they need anything.”