The Town of Okotoks' Operations department is shifting gears.

It wasn't long ago they were attending to frozen catch basins and clearing snow, and now they're already onto street sweeping.

They're preparing for spring cleaning, set to start in earnest on the week of April 24.

Residents may have already seen street sweepers out and about though.

Transportation Team lead Peter McDowell says they're already working on major roadways in town.

"We're starting on some of our major routes first before we get into some of the neighbourhood streets. There's still some snow on some of the side streets so it makes it a little difficult to get in there right away. People should be seeing some of these street sweepers out on some of the major thoroughfares trying to get up some of this gravel that's been left over from our winter sanding activities."

They'll soon start on residential streets, which is when parking bans will begin.

"We're not requesting anyone to remove vehicles at this time. When we get there, signs will be placed, parking bans will be called, and at that time we'll ask people to move vehicles from the street but not at this time."

Parking bans for street cleaning will work just like the snow-clearing parking bans, with signage posted in advance to let residents know. Once the bans are in place, locals are asked to remove any vehicles and other debris from the streets in order to give crews a clear route.