When the party’s over, the cleanup workers turn on the lights

When the party was over, garbage truck drivers turned on their lights.

And the massive work to cleaning up the New Year’s Eve confetti-lined celebration on the Strip began.

Clark County had between 60 and 85 employees, including road maintenance and traffic control workers, partnering with Las Vegas police to control and clean up New Year’s Eve celebrations, according to county spokeswoman Stacey Welling.

Republic Services dispatched their garbage trucks just after midnight to start to collect their trash cans lining the Strip.

Then landscapers used leaf blowers to free garbage from medians and landscaping and push it into the street, Welling said.

County workers pushed crowd control barricades back to the sidewalks, and they were collected by trucks between 4 and 9:30 a.m., Welling said.

After than, 26 street sweepers — 13 from the county and 13 from the Nevada Department of Transportation — took to the streets about 1:45 a.m., starting in a single line at Mandalay Bay and fanning out north, Welling said.

The street sweepers came after the barriers were removed and finished their final sweep of the Strip by 10 a.m. on New Year’s Day, Welling said.

The cost of New Year’s Eve cleanup depends on the day of the week because of costs like overtime pay, Welling said.

Because this year’s holiday fell on a weekday, cleanup costs fell on the lower side of the $135,000 to $180,000 range, she said.

And big parties such as the one on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas generate a lot of trash.

Welling said the county collects 30 to 40 cubic-yards of garbage, or about 12 to 15 tons, after every New Year’s Eve bash on the Strip.

The events for New Year’s drew an estimated 340,000 visitors to Las Vegas for one of America’s largest New Year’s Eve fireworks displays — a 7-minute, 11-second show that boasted 80,000 pyrotechnic devices.

But it was not all celebration and confetti for the partygoers.

Las Vegas police say they made 19 arrests on the Strip, three arrests downtown and nine DUI arrests valleywide.

The threat of snowfall and below-freezing temperatures did not hinder the festivities, which went off without a hitch. Revelers were shivering, cheering and dancing as the countdown came to a close.

Contact Kimberly De La Cruz at kdelacruz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @KimberlyinLV on Twitter. Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @lauxkimber.