AFTER HOLIDAYS: CITY WILL COLLECT DISCARDED CHRISTMAS TREES WITH $5 FEE

The Cape Girardeau Public Works Department will again collect discarded Christmas trees this year, but will impose a $5 fee for the service.

But Doug Kaminskey, the city's environmental services coordinator, said residents may drop off their trees at a designated site at the southeast corner of Arena Park for free.

"We're going to do this year basically the same as last year, except that we'll be charging $5 if we collect a tree," Kaminskey said.

Many of the trees deposited at Arena Park will be "recycled" and used for fish habitat in area ponds and lakes, he said.

Those that are collected likely will be ground and made available to residents as mulch. Also, people wishing to discard brush and yard waste now can take their materials to the city's transfer station on South Sprigg next to Lone Star Industries.

The charge for the service is $25 per ton, or slightly more than a cent per pound. The city also will collect yard waste for a $5 "special pickup" of the material if it's bundled in four-foot sections.

Missouri's solid waste law this year prohibited Christmas trees and yard waste from landfills, and the city last year tried to pass the $5 tree collection fee to try to recoup some of the composting costs.

But the city council rejected the fee, claiming residents already had been bombarded with too many solid waste changes to suffer another fee increase.

In a related matter, Kaminskey said the city soon will be expanding its recycling collections to include steel cans. He said he hopes to include the new material in the recycling program by "the end of January or middle of February."

For more information on the tree collection program or the city's recycling operations, contact the public works department at 334-9151.