CITY TO START ANNUAL LEAF PICKUP MONDAY

Some 1,400 tons of leaves will be raked, vacuumed and trucked away from Cape Girardeau neighborhoods during the annual leave pickup program that begins Monday and runs through December.

Tim Gramling, assistant public works director, explained that leaves are collected for lots of practical reasons. "Leaves are a big menace to most property owners," he said. "They are looking for a way to get rid of the leaves."

Leaves left unchecked blow into streets and can cause traffic problems. Leaves wash into city storm drains causing the drains to clog.

Yard waste, including leaves, is no longer allowed in landfills. The leaf collection program offers a solution to all those problems.

The city is divided into six zones. The first area to be collected, Zone A, is south of William Street to the city limits. A week is scheduled for crews to complete one pass through the zone before moving to the next.

Only one day, Nov. 27, has been allotted for the area around Southeast Missouri State University. That area includes everything between North West End Boulevard, North Sprigg, Broadway and New Madrid.

Property owners should rake leaves to the edge of the pavement or the curb line but not into the street. Bagged leaves won't be accepted.

Gramling said: "We never know exactly which day we will be on a particular street. The street sweeper can't make its normal passes, and if we get any kind of snow storm the leaves hamper the snow plows."

The city purchased its first mechanical leaf machine in 1969. Today, it operates four trucks with leaf vacuums. A crew with rakes works with each truck. Sometimes, if the pile of leaves is high in a particular neighborhood, a high-lift tractor is added to the crew. Often the street sweeper follows up.

In 1997, the city hauled 800 dump truck loads of leaves, or about 1,421 tons. A similar amount is predicted this year.

Some of the leaves are composted, Gramling said. "Then we transfer the compost to Arena Park next to the mulch pile. It is available to property owners."

The city gives most of the leaves to local property owners with large open spaces or fields. They welcome the addition of leaves to the soil.