Turning over old leaves

There are two theories to raking leaves.

There's the keep-the-lawn-green approach, where homeowners rake their yards several times during the leaf-falling period in October and November.

Then there's the do-it-all-at-once method, which requires harder labor and results in mammoth leaf piles.

The do-it-all-at-once people can relax for at least a couple more weeks. The big leaf-sucking vacuums and city trucks won't hit Cape Girardeau's streets until Nov. 18. Some areas of town won't have their leaves taken away until Dec. 19.

Residents can rake leaves into piles on the curb -- not the street -- and the city will take them away.

"We emphasize to people not to bag them up," said Cape Girardeau assistant public works director Tim Gramling. "We can't take the time to break the bags open."

Some may wonder why the city only picks up the leaves once per fall. Gramling says it's because the process takes too much time.

In fact, he said, the city will complete the entire process in four weeks this year, two weeks less than in years past.

The city has four leaf vacuums, but the city will use more trucks this year, Gramling said. Four trucks will share two machines so that while one truck goes to dump, the other can pick up more leaves. For the smaller trucks, Gramling said, it takes about the same amount of time to dump a load as it does to fill a load.

Eighteen full-time city employees and 10 to 12 part-timers will work to pick up the leaves.

They'll dump the leaves -- there were 630 tons dumped last year and 1,100 the year before -- at a local farm where the leaves are later worked into the soil.

Kent Witherby, a resident who will be spending his first fall in Cape Girardeau this year, said he'll take advantage of the city service.

"I think it's a good idea, especially if you don't have a pickup truck to haul it off," he said.

Doug Houston, however, said he'll just chop up his leaves with a mower.

"I'm too lazy to rake," he said.

For those who wish to rake more than once this fall, the city provides outlets for them, too. The city allows for leaf burning between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

It also provides for the free disposal of leaves at a compost holding area located on Third Street, just off LaCruz. Leaves can be dropped off at the compost site from noon to 4 p.m. weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. The last day for the free leaf disposal is Dec. 13.

The city's public works department carries out the leaf pickup process, but the general fund is reimbursed about $40,000 for labor, materials, supplies and fuel costs by the solid waste fund, which is established by fees on residents' utility bills.

bmiller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127