Cape's leaf pickup

Once again I've piled onto a tarp the curbside leaves (now wet and soggy) that the city never picked up, and I've lugged them (three trips) to the hollow at the back of my lot and dumped them there. Not an easy task for an 85-year-old.

You'd think the city would do a better job of collecting leaves, sweeping the streets, and picking up litter just a block from the new City Hall; but it doesn't, so we homeowners have to do it. It's been that way since I moved here in 2003.

Several years ago I sent a letter to Mayor Rediger and enclosed an invoice for my years of street cleaning for the city. I told him I would cancel the invoice the day the street sweeper showed up on our street. I added that I was getting too old to continue the job. He sent the public works manager out to see me, but all he offered was excuses, no pledge to get the job done and not even an apology.

So I've continued all these years to be a volunteer city street cleaner. But now I really am too old to do it anymore.

ROBERT HAMBLIN, Cape Girardeau