Leaf Collection

Here we go again. Another column about trees. Well, not actually trees. Leaves to be exact. As the leaf collection program in the City winds down, we thought you might like to know some of the statistics of that program.

Alliance has the designation of Tree City USA. If you look around, you’ll notice just how many trees we have in the city. They are beautiful, no doubt. But when they start to shed their leaves, someone has to do something with all those leaves. Fortunately, the City has a leaf collection program that is free to residents. In the fall of the year, the residents either bag their leaves and or rake them to the curb for pickup by the City crews.

Every year the collection of leaves generally begins in mid-October and continues until mid-December. Street Superintendent Jeff Porter states the following:

"Leaf collection in paper bags started October 16^th and will run through December 15^th. The collection of bulk leaves started October 30^th and will run through December 15^th."

During this time there were 42 days of bag collection with a total of 352 bags collected. So far there have been 30 days of bulk collection with a total of 1,072 tons collected. 9 pieces of City equipment have been used for 1,781 hours at a cost of $31,995.00. Fourteen City employees have spent 2770 hours at a cost of $55,749.63. In addition, Community Improvement Program workers from Judge Lavery’s program contributed 180 hours of labor at an estimated value of $1,125.00. That brings the total cost of this year’s leaf collection program to $88,869.63.

After the leaves are collected by the City workers, they are taken to a privately owned site on the edge of the city. There is no cost to the City associated with disposing of the leaves at this site other than transportation. Once there, the leaves are composted and then mixed with soil to be used for many different purposes. We think it’s recycling at it’s best.

Now, for the question of the week. Does anyone out there know what year the City’s leaf collection program began? During the writing of this column, some of the best and the brightest (and some of the oldest) minds in the City were asked. No one seems to know what year the collection started. If you know the answer to that question, give us a call at the City Administration at 330-821-3110. You don’t win a prize but we sure would like to know the answer.