Letter to the Editor: Picking up leaves should be the responsibility of homeowners, not the City of Decorah

(The following Letter to the Editor has been received from Darrel Jensen of Decorah):

First, thanks to all the great street department workers for your hard work picking up and disposing of leaves this Fall!
 
However, it does seem highly inefficient to use a large end loader, a skid loader, three open dump trucks (with leaves flying all over) and four men or so, to do the job. This is more like leaf redistribution than disposal.   Why can't the city put covers on the trucks and purchase a large leaf vacuum like the ones used in other cities?  These are fast and efficient and require far fewer workers. 

The other option, which would not be taken to kindly by some, is to not rake leaves into the street and require residents to keep their lawns and street gutters clean and take their leaves to the city's disposal site. The city does not come around and shovel snow off our sidewalks in the winter or mow our lawns for us in the summer. Why should the city pickup our leaves?  If we are unable to do it, we have to hire it done.