Editorial: Waving goodbye to bag-less leaf pick up in city of Belleville

With a tightened budget, the city of Belleville has cut un-bagged leaf pickup from its approved budget. For years, the city has invited residents to rake their leaves to the curb and city crews would come by and pick up the leaves and take them to a farmer’s field or other dump site.
The city also has a five-year contract with Republic for pick up of trash that includes bags of sticks and weeds and leaves for compost. Now, residents are going to have to put their leaves in bags for them to be picked up. In the newer subdivisions in the city – Harbour Pointe and Victoria Commons – it is no problem. The young trees don’t drop a lot of leaves. But in the mature areas there are big trees and lots of leaves.
Mayor Pro Tem Jack Loria said his five old trees drop leaves that are piled five feet high along the curb three times a season for leaf pick up. Now, he’s going to have to spend $400 or so for a mulcher, he said.
Some elderly residents who have lived in the city for a long time and have big, wonderful trees may need some help and the city is considering what to do about it.
One comment at Monday’s meeting was that senior citizens may have to hire someone to remove leaves and that could cut into their food budgets.
In such a friendly small town, we’re sure there will be help from younger, stronger volunteers.