The rules of leafing are simple and easy to follow

I’m looking at the calendar and realizing that Memorial Hospital Foundation’s Festival of Trees is this week. Wow! The year has really rolled around quickly. At last year’s Festival Cathy bought a couple of tickets for a chance to spend a couple of nights at McCall’s Shore Lodge. Well, when the ticket number was read out, Cathy let out a scream. She was the winner!

 Circumstances being what they have been, we were unable to take advantage of her winnings until this past week. It is the off season for being in McCall, but hey, there were not the crowds, you could pick your seat in the restaurants, and McCall is beautiful no matter the season or the weather. And of course, Shore Lodge is a great place just to hang out. We had a genuinely nice time.

 Now on to City business.

 Ron McDaniel, you probably remember him, the street department manager, is asking that I again remind people about the leaf pickup protocols. As stated last week:

 1. The leaf vacuum is designed and manufactured to specifications to pick up leaves. It is a very expensive and delicate piece of equipment. 

 2. Leaves, and only leaves, are to be raked to the curb in the street.

 3. Anything other than leaves going through WILL damage the impeller blades. Even things that may not seem to be much of a problem, such as plants, sticks, cloth, etc., ARE a problem for the vacuum.  

 4. Since the equipment is older, replacement parts are becoming increasingly harder to locate, are expensive to replace, and cause expensive down time.  

 5. Do not drive over leaf piles. This smashes the leaves and makes it difficult to vacuum. You would not think about walking with muddy shoes over your carpet grinding the dirt in. Please do not drive over leaf piles to grind them down.

 6. This last one is a no brainer. Please do not park on top of leaf piles. It is impossible to vacuum from under cars. (The leaf crew has asked and would love to have fun with the forklift turning cars on their sides to get at the leaves. After consulting with legal we decided not to do this – for now.) 

 When there are sticks, plants and other materials in the leaf piles, the leaf crew must stop, make a note as to the location, come back with a loader and dump truck to pick up these leaves. This creates a very inefficient operation. Depending on weather and other circumstances we may not be able to continue to do this. 

 The leaf vacuum is a valuable piece of equipment. The City offers leaf pickup as a free service. A new leaf vac would cost about $400,000 to $500,000. If our current vacuum is damaged and we are unable to find parts, the City may have to discontinue this service indefinitely as we do not have the funds in the foreseeable future to purchase a new one. 

 So please, help us take care of what we have so that the City can continue to provide you with this excellent service. Thank you for your cooperation.

 Now on to other matters. 

 The Christmas parade will be on Friday, Dec. 5 and will start from the Weiser Middle School and end at the Train Depot. The theme will be “Merry and Bright.” Santa will be the special guest at the Depot. So, bring out the family for this great holiday tradition.

 The Chamber of Commerce and the local merchants, are sponsoring two special shopping days to start the holiday season. “Pink Friday” will be held Nov. 21 and “Shop Small Saturday” on Nov. 29. If you have not visited the downtown merchants recently you will be in for a treat with the variety and novelty of the gift ideas. I am sure you will enjoy it!

 The local merchants are the core of your downtown. Please show them how much you appreciate them and their support of our community by visiting especially during this Holiday Season.

 Well, that’s it for this week. Please be conscious of what goes into leaf piles. Shop locally. Enjoy the Holidays! Weiser really is a great place to live, shop, work, and play!