LEAVES: Pickup earns nice review

I would like to respond to a negative post I read recently, titled Leaves: Pickup gets poor review.

The author criticizes the staff of our Coeur d’Alene Street Department for the poor job they did with the annual Leaf Pickup. She suggested they were lazy and underpaid, which in turn created the poor job.

I have a completely different perspective. Having worked for the city for 33 years and living in the city limits for 20 years, I have firsthand seen our city street staff working hard in a variety of complex jobs. This year I was fortunate to stand in my driveway with a neighbor as the crew came through picking up the extremely large amounts of pine needles and leaves our neighborhood produces.

Our street crew did a FANTASTIC job with this task. A choreographed movement that left my neighborhood free of debris in a short time. The team worked, waved and gave thumbs up as they moved past me.

After the big equipment moved past, another staff member drove up and raked small amounts of left-over debris back into the street for the sweeping equipment to clean up. The next morning the sweeper came through and left our streets debris-free.

I personally want to thank our Street Department crew for the fantastic job they do each and every day. Keep up the great job. Please know the work you do year-round is appreciated very much.

STEVE CHILDERS

Coeur d’Alene