11 days of sweeping, 9 days of hauling

The final leaf has been counted and the city of Coeur d’Alene’s annual pickup program resulted in 3,720 tons of leaves hauled away. Normal is in the low 2,000s.

The number of loads was 858, compared to 540 last year.

“The leaves were up this year,” said Todd Feusier, director of Streets and Engineering, in a presentation to City Council on Tuesday.

He called it a success.

“The weather helped us a lot this year,” he said, referring to conditions that included some rain, no snow and little wind.

Crews began the pickup on Nov. 11.

It took 11 days of sweeping and nine days of hauling to finish the citywide leaf pickup four days ahead of schedule.

“We ran 10 trucks this year. That’s the most we ever ran,” Feusier said.

The leaves' final destiny is in a field as compost material at the Coeur d'Alene Airport.

Feusier said it was a great team effort.

“I’m really proud of everyone that participated,” he said. “It takes about 35 people to pull that off.”