By Richard Kerns
rkerns@newstribune.info
Tribune Staff Writer
KEYSER – As their ever-shakier grip in defiance of gravity loosens, limb-bound leaves loom like doom above Keyser's tranquil streets, the fiery mass of red, orange and yellow a destroyer of storm-water systems below.
While the annual menace has long gone unchallenged, but for feeble efforts of rake and bag, taking to the asphalt this year in opposition to all that was once green and good, is a former street sweeper now known as “The Vacuum Truck.”
The city plans to dispatch the truck to neighborhoods throughout Keyser in coming weeks, to dispose of leaves residents rake into piles for the waiting Vacuum.
Like dogs to cats, darkness to light, and the New York Yankees to everybody else, fall leaves are the natural enemies of storm drainage systems. Falling by untold hundreds of thousands, many are swept by wind, washed by rain, and raked by man into street-side gutters, where they eventually ride the ripples of the next big storm to the nearest drain. There, they congregate, compress and congeal, forming an impenetrable vegetative mass that clogs the drains, and sends storm runoff back to the streets and yards, where it floods basements and, in winter, freezes the road as a hazard to vehicles and pedestrians alike.
“You wouldn't believe what grass clippings and leaves do to storm drains,” said Keyser City Councilman Dave Sowers. “It packs in there so tight.”
Last spring city crews worked to clear a blocked drain near the Willow Avenue bridge. Sowers said they hauled away 10 truckloads of old wet leaves and grass before the line was clear.
Such efforts are routine for the city, undertaken
year-round with a crew specifically tasked to the job of clearing a targeted six storm drains per day. But fall is the busy season, Black Thursday for weeks on end, a Groundhog-Day loop of leaves and more leaves, and more plugged drains. If drains aren't cleared before the onset of cold weather, the resulting backups poze a genuine safety hazard, and are a bear to clear in sub-freezing temperatures.
“The more we keep out of the storm drains, the better we'll be,” Sowers said.
Marshaled against the leaves this fall is the city's old street sweeper. Just don't call it that.
After more than a decade in service, the sweeper wasn't much good any more for scooping up gravel and grit. When buying a new sweeper earlier this year, city officials considered trading in the old one, figuring to get the kind of modest return you usually get with a trade-in. Sowers argued successfully against doing so, saying the old sweeper could retrofitted for a second life as a storm drain cleaner. With its rear-mounted vacuum hose that can be inserted in drains, the machine provides the raw suction power of 100 Hoovers on steroids.
“We don't call it the old street sweeper,” Sowers said, alluding to the respect that crews accord the machine. “We call it 'The Vacuum Truck.'”
The truck has been in regular operation cleaning drains ever since the new street sweeper was purchased. Sowers said Streets Supervisor Jim Hannas maintains that the truck has paid for its trade-in value “10 times over.”
It's soon to get a more rigorous workout.
While most of the leaves in the Keyser area still remain in the trees, that's bound to change in the next couple of weeks. When they start to fall in numbers, sometime around the first week of November, the vacuum truck will be unleashed, and set upon those leaves.
Residents will be asked to rake their leaves in piles near the edge of their front or back yard – wherever access is available from the street – and the city will dispatch the truck to suck them up, and haul them to the city dump, where they will be incinerated.
Anyone with leaves is asked to contact the city garage at 304-788-5173 to arrange for suck-up.
Keyser, W.Va. —
