NEW ULM–The New Ulm City Council discussed a potential leaf vacuuming program at their Work Session Tuesday.

The program would see tractors pulling leaf vacuums through the streets of New Ulm, picking up fallen leaves and preventing potential disturbances caused by leaf pile-up. They would come through the entire city every week, covering a section of the city every day.

Public Works Superintendent Jeff Hoffmann presented the program for the board. He identified cost, removal of monthly leasing, and small timeframe as major obstacles to the project being viable. A single leaf vacuum would cost $146,439 and a three-year lease would cost $48,752 a year per tractor. The program would only run six weeks out of the year.

Hoffmann said he ran estimates for two different scenarios. One would see them buy two tractors and leaf vacuums and the other would see them buy three. These estimates showed buying two was not an option.

“Monday it would take 25.3 hours. On Tuesday it would take 29, Wednesday 27, Thursday 28, And Friday 23. One-hundred thirty-three hours per week on two vacs. That’s why I’m totally against starting this program with two vacs. There’s no way we’re going to keep up.”

Councilman Les Schultz asked about the North Mankato and Hutchinson programs, which can operate using two vacs. Hoffmann said North Mankato’s program only picks up leaves every so often instead of working straight shifts every day. Hutchinson’s program is currently feeling the struggles outlined by Hoffmann.

“They say the program works good, but it takes a lot of money,” Hoffmann said “I talked to their Assistant Superintendent of Public Works. He said if it was his [choice] he would never do it again. The citizens love it but it’s a nightmare for them.”

Hoffmann said buying three tractors and leaf vacuums would present problems with personnel and cost. The city would need to hire at least one new employee to help staff the program and its cost would be $570,000 without including maintenance and repairs.

Schultz urged the council to not go doomsday on the program and its potential.

“There’s ways to make this work. We have to try and not be so negative [because] it is going to be an extra job for the street department. It is and I understand. I’m sure some of your staff don’t want anything to do with this. But this is something citizens really want. We talked about this; the staff came to us saying our citizens are saying ‘we want to support this service.’ I think we should be providing it.”

Schultz suggested throwing the cost into the budget to see what would happen. Finance Director Nicole Jorgenson said it would require putting $260,000 more into their annual budget if they went with two tractors and leaf vacuums. Hoffmann reiterated the issues with doing two of each and said it would create large amounts of overtime. Council President Andrea Boettger gave a final summary.

“I’m not opposed to having it put into the budget to see what happens. I’ve gotten feedback saying it’s a service that’s not needed. People are concerned about taxes going up because of it as well. I’ve lived here for 13 years, and I’ve never seen we have a big problem with leaves,” Boettger said. “There aren’t people beating down our door for this. There’s a lot of other needs we have [to] consider. I’m not saying I speak for everyone [but the] feedback I’m hearing is this is more of a want versus an actual need.”