Friday Shout-Out to These Hard-Working Missoula City Workers

Ever wonder what happens to those big, wet piles of leaves Missoula residents rake and push onto the street? Of course you know the City provides leaf collection each year around this time, but have you ever watched the process? I happened to catch the work in action this morning and was pretty impressed.

Working Outdoors Isn't For Everyone

Anyone who works outdoors during the fall and winter months in Montana is a hero to me. And I'm not talking working the ski hill, I'm talking about these people who do construction, roofing, trash collection, etc. That's hard work, especially when your hands and face are cold. We see you out there bundled up, getting stuff done with a smile on your face, and we appreciate you.

Leaf Pick-Up in Action

The Leaf Dudes came by our neighborhood this morning and I couldn't help but be a Nosey Parker as I'm fascinated by construction equipment. In the summer when I see the Cement Dudes doing their thing, I always drive by and say "I wanna do that!"

The guys showed up in 3 vehicles: the big water sprayer truck that doubles as a dump truck, and 2 front-end loaders. All the neighbors had their piles of leaves, now heavy and covered in slush, out on the curb. The first loader puts down his scoop on one side, and the other attempts to shove the pile onto it. If they miss, they work together to get it all picked up and one tosses the pile into the dump truck. Then, Sprayer Dude comes by and cleans off the spot.

The City of Missoula says:

Our crews haul an average of 1,000 dump truck loads of leaves to Garden City Compost and spend about 2,500 hours collecting leaves each season.

Street Maintenance & Operations Division crews do this for all of the neighborhoods in Missoula, isn't that wild? It looks fun but I'm sure it's hard, cold work. Shout out to these workers and all of our city workers who are out busting their buns to keep our streets safe for driving and making Missoula look gorgeous year-round!