We made it through the record-setting polar vortex, now all we have to do is make it through the thaw. Naperville city officials are hoping it takes until July to melt all the snow. The beautiful white snow has a way of making us forget what’s under the snow, things that we really don’t want to see or have to deal with. Things like weeds, chipping paint, unsealed driveways, pot holes, and leaves.
Oh yes, how soon we forget the leaves that we raked into the street. The leaves that city officials paid big-time tax dollars to remove, and for residents to dutifully transfer leaves from our yards into the street curb waiting for the guys with rakes to rearrange just prior to trucks with gigantic vacuums appearing and further re-arranging leaves evenly throughout the entire street.
The plan was for a series of three leaf-pickups followed by a street-sweeper vehicle to finish the job. The street-sweeper didn’t get the job done. In fact, the third leaf-pickup didn’t happen either for a high percentage of folks in Naperville. So what happened to the leaves in the street? Chances are good, they can be found under the snow, covering the street drains, defending the drains from melting snow, resulting in neighborhood flooding.
Naperville city official’s plan worked about as good as the Bear’s Cody Parkay’s double-doink field goal. Nobody can fault a plan that doesn’t work, unless the same plan surfaces every year with the likelihood of the same result. Chances are very good that Parkay won’t be kicking for the Bears next year. Chances are just as good that Naperville city officials will still have the same leaf-pickup plan next year.