La Salle extends yard waste drop off hours

La Salle made some changes to its yard waste site hours moving forward, after hearing public concerns at the last few City Council meetings.

In addition to being open during its regular hours from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday; the site will now be open for extended hours 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and 7 a.m. to dusk Saturdays.

These extra hours were approved Monday night and will begin to take effect starting this Wednesday, Oct. 20 and run through Dec. 4.

Extended hours were added to Monday’s agenda by the request of Alderman Boo Herndon following the Oct 4 meeting.

Herndon made the motion to approve these hours and also said he wants to see these become the permanent hours for the city moving forward.

With this being a seasonal service to La Salle residents, the city may elect to keep it open for an extra week in December and then reopen the location during the first week of April in 2022.

The city has been making progress stopping out of town visitors and contractors from dumping waste at the site as it is intended for La Salle residents only.

“Including this last weekend, we’ve done one weekend a month for August, September and October,” said Mayor Jeff Grove. “We were out there last weekend from 8 to 4 and we had 43 vehicles come out. All La Salle residents so appreciate the people in the Illinois Valley respecting that this is the La Salle resident yard waste drop off.”

Dumping is only allowed during these hours, when the gate is unlocked and a city employee is present to check identification.

Alderman Jordan Crane asked if the city would be able to install a spotlight or security light as some residents may be dumping toward the end of the day as the sun has gone down. Superintendent of Public Works Patrick Watson said he will explore this possibility.

The city has been working to install electricity and a possible security system at the location, but no further update on this was given during Monday’s meeting.