The Old Grind

Public Works Director Bill Oeding said the city's street department spends about 200 man hours a week picking up all the woody material that people prune or pick up from their yards and haul to the curb. The city also has hauled dead trees to its compost site off Ind. 130.

After collecting material for a year, the city hired GreenCycle of Indianapolis to grind up the huge pile into what the company estimated is about 10,000 cubic yards of wood mulch.

Oeding said the city sells about 2,000 cubic yards of the wood chips a year, mostly to residents and landscape companies, and gives away some to Building Together -- Valparaiso (formerly Christmas in April) and other community projects. The rest is used in the parks and other public areas.

"That's a lot to get rid of over the next year," Oeding said. "If people want to, they can come to our shop on Don Hovey Drive. ... We are trying to price it so we can recoup some of the cost of grinding, but it is a service to the community and we have to get rid of it."

The contract with Green Cycle is by the hour and estimated to cost about $24,000. Oeding said the city is looking for large outlets like landscape companies that would be interested in buying large volumes of chips.

Where the city is concerned, there's no such thing as too much mulch.