Free brush drop off may become thing of past for La Crosse residents

Free brush drop off may not stay that way for long in La Crosse.

Jeff Weideman from Today’s Trees is coming off his first season of running the brush drop-off for the city.

New rules were supposed to mean Weideman would run it at no cost to the city. He, however, says he lost money.

Weideman would like to not duplicate that experience and he’s recommended changes.

“I offered options that make it so I can continue to do it the way I was doing it,” he said. “Without other sources of income with it, I can’t continue to do it the way I was doing it because the costs are too high.”

Weideman suggested charging for resident permits to use the site. So far, city hall has resisted. Something he thought was very unusual.

“I do a lot of this type of thing, grinding and going to different municipalities, and free is gone,” Weideman said. “There’s no more free. Unfortunately, it’s just because, where do you go with this stuff?”

Weideman said some of the biggest problems he had were with contractors who were supposed to pay – especially those who did work for the city and argued they didn’t have to pay because of that.

Are the days of free brush drop off numbered?

“From my viewpoint, yes,” Weideman said. “Just based on what’s going on around us, it isn’t free anywhere else. And, also, that the costs in dealing with material like this are quite high.”