After a month of persistent rain, Rapid City area lawns, trees and bushes are erupting into a palette of green, as people using the city's three yard waste drop-off sites can attest.

Trine Brink and her children unloaded a pickup full of grass clippings into one of the six large green metal bins recently at the East Fairmont Street yard waste site.

"We had a lot of mowing to do," she said. "We actually should have done it twice this week rather than just the one time."

Brink said her family lives on just under an acre, so there was a lot of grass to mow. She appreciates having the yard waste sites available.

"I think this is great," she said. "We haven't used it before, but this year, we're going to be using it a lot. We were mulching before."

Anna Shannon said the rain was definitely needed, but it really pounded her garden and wasn't good for people whose houses and basements were flooded.

"It was wonderful for hay ground. For cattle and prairie," 86-year-old Shannon said as she unloaded bundles of small bush and tree trimmings from the back of a small pickup.

"I thought my garden would really flourish, but you've got to cover it every day or the poor stuff can't grow. It gets stuck between the mud," she said.

Shannon doesn't have her grass mowed weekly, but she said it sure needed it after all the rain. She has a great yard man who mows for her, but Shannon trims the bushes and does other yard and garden work.

"I've got to do something to keep me busy," she said. "When I get tired, I go sit on the porch and I do deep breathing, and that helps a lot."

Shannon added that the city's yard waste drop-off site is a great service, one she hopes does not get abused.

"I would hate to go clear out to the dump," she said.

Jerry Wright, the city's solid waste manager, said the yard waste sites are popular and always busy this time of year. The recent wet weather and accompanying vegetation growth means the city is struggling to keep up with demand.

"I think when the sunshine hits, it will blow out of the ground. I don't think we've seen the aftereffect of this rain until we get some sunny weather," Wright said.

Wright said the solid waste division uses two trucks on weekdays and three trucks on weekends to haul containers back and forth between the yard waste sites at Fitzgerald Stadium, Anamosa Street and West Boulevard North and Fairmont Boulevard east of the fire station.

On average, about 5,000 containers of yard waste are transported between April and November to the compost facility at the recycling center.

There have been some complaints from customers about the waste bins being full. Wright said crews are working as fast as they can, and he urges people to be patient.

"If you go by any one of them late in the afternoon or early evening, usually this time of year, you're going to see them brimming full. Our trucks are back on them the next morning, 6 or 7 in the morning, and they haul eight or 10 of those a day," Wright said. "We're not going to let them become a disaster. We'll take care of them. Short of more equipment, more people, that's the best we can do with what we have."

The city also offers curbside yard waste collection of grass, leaves and trees as long as the waste is bagged in a 40 gallon RALF paper bag and set out on the same day regular garbage and recyclables are collected.

"We wanted to provide an option for people without pickups or a way to transport yard waste," Wright said. "Yes, we do miss one once in a while. We do apologize to our customers, and we go back and get them. That's how we handle it."

Alderman Tom Johnson believes the city is offering good service and that the solid waste division is doing a good job. Johnson said he visited one of the sites and saw drivers working diligently. He also said that people can take yard waste such as large trees directly to the landfill, something that would free space in the containers for smaller waste such as grass clippings.

"You can bring one tree down and fill one bin. It's really not productive. They can also bring them to the landfill," he said.

The public can help the situation, Wright said, by maximizing the use of the containers. For example, if one container is two-thirds full and a second container is empty, please fill up the partly filled container first, he said.

"The big thing is fuel consumption for these trucks. It's an energy conservation issue," he said. "Be patient. The job will get done."

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415 or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com