Plastic bags await final disposal at the Yard Waste Compost Site after being plucked from piles of grass clippings. (Photos/Nancy Hanson)

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Public Works Director Paul Fiechtner has advice for Moorheaders who manicure their lawns: You’d best finish off your supply of plastic lawn waste bags in the next six weeks. Come Sept. 1, the city will stop collecting them.

“Plastic bags are a huge problem at our composting site,” says Fiechtner, who assumed the department’s top job just six weeks ago. “We pile grass clippings at the Yard Waste Compost Site and provide it free to residents who want to use it as fertilizer.

“But we have to get the plastic out before the process begins,” he explains. “It takes a lot of manpower. Getting rid of plastic bags will save time, cut down maintenance on our equipment, reduce blowing litter and permit us to produce a cleaner, better end product.”

At the compost site at 1800 Highway 75 north of the city, retrieved plastic bags are piled up near the trommel, a rotating screen that’s used to clear the contaminants from the recyclable clippings. A small mountain of the the shredded clear plastic refuse, already plucked from the tons of clipped grass collected through the city, flaps in a brisk breeze awaiting disposal.

Sanitation trucks will still pick up grass and yard waste, Fiechtner quickly points out. But it will have to be packaged differently. One option is piling clippings into reusable 32-gallon cans. The cans, which cost about $25, can also be purchased at Moorhead’s Ace Hardware, Menards, Runnings and Target. 

While they don’t strictly need to be labeled as yard waste, free stickers for the containers can be picked up on the third floor of City Hall or at one of three sites along 15th Avenue North – the Resource Recovery Center at 3322 15th Ave., the Public Works offices at 1300 15th Ave., or the Public Works shop at 700 15th Ave.

Other bagging options include paper lawn bags or compostable bags that are BPI-certified and ASTM D6400 standard compliant. They, too, can be purchased at Ace Hardware and Menard’s as well as online.

Residents can also drop off their clippings (minus plastic bags) at the city compost site or in dumpsters at Woodlawn Point at 418 Elm St., the Public Works shop, the Resource Recovery Center, or Southside Regional Park at the corner of Parkview Drive and 23rd Street South.

Fiechtner predicts the new requirements, while a change for residents, will be readily adopted. It’s the second change this year that has aimed for more sustainable recycling. In February, glass containers were banned from single-sort recycling. “Some people may have grumbled, but they’ve responded to the change really well,” the director observes.

Fiechtner’s appointment this summer marks his return to the Public Works Department. A native of Lincoln, North Dakota, he graduated from North Dakota State University with a degree in civil engineering. He worked in bridge construction and other projects for the BNSF Railway for 11 years before joining the Moorhead department in 2018 as the manager of its facilities and motor fleet. He moved over to Fargo as its public works services manager in 2020 before returning to Moorhead. He and wife Cassandra have three daughters, ages 7, 4 and 2.

“I’m excited to be back,” he says, noting that he already knew a good share of the Public Works team when he took over the department. “It’s a great group of people.”

Public Works encompasses the services that keep Moorhead’s public areas clean and its streets as smooth as Minnesota’s challenging weather and eternal potholes permit. The department’s team of 68 full-time employees, along with seasonal temporary workers, take care of sanitation, the streets, forestry and maintenance of the city’s turf in parks and golf courses, as well as along bike paths and trails.

Like most departments, Public Works is looking to hire. Current openings include one truck driver for the streets division and two for sanitation. He cites one big advantage that helped fill the ranks of seasonal summer workers, mostly students: Regular 7 to 3:30 shifts Monday through Fridays. “There aren’t many temporary jobs where you’re not stuck working evenings and weekends!”

For more information on job opportunities in Public Works, as well as other city departments, go to www.cityofmoorhead.com and search “job openings.”