To the editor:

It is that wonderful time of the year when leaves begin to change color and then fall on our Old Town streets. The city does a very creditable job in gathering the leaves into large piles so that they can be picked up and discarded at a later date.

Unfortunately, some of these piles are left standing for a number of weeks, thus becoming major hazards to our kids, who enjoy jumping into them. However, although the piles look very tempting, what people don’t know is that they can contain hazardous things such as mold, ticks, snakes, frogs and other harmful parasites.

A Sept. 28, 2016 Country Living article warns readers of these hazards, and further cautions that an even greater danger is that children playing in them may become invisible to motorists, who have been known to drive over some of those piles. The article cites a 2014 incident where “two young girls lost their lives because the driver didn’t see them in the pile.”

This hazard is an avoidable situation which can be remedied by city hall cleaning up leaf piles immediately after collecting them in piles. Allowing them to stand for weeks on end is not in the best interest of our community.

Collection serves no purpose if leaves are not to be removed. If leaves can’t be collected, allow them to lie where Mother Nature intended.

-Townsend A. “Van” Van Fleet, Alexandria