NORTH MANKATO — North Mankato wants to tell Mankatoans where they can put their yard waste.

Typically, the city on the north side of the Minnesota River isn’t interested in publicizing free services being offered to residents living on the south bank. This time is different, partly because leeches have made a habit of crossing the river to using North Mankato’s free composting services.

So here’s the message North Mankato officials want spread far and wide: Hey, Mankato residents! Your city is offering this great service free of charge starting this spring! Haul your yard waste out to the Southern Minnesota Construction composting site, tell them you’re from Mankato, and it won’t cost you a dime to unload it!

North Mankato’s previous message to Mankato moochers was more brief: Go away.

City officials are convinced that much of the volume of tree branches, brush and other yard crud coming to the North Mankato compost site in recent years was the product of freeloading Mankatoans hoping to avoid the fees charged at SMC.

“You hate turning anybody away, but we can only handle so much,” said North Mankato City Administrator Wendell Sande, talking in particular about the cost of chipping the tree branches. “We simply couldn’t keep up.”

Facing a particularly tight budget, the North Mankato City Council recently decided to close its previously wide-open composting site except for limited hours Saturday and Sunday. And on those days, the council directed that a staff member be on hand to stop the unwanted sponges from the south side of the river.

North Mankato Mayor Gary Zellmer, following the first nice weekend of the spring for yard work, asked the gatekeeper if he was nabbing a lot of parasitic Mankatoans attempting to take advantage of their good neighbor to the north.

“There were a lot of them, when they saw him standing there, turned around and left,” Zellmer said.

But Mankatoans needn’t start looking for a fake I.D. with a Northridge or Belgrade address on it because the city of Mankato is now subsidizing free yard waste disposal at the SMC site for city residents. That used to be the case, with Blue Earth County covering the cost. Then in 2003, with the state cutting aid to counties because of a huge budget shortfall, the County Board dropped the service as a cost-cutting measure.

Since then, Mankato residents have had to pay a few bucks — determined by the amount and type of waste — to use the SMC facility. Current charges by the cubic yard are $4.50 for leaves and grass, $8 for brush and $15 for tree logs a foot or larger in diameter.

Now, it’s free again for Mankato residents.

The problem is the news hasn’t gotten out, and North Mankato is looking to work with Mankato to spread the word.

“It just has not had significant publicity for the residents of Mankato to know,” Sande said, pledging to work with Mankato to bring attention to the location of the SMC site and the fact that the service is free again.

There also will be a sign erected at the North Mankato site about where Mankato residents can go. And the city is considering a second sign — the stick to go with the carrot — listing the fine amount for “theft of services,” which ranges from $200 to $1,000.

Once the publicity campaign has its effect, North Mankato will return to unrestricted access for residents to use the compost facility any day, any hour. Even then, the city plans to have it staffed at least occasionally as a deterrent to those south-bank residents who haven’t got the message.