The Village of Niles Board of Trustees unanimously voted to give the Department of Public Services more flexibility to schedule leaf pick-ups.
The Niles Municipal Code previously stated that the Public Services would pick up leaves for free on October, November and December. The new ordinances gives the department the discretion to create leaf pick-up schedules based on the weather.
Public Services director Mary Anderson requested the change, arguing that the requirement was burdensome. In December, the vehicles that pick up leaves need to be converted to snow and ice removal, and it was impractical for public service crews to pick up leaves in converted equipment.
The board didn’t have any objections to the idea. But Trustee Joe LoVerde said that there was another aspect of the current procedure he would like to see changed – the way the leaves are gathered for pick-up. Public Services officials indicated that the department is already looking at alternatives.
Under the village municipal code, residents must collect any “landscape waste” – including leaves – in paper bags or 35 gallon garbage cans. Either way, those receptacles had to have village stickers (which residents could purchase for $2) attached, and the containers could only include leaves. The leaves were picked up along with the regular garbage.
Until Jan. 27, the municipal code gave residents a second option on October, November and December. During those months, the village offered free pick-up of leaves every other week. Leaves were picked up from properties east of Milwaukee Avenue during the first and third weeks of the month, while leaves were picked up from properties west of Milwaukee Avenue on second and forth weeks of the month.
Residents had to be raked into the curb on the Mondays of the pick-up weeks, and they had to make sure no other type of waste got in with the leaves. If the residents didn’t like to leave their leaves out in the open, they still had the option of disposing of their leaves the way they would any other month.
While Public Services have picked up leaves on October and November for the past few years, it usually didn’t pick up leaves in December.
The ordinance that went before the Village Board during its Jan. 27 left most of those rules an procedures intact. But it did take out the language specifying that Public Services will pick up leaves October-December, replacing it with a statement saying that leaves will be picked up according to a pick-up schedule the department would post in advance.
The 2015 leaves pick-up schedule, which was posted on the village website soon after the vote, shows the same pick-up pattern as before, with leaves picked up on the west side of the village during even-numbered weeks and on the east side of the village during odd-numbered weeks.
During the Jan. 27 meeting’s public comment period, former village trustee Louella Preston suggested that the board would consider another change to free leaf pick-up procedures.
“I would ask that you’d think about having residents bag their leaves instead of putting them in the gutter and having the leaves clog up the sewers,” she said.
LoVerde said that he thought Preston had a point.
“I happen to agree that leaving leaves on the street is not productive,” he said.
LoVerde asked Fred Braun, Public Services’ Street Superintendent, whether the department could look at an alternative. Braun indicated that Public Services were already working on the issue.
“We are doing a cost-benefit analysis,” he said.
Igor Studenkov is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
