All Out Leaf Collection Efforts Underway, Public Asked For Patience

The City of Madison will be making an all out effort to get the resident's leaves collected before the snow flies. The Streets Division will begin working weekend overtime now that most of the leaves from city tress have fallen. "This year we have experienced a late leaf fall," Madison recycling coordinator George Dreckmann said. "We always begin a limited leaf collection the first Monday in October and we gear up to meet demand by the middle of the month. This year, we did not see large volumes of leaves coming out until this past week." It took Streets Division crews almost all of this week to collect leaves in the Monday refuse collection districts, even thought he crews worked ten hour days and collected almost 2,000 tons of leaves. The slow progress is due to the fact the large volume of material at the curb. "In most neighborhoods you will see large piles of leaves waiting for collection," Dreckmann said. "We are asking our customers to be patient but we also want them to know that we are putting all available resources into our collection effort." In addition to working ten-hour days Monday through Thursday and eight hours on Friday, the Streets Division is planning on taking advantage of the great weather forecast for this weekend by putting in ten-hour days on both Saturday and Sunday. The ten-hour weekday work shifts will continue and the need to work overtime on weekends will be evaluated late each week. "We have two prime weeks for leaf collection remaining," Dreckmann said. "We are confident that with an all out effort we can get the vast majority of this year's 17,000 to 18,000 tons of leaves collected before we have to stop collection due to snow." Residents can find out when leaf collection crews will be in their areas by calling 267-2088 or by going to www.cityofmadison.com/streets.

Links