We appreciate your patience as the Department of Public Works crews move quickly throughout the Town to complete leaf pickup each year. Our leaf program divides the Town into four Leaf Zones. See the attached map to see which zone you are in [Link to pdf]
Typically, the first leaf truck makes an initial pass in late September or early October with the peak season usually occurring between November 1 and Thanksgiving weekend. Early in the leaf season 1 or 2 crews will clear the Town within about a week. As the season progresses, more machines are activated and resources allocated to the task. By late October we have a crew and vacuum machine in each zone with clearing times being about 7-10 days. As we hit the peak leaf season certain zones will see an influx of leaves more than others and may require the assistance. As such, resources from other zones may be reallocated as necessary to provide support. At a maximum effort we will have about 26 employees assigned to four leaf vacuum machines, one bulk crew and the apprentice loader, all picking up and hauling leaves.
In general, from October 1st till October 21st you can expect leaves to be picked up within 7 working days of being placed at the curb. Between October 21 and November 7th that time frame will be 7-10 working days. During peak times, leaf pickup will generally occur with 10 to 15 working days. If we are experiencing significant delays, we will advise residents via the departments twitter feed so that you can adjust your efforts accordingly. Please keep in mind that during peak times the progress in each zone can be greatly impacted by things beyond our control like weather, quantity of leaves that fall in a given period, quantity brought to the roadside and how residents pile the leaves. Over the course of each leaf season the Town will move over 10,000 cubic yards of leaves. To help us expedite the process we always encourage those that can to mulch and/or compost leaves, but if you can’t we ask that you please observe the following rules for the collections:
- Leaves should be placed at the edge of your property, NOT on the pavement, or in the gutters.
- DO NOT MIX sticks or other debris in the leaf piles, as these can cause damage to our equipment or our employees.
- Sticks and other debris must be placed separate from the leaves for the brush pickup crew or the pile may be bypassed.
- Leaves placed in cardboard boxes, paper bags, or plastic bags will not be collected. If you wish, leaves may be dropped off in the drop-off area at 200 Beaver Road
- For safety reasons, please do not allow your children to play in the piles that are placed by the road.
- Please do not place leaf piles behind obstacles such as: trees, cars, mailboxes, fire hydrants, light poles, etc.
For More Information
We appreciate your patience throughout the leaf pick-up season. For questions or concerns, please contact the Highway Department at (585) 889-2630 prompt #2. If no answer, then please leave your name, contact information and the nature of the call and someone will contact you.