To the Editor:—
I have tried to buy leaf bags at Price Chopper, Stop and Shop and at Home Depot with my son this week, and to no avail they are all out of them. As I drive around town and in my own neighborhood, I am seeing many lawns with leaves still left on them. I am wondering if other neighborhoods are having the same problems due to the leaf bag shortage. If the leaves are left on lawns and in the street, it will become a big road hazard during the rain and sleet this winter.
I asked my friend of mine who lives in Worcester about their leaf bag policy. Worcester allows the residents to dump the leaves along the curb for their special trucks to pick them up during the season. I am wondering if Shrewsbury had these trucks picking up leaves would it be a savings to property owners or not. However, in fairness to Worcester, residents do have to bring their leaf bags to the landfill if they miss the deadline for putting their leaves along the curb during the pick-up season.
What do residents think of having special trucks picking up the leaves during the season as opposed to having to buy bags and put them out instead?
Robbin Miller
Thursday, November 12
Leaf Bag Crisis
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24 comments:
I would LOVE to have trucks come by and pick up the piles on the street instead of bagging. Bagging is back breaking. After raking and blowing then we have to BAG! It's a nightmare and heart attack waiting to happen. I can handle blowing to the curb! So, YES, I would love for trucks to scoop up the leaves instead of bagging. They don't hold that much anyways!
It isn't that I disagree with you that raking the leaves into the gutter would be a lot easier for the homeowner, but there is a cost associated with the method you are suggesting. Picking up of the bagged leaves is a lot quicker and involves a lot less equipment. In a time where budgets are tight, why are we looking to increase costs? What if the town stops picking the leaves up and the homeowner is responsible for removal costs? I think the picking up of yardwaste falls in the nice to have category.
I prefer to just let them blow into my neighbor's yard.
Have raked and bagged 3 times becuse an A-_ _ _ _ like you already. Wait till a burgler breaks in to your house, casue you show no care in your property. I guess I will forget to call 911 for you, or when you are lieing face down in the snow with a MI from shoveling. Tks for being so considerate. Go bad some leaves, and take some responsibility for yourself.
I agree that any leaf collection is a good thing to have, but it's a "nice-to-have," not a necessity.
Enough already with the name-calling. It really doesn't help your case.
Robbin, just came from price chopper and they had a huge display. Might have been a log jam in the paper mill or with the manufacturer.
My in-laws have the gutter leaf method and it is a royal pain. The leaves are in the gutter taking up half the road with people having them on both sides, making it hard to drive. They are often out there for a week or two at a time.
Another method involves a level of composting. I run over my leaves with my mulching mower and then put them in a pile out of the way in a little corral area. They turn into leaf mould and you can use this a mulch next spring or you can use it as the "brown" stuff for your compost bins. I bag my weeds and old veg. plants to prevent diseases next year. You can also mulch cut them and work them into your veg. or garden beds to add organic matter for next year. But then I do not get the 80bags like some people do, but I do get the neighbors leaves.
I have to say that the shape of the bags doesn't make bagging easy. Instead of being long and skinny, they should be a wider and a little shorter. They are a pain to fully open and a pain to compact the leaves to the bottom, unless you are 6 feet tall. Leaf collection would be awesome, I grew up in a town that did that, but I don't think that would happen in Shrewsbury.
* The rows of leaves on all of the roads in Worcester is a huge safety concern in my eyes. They are left out there for weeks at a time. They take up driving space, people tend to hide branches logs and trash in there. Not to mention that as I drive close to these piles in my truck, I often wonder if a child is hiding or playing in them.
*For people complaining about your neighbors leaves blowing into their lawn, relax. It is nature, leaves falling, wind blowing. Your house will not look abandoned with leaves on your lawn. I wait until all the trees around my property are empty, then mulch, then pile, as Mrs. Hollenback does. Thus avoiding buying bags, filling bags, and having 30 bags in your front yard.
*
I think the town should get out of the leaf collection business altogether. If you will not compost as Missy has suggested, then pay someone to come get the leaves. you can hire someone to rake the leaves and take them away. That would be good for the ecconomy; job stimulation.
Why does everyone expect the town to do everything for them? We have some of the lowest tax rates in the state, yet you want the town to shovel YOUR sidewalks and pick-up YOUR leaves.
My in-laws have the leaf-in-the-street collection, and it could not be a bigger PIA. You can't park anywhere. There's slippery wet leaves all over the sidewalks, which both create and hide trip hazards. Trash and other grossness gets mixed into the piles, which sit for weeks composting, compounded by the fact that the garbage men drop more because they are wading through piles when they do their pickups. The leaves are there for basically the entire fall season, and if someone fails to move their car on pickup day, you get to have them frozen in place through the winter. No thank you.
Where to begin??? For the person who has trouble with the shape of the bags: you need a bag frame like this: www.bagtender.com I've used a similar contraption for years, it makes a huge differnce. To Ms Miller: forgive me if I'm confusing you with someone else but aren't you the poster who argued that the town shouldn't be sweeping the streets in the Spring? Now you want the town to, in effect, help clean our yards in the Fall? Isn't that a bit inconsistant? To those people preaching composting: I agree in principle but some of us have A LOT of leaves. I have 4 mature maples an oak and a couple of smaller trees on my 1/3 acres property. Think 50-60 bags of lawnmower-mulched leaves. I just can't use that much compost. One way or another, some of these leaves HAVE to leave my property. If the town doesn't want to pick them up, that's fine. I'll load up a trailor and drop them off somewhere. BUT the town has to provide a place to drop them off. Open the dump, or a transfer station or the town garage or SOMEWHERE. If you want me to buy a dump sticker fine, I'll write a check. But the leaves have to go somewhere. The town can't just say "we've stopped collecting leaves, it's your problem now". Finally, it's interesting (and annoying) to me that the town has actually requires curb side pickup for brush and branches. In past years when I pruned my trees I would load up a trailor and go to the town garage on a Sat morning. This year that was discontinued and I was forced to cut and bundle all of my branches and leave them at the curb for pickup. Since I have a lot of trees, I ended up with a LOT of bundles of brush stacked at the curb (20+). Using the trailor would have been less work for me, and I presume having me drop the brush off would have been less cost to the town. Again, what's the alternative? Stop pruning my trees and wait for the next ice storm?
Where to begin ....again. Some of us are too old now to do leaves, and yes the shape of the bags is stupid and are very hard to use they fall over in a light breeze and the opening is way toooo small! How many have mulchers! They cost a fortune! The town should be open all week with a place to drop off leaves not just on Saturdays which is MY day of worship, so that day is not an option for some of us who keep the day holy.
I've seen so many people dumping their leaves on town land, or open space or someone elses empty land. You would think they would at the very least level their dman piles. Nope, they just leave these huge unsightly piles of leaves, limbs and EVEN trees! I'm tired of seeing people do this. At the very least the town should put up no dumping signs on town property or conservation land.
No, the town has no obligation to pick up your leaves or your brush. This is a nice to have item that should be reviewed. Why do so many people in this town just feel entitled to every service under the sun! If you don't want to increase your tax contribution, the current revenue can no longer support every service you feel you are entitled to. Sorry, but you just might have to pay extra! I find all of this quite comical as now that the budgets are getting really tight, some people are up in arms over the potential reduced or lost services. Time to pay the piper my friends.
re: the town garage only being open on Sat. You're right! Whatever facility the town provides (dump, transfer station etc) should be open A LOT more than 4 hrs every third Sat or whatever they do today. My point was that if they make it hard/impossible for me to take care of my own yard waste myself then the town must take the responsibility of taking care of the problem for me (curb side pick up).
re: the high cost of mulchers: the cheapest gas mower at lowes.com would do the trick for $219. If the choice is amortizing $219 over the life of a mower (10 years?) and bagging leaves vs paying more in property taxes to have the town vacume leaves from my properties edge.....I'll find the $219.
Leaf collection is a nice to have. Why can't folks just compost them in their back yard? Come on folks be a little creative. Why do you need to move it all out and have it "perfect", use it in the spring as fertilizer for your plants..they love it. I would not WANT to have any of my town money used for anything of this nature. I'm sure there are far better things for the town to spend money on.
Worcester does it because if they didn't no one would remove the leaves, and that's why they do it.
Compost folks compost!
No, the town does not need to have the town garage open more nor "must" it pick up your leaves. This is not a necessary service and you need to take care of it yourself. Heck, our taxes are so darn cheap, you should have the extra to pay someone to do it for you! It is time for people to stop being so entitled regarding services. It looks like this town has gotten fat and happy and just expects more and more and more. I believe these nice to have items are going to be cut more and more. Personally, it is about time that the entire town feels the hurt of the budget crisis. Other than paying for trash bags, can anyone honestly say they have been truly affected by the budget issues? Our BOS just voted not to increase fees! So what other than paying for the pretty blue trash bags has really decreased?
To the last poster who said the town doesn't have to pick up the leaves or provide a place for me to take them. IF the town does neither, how exactly am I supposed to "take care of it myself?". Perhaps I can dump my leaves on your lawn. I'm sure you'll enjoy the free compost:-) Seriously, I WANT to take care of the leaves myself and I'll be happy to play by the rules. But if town says "we won't pick them up and we won't let you dump them yourself" what's the alternative? Open the dump and sell me a dump permit. I'll take it from there
The town HAS to provide a place for your leaves - no it does not. Hire a 3rd-party to take your leave away.
I suppose next you will say we should build this trash transfer station next to the new medical waste facility on Rt. 20 because you HAVE to have a place for your leaves.
self-centered and short-sighted Mr. Shrewsbury ran head-on into the bus because the wind was blowing.
I have lived in several different town, states and countries. I have noticed that the towns that I lived in that did not provide trash pick had private trash companies (cheaper then by the bag) that took everything (including leaves)! Privatization is the key. to get it now would be costly since the customers would be few but, complete privatization would be much cheaper (I lived it in 3 different towns and 2 different states.
I saw someone on South street blow his leaves into the street and let the traffic dispose of them. Maybe we do not need bags after all!
According to the Town web site, there are two more opportunities to have your yard waste picked up by the town on your regular trash pick-up day.
"LEAVES, GRASS AND YARD WASTE will be picked up at the curb on your regular rubbish collection day in the fall during the weeks of:
November 16 - 20
November 30 - December 4
Yard waste must be in 30 gallon biodegradable paper bags and lined up at the curb by 7:00 AM. Limbs and branches that are less that 3 inches in diameter may be tied in bundles no more than 4 feet long and no more than 18 inches in girth."
The town garage on South St. was open on three Saturday mornings this July-Sept. for yard waste drop off. I think this is the best the town could afford to do.
Note: if you live in the Asian Longhorned beetle restricted area, there may be different procedures for where your waste may go and how it is handled.
If you don't want to bag your leaves or compost them, then your only option is to pay someone to rake them up and haul them away. Think of it as your own "stimulus" to help a local small business person.
To the poster about the cost of privatizing the pickup and disposal, I am sorry but it is MORE expensive to the citizens of Shrewsbury to hire a private hauler. When the town looked into the whole Pay As You Throw idea, many residents brought up that idea. But right now the tax base is paying for part of our trash and the trash bag fee is paying for the rest.
But if we got out of the trash business totally and that $500k or so that pays for trash could be used for something else and then residents could pay more to have our trash, recycling and compostable stuff hauled away by private enterprise, we couldn't complain about it! But recycling goes down and it is a sad day when some must choose between paying the trash hauler and food.
The town is picking up leaf bags this week and the weather is nice this week. Mulch mow them, or get a cheap leaf B&D thingee, make a pile, add water, dump more on, continue. The pile breaks down very quickly. Also at one point Tower Hill took leaves, give them a call, I don't know it they still need them.
And stop complaining that fall color is what makes New England unique and it is beautiful. When life gives you dried leaves make compost.
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