Leaves put out past pickup deadline

I have noticed neighbors and landscapers are continuing to put leaves at the curb despite the town website stating the pickup is over. Has the pick up been extended and if not what becomes of the leaf piles all over the curbs? They are a mess and a Hazzard. 

I spoke to one of the crews last weekend. He confirmed they will continue to pick up at least a couple more times.

Maplewood ends next week.

Leaf pick up ends December 21st according to statements made during the 12/4 TC meeting.  A revised email blast is supposed to go out but I haven't seen one.

Glad to hear that it is going until the 21st. The leaves on my big oak tree haven't even dropped yet!

I remember one year my mother's very large maple tree didn't drop its leaves until January.  It was weird.  The rest of the neighborhood was bare, and her one tree was still covered in leaves.

My neighborhood's final pickup on the original schedule is this coming week. (We are in the Tuscan/Prospect area, but I don't recall the area number now.) The last few years they have done at least one extra found of pickups after the original schedule.  It seems to me that they should just shift the schedule back two weeks given our later fall season due to the effects of climate change, assuming that the extra pickups cost extra $$.  (But perhaps they don't if it is handled by DPW staff without paid overtime?)

I suspect the leaf schedule is set keeping in mind the date by which snow can usually be expected.  It is hard to remove leaves when they are under mounds of snow.  Agree that leaf pick-up tends to end too early for some of our trees.  One town tree by me has yet to release a single leaf.

joan_crystal said:
I suspect the leaf schedule is set keeping in mind the date by which snow can usually be expected.  It is hard to remove leaves when they are under mounds of snow.  Agree that leaf pick-up tends to end too early for some of our trees.  One town tree by me has yet to release a single leaf.

 Of course, we got snow several weeks ago, right in the middle of the leaf pickup schedule.  Fortunately they were smart with the snow plows, at least on my street, and just cleared between the leaf piles rather than plowing the leaves also.   With climate change making the weather more erratic - leaf season later but not necessarily snow season, I think they just have to roll with the punches.

sac said:

joan_crystal said:
I suspect the leaf schedule is set keeping in mind the date by which snow can usually be expected.  It is hard to remove leaves when they are under mounds of snow.  Agree that leaf pick-up tends to end too early for some of our trees.  One town tree by me has yet to release a single leaf.

 Of course, we got snow several weeks ago, right in the middle of the leaf pickup schedule.  Fortunately they were smart with the snow plows, at least on my street, and just cleared between the leaf piles rather than plowing the leaves also.   With climate change making the weather more erratic - leaf season later but not necessarily snow season, I think they just have to roll with the punches.

 You were lucky.  The plows pushed a large mound of ice-covered leaves so that they blocked my driveway apron.  This made access off the block especially difficult since piles of ice were also pushed so as to block access to the curb cuts at the crosswalks.  On-going construction on the street compounded the problem even further since trenches for new curbs made it difficult to access the street from the medians.  

joan_crystal said:

sac said:

joan_crystal said:
I suspect the leaf schedule is set keeping in mind the date by which snow can usually be expected.  It is hard to remove leaves when they are under mounds of snow.  Agree that leaf pick-up tends to end too early for some of our trees.  One town tree by me has yet to release a single leaf.

 Of course, we got snow several weeks ago, right in the middle of the leaf pickup schedule.  Fortunately they were smart with the snow plows, at least on my street, and just cleared between the leaf piles rather than plowing the leaves also.   With climate change making the weather more erratic - leaf season later but not necessarily snow season, I think they just have to roll with the punches.

 You were lucky.  The plows pushed a large mound of ice-covered leaves so that they blocked my driveway apron.  This made access off the block especially difficult since piles of ice were also pushed so as to block access to the curb cuts at the crosswalks.  On-going construction on the street compounded the problem even further since trenches for new curbs made it difficult to access the street from the medians.  

I guess we were lucky!

BTW - Any idea why they are doing all those curbs on your block with poured concrete?  I thought that new curbs were now being done with Belgian block around town.  I'm sure it is less costly in the short run, but I think the Belgian block holds up better (and easier to replace short pieces) so might be more economical in the long run and certainly nicer looking.   I know it would take a long time, but figured that eventually that would be universal throughout the town.  Makes me sad to see them reverting.

Persons on my block are asking the same question.  There is also concern that only missing curbs are being done, giving an uneven appearance to the street.  My guess would be that cost is a factor.  Explanation we were given is that the curbs were being done to extend the life of the street which is now scheduled for repaving in the spring.  This is leaving us with a broken up, debris strewn road surface with shallow trenches at the corners, defeating the purpose of the new curb cuts.

joan_crystal said:
Persons on my block are asking the same question.  There is also concern that only missing curbs are being done, giving an uneven appearance to the street.  My guess would be that cost is a factor.  Explanation we were given is that the curbs were being done to extend the life of the street which is now scheduled for repaving in the spring.  This is leaving us with a broken up, debris strewn road surface with shallow trenches at the corners, defeating the purpose of the new curb cuts.

Hmmm, I wonder if that means that our street is on the repaving list also.  We sure could use it (although our curbs are ok so far.)  We get weeds at the edges along the curbs because so much of the pavement is gone and the resulting trenches are filled with mud and debris.

I just got an email advising that milling on the entire length of my block will be done tomorrow and paving on Monday.  I assume that is weather permitting since we are in for a very we patch starting today and extending through the weekend.

The town should have a schedule of the streets they plan to resurface in the next several years.  You should be able to find out if your street is on that list by calling the engineer's office.

Last day to put out leaves in Maplewood is tomorrow. Just got the email today   thanks for the heads up, sheesh

They picked up leaves in South Orange a couple of days ago, and I think I saw the trucks out today on Ridgewood.

the18thletter said:
Last day to put out leaves in Maplewood is tomorrow. Just got the email today   thanks for the heads up, sheesh

 They could have sent that email a few days earlier.  Luckily I was home and it hadn't started raining (much) yet, so I was able to get out and take care of it.  (Mostly I just wanted to rake up the leaves left behind in the gutter from the last pickup into piles so that hopefully more will get taken next time.  But I had been afraid to do that and make piles since I hadn't heard about any more pickups.)