It won’t be long before the leaf vacuums will be roaming the streets of Shawano and collecting residents’ yard waste.
According to public works director Mike Mahloch, leaf cleanup begins Oct. 12 and continues five days each week for six weeks until Nov. 20, just before the start of the gun deer hunting season. The leaf cleanup will coincide with a neighborhood’s garbage collection day, he said, with two leaf vacuums running through areas.
“Sometimes we might run the leaf vacuums a little longer if necessary,” Mahloch said.
He said that garden waste and grass clippings can be included in the piles of leaves, but other debris should be separated from leaves. This includes sticks, brush and pumpkins, which are collected via a separate truck on weeks opposite of recycling collection, also following the schedule of garbage collections.
Animal waste should also not be in piles of leaves. Mahloch said some Shawano residents don’t separate dog feces from the leaves they’ve raked up, and it can impact the equipment collecting the leaves.
Rocks and garbage should also be kept out of the leaf piles, Mahloch said. Leaf piles should be kept a distance away from utility poles, mailboxes and garbage cans.
“The hose swings out from the leaf vacuum, so we do need room to operate,” Mahloch said. “Sometimes, the poles will hamper us from picking things up, so please be mindful.”
Another problem city staff have sometimes when collecting leaves is when people park on the street during the leaf collections and block access to the leaves. Mahloch said there are times when the vacuums have to leave those piles behind and try to come back later to do the cleanup. He noted that it’s not always residents blocking the leaf piles; sometimes, it’s visitors or neighbors parking on the street and causing issues.
“We have a lot of people who, for some reason, park in front of the leaf piles,” Mahloch said.
Sometimes, the leaf vacuums will get ahead on pickup and start collecting in the next day’s areas, but if residents haven’t moved leaves to the curb before the day of garbage collection, Mahloch said there’s no reason to worry. Leaf vacuums will start picking up the full neighborhood that day, even the areas serviced the day before.
“We will start over on Tuesday’s route Tuesday morning, even if we were there Monday,” Mahloch said.
For those who don’t want to wait for trash collection day to roll around, they can bring their leaves to the landfill, 1099 Rusch Road, Shawano, for disposal, Mahloch said. There is no fee for leaves.
There is also no fall cleanup for bulk items like there is in the spring. Anyone who wants to dispose of those large items can take them to the landfill.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
