Some things never change. Every year at this time, someone on the City Council suggests the city do away with loose leaf collection.
This year it was Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter who began her tirade against loose leaf collection by noting that she and Councilmember Sharon Hightower have brought up the issue over the years but have never gotten any support.
Usually, the complaint is about safety and cost and Abuzuaiter mentioned both of those, but her main complaint was a new one.
Abuzuaiter said, “We are getting more and more complaints about leaves clogging the storm drains. I know that this year there have been an inordinate amount of leaves that have come down from all the trees. I don’t know if it’s the weather or wha. t I know that field ops is trying to keep up with their contractors picking up the leaves.”
Abuzuaiter added, “It is becoming a public safety issue because some streets are almost totally blocked because of leaves in the streets. I don’t know what we can do. I know there is an ordinance that says don’t put them in the street, but people don’t want their grass to die. So, I don’t know what kind of solution we can come up with. We give people warnings. What should we do about this?”
Abuzuaiter even suggested that the city not pick up leaves at all.
According to a study done by the NC School of Government, Greensboro has one of the least expensive leaf collection procedures in the state.
That study done about five years ago found that Greensboro spends $10.50 per capita per year for yard waste and leaf collection while the average cost of the 14 cities studied was $25.16 per capita per year. Of the 14 cities studied, only four didn’t have loose leaf collection. One of the four is Charlotte, which spends $12.51 per capita per year on yard waste and leaf collection.
If the cost in Greensboro were similar to Charlotte, that would mean if Greensboro shifted to collecting bagged leaves it would spend an additional $600,000 plus per year on yard waste and leaf collection.
The cost to Greensboro to switch to collecting bagged leaves would actually be much higher because new equipment would have to be purchased to collect bagged leaves.
It is also a fact that on streets where no one has piled leaves in the street, the gutters are still filled with leaves because trees overhanging the streets drop their leaves without any regard to the problems they may cause.
Well, the taxes go up and instead of trying to manage leaf collection more efficiently, the coucil wants to drop another city service.
$10.00pp per year? There ae two of us, so that’s 20 bucks. What about the thousands of dollars extorted from us every year in tribute? Isn’t this one of the services we pay for?
It’s January, and not one leaf has been picked up in our neighborhood. Many have been smushed into brown dirt, sticking to the street.
But they have money for yet five more make-work minority positions. We can become little Detroit.
Get out of town!
The 5 positions were added in the county not the city
You are right. Whether it is city or county, we get the same from our govt. We pay for leaf pickup with our taxes, but we don’t need five more make-work positions (minority voters).
Call your council reps…tell them to do a better job…and not push back to the taxpayers…what about the bags we will have to buy… Bah humbug to the two whiner council members!
Great let’s add more plastic bags to the waste piles…..or like us in the county….light em up!
Good idea chris just add more to the global warming crisis’. Maybe you’ve heard of a thing called composting. What a moron.
Heard of something called sarcasm.
I have heard of it but l’m not sure you know what it means but happy to know you still think about me. Happy trails to you.
I often think of those that suffer from disabling conditions such as yours.
Don’t forget about the billions of worthless cloth face masks thrown in our environment.
I wish the city would go the other direction and increase the resources and do a better job of collecting leaves. We have just two pickups this year: one in December and one in January. We get leaves to the curb that sit for a month or more. If Marikay thinks it is a mess now, wait until they cease collection!
A 30% increase in taxes should be able to handle any costs. I urge the people of Greensboro to also look at the transportation (public) costs. I have noticed that these wonderful buses we have here in the city normally do not have more than two or three riders. This is what I have seen no matter where in town they are traveling. Poor section, mid income area and high income. People are driving their cars and not dependent on public transportation. At least not the size and seats we have.
Why pick up the leaves? Greensboro looks so trashy now anyway, what do a few piles of leaves matter? As I drive around town on all major roads and side roads, I am appalled at the amount of trash lying around. Obviously our city government isn’t concerned with the way our city looks. Our tax dollars are being spent on much more important things, like 5 new MWBE positions. Apparently a team of 3 couldn’t handle the job, so let’s just throw some more money at it and hire 5 more to do the job. Lunacy at it’s best!
And the worst part of it? People keep voting in the same representatives!!
Those 5 positions were added in the county not the city. I’d like for people on here to learn the difference between city and county government Maybe we should have an online civics class
They are both equally inept. That’s why it is easy to confuse the two.
It’s called “full employment” status for friends.
Trash on friendly ave and Hobbs rd? Or South Holden and battleground? You can’t be serious I have been to Durham and this is beaverville compared to that city
Please go back. I’ll pay the bus fare.
Wow John, you just gave the morons another idea to waste tax dollars just like Skip is doing with his new construction hires .
The city just passed the largest tax increase in its history, so much so it even was mentioned on national news. Now this so called council women wants to end loose leaf pickup. It does not take a brain scientist to figure out that bag pick up would be more expensive and worse for the environment. They can spend money on all of their “honey holes” with questionable results but something that works like loose leaf pick up they want to do away with.
This has been the worse year in terms of loose leaf pick up. Long waits, fewer pieces of equipment on the street. Put somebody in charge and make it more efficient not eliminate it
“It does not take a brain scientist to figure out that bag pick up would be more expensive and worse for the environment.”
To me, it would cost less since they wouldn’t need as many employees to work the machines that suck up the leaves, thereby saving costs. Kind of like the street sweepers that are used on inner-city streets.
Maybe the Chinese, who wanted to buy our leaves, could contract with a company to collect the leaves, compost them, and ship them back to China.
Those machines are very expensive to purchase, require a lot of maintenance and have a limited life in operation before being replaced. The same for the trucks used to tow them. They both require a lot of gas or diesel to run them. Another effect on global warming Trucks can’t be used for anything else so after February they all sit parked along the fence off Patton Avenue next to the leaf machines. You can see them from I-40. Sometime in October a maintenance crew will start getting them ready for leaf pickup lots of labor and material cost is involved. If the City eliminated all trucks, machines and labor associated with this program it would save several million a year. I know personally I’m retired from the fleet maintenance shop.
So what do you suggest we do with our leaves? Perhaps just leave them where they fall?
The city needs to aggressively promote mulching.. we bought a mulching blade for $20.00 to put on our lawnmower and about 3 times during the leaf season we simply mow over the top of the leaves right into our grass ! So simple and the grass loves it.
Bagging leaves would put a lot of “leaf blowing people” out of work or pass on to the homeowner a significantly high labor cost to bag. I will be tempted to do midnight leave burns which I’m sure will delight our city Fire Department. A month ago we had leave piles in our neighborhood which could be vacuumed up now we have mud piles which need to be shoveled up. Glad I’m not on the City’s leave collection team!
Simple elegant solution is pick up leaves dry them grind it to powder and add small epoxy resin and sell 2×4 engineered wood beams. These beams can be used for decks and will never warp never needs staining and will last lifetime. Never will have termite or any other problems. Not only city will recover all the cost but will make decent amount of revenues.
Good Lord. $10 per person in the City. What are you complaining about. It’s one of the cheapest services per person that we have. Everyone wants it done NOW. It takes time and there are only a few folks that can work on it. The City has a huge employee shortage and unfortunately the pure service departments such as waste and yard waste are severely low on staff. Complain all you want but our waste service and yard waste employees are the ones that keep our City going and keep it clean. They take our nastiest items from us and transfer it somewhere else to a landfill. The leaf guys have to walk miles a day with tubes trying to suck up as many leaves as possible. People put their sticks in the leaf piles, dog poop, anything. Those pose a danger to the leaf collectors but they keep going. Stop complaining, especially YOU CITY COUNCIL. Marikay you know better. You typically are there for those who work the hardest and make the lowest pay. CITIZENS WHO COMPLAIN….IF YOU DONT WANT YOUR LEAVES TO SIT ON THE STREET TAKE THE TIME AND EFFORT TO PUT THEM IN A BAG AND HAVE THEM PICKED UP. HIRE A KID TO DO IT. BETTER YET, COMPOST. Do something yourself and look to severe what these guys have to do, the extent of all of the roads in Greensboro.
Stop complaining? Who? Why is Marikay suggesting it end? To save money? As you say, the cost is cheap. Maybe you have two trees. We have a lot. We compost about half and the other half go to the street. That’s right, not on the grass. I will complain loud and long. Hire more people or contractors and get the job done. Two pickups is ridiculous. The answer to the city performing poorly is NOT to just end the service.
stop collecting them – i want them spread out. hey ! u with that rake !