Town Board Announces Townwide Voluntary Leaf Bag Program

Members of the Town Board and Highway Superintendents from neighboring towns joined Riverhead's Highway Superintendent, George "Gio" Woodson, on Tuesday morning to formally announce the town's decision to offer residents leaf bags for leaf collection. The pilot program will run free of charge to residents who wish to participate this fall and next spring, to be further evaluated for potential townwide implementation. However loose leaf pickup will still be available to Riverhead residents.

"In the very near future, we will not have any local nurseries accepting loose leaves," Woodson said. "We will be forced to pay to have leaves removed, and this is a better, more cost effective way of disposing the leaves without over-burdening taxpayers any more than necessary."

As originally reported on Riverhead Patch on Sept. 24, the Riverhead Town Board recently voted, 3-2, to transfer $50,000 so Woodson can implement the program. Supervisor Sean Walter and Councilman George Gabrielsen both disagreed with the decision; Walter questioned the savings (which Woodson estimated around $200,000), while Gabrielsen preferred to see the program tested through smaller parts of town on a trial basis. Neither were standing alongside Woodson on Tuesday.

Southold Superintendent Peter Harris oversaw his town phase in the bag program four years ago, though currently residents can still choose to empty plastic bags of leaves at the town's facilities during a two-week span in December (Harris estimated 20 percent of residents choose that route). Harris said while town-wide leaf pickup used to take seven to eight weeks, pickup time has been cut to four weeks, in the process covering each street two to three times. Woodson said his department dedicates seven weeks each year to leaf cleanup.

"It's about a reduced workforce as well," Harris said. "Those people who are out picking up loose leaves, when you have leaf bags you can take part of that workforce and work on snow fences and snow equipment and getting ready for the snow season."

Without proper time to tend to snow equipment or fences, said Councilman John Dunleavy, overtime pay costs the town.

In addition to finances, Dunleavy also stressed the safety hazard loose leaves present. In his 20 years on the police force, the councilman said many accidents occurred as a result of slipping on wet leaves. In addition, clogged storm drains from leaves may result in flooded roadways.

Despite the support shown for the project, the issue of where the bagged leaves will be taken seemed to remain up in the air. In his initial announcement, Woodson stated that the bags would go to "designated locations."

"I had the idea that they would go to sanitation," Woodson said during the question and answer session. "But Supervisor Walter is telling me otherwise. I think overall between all the people we have up here working on this, we'll find somewhere to take them."

Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, who serves as the liaison to the Sanitation and Solid Waste Departments, stepped in and said that she had spoken with Sanitation Superintendent John Reeve. Though a state permit would be required to host the amount of leaves coming onto the site, Giglio said Reeve is willing to work with Woodson in finding a place. She said out of the recent $50,000 transferred within the highway department budget, some of those funds could be returned to expense the sanitation department (whose budget falls under the general fund).

Woodson said bags will be available starting on Oct. 18 at the Highway Department offices, with more pickup locations to be determined. Pickup will run from Oct. 21 until the end of December. Next spring, the processed leaves will be available to residents as free mulch, Woodson said. Maggio Sanitation, which provides carting services for the town, will provide free pickup of the leaf bags this fall and again in the spring.

"After we get this done next year, we're going to see how everything works out," Woodson said. "We'll see where we had issues and where we had problems. If we can work them out, fine. If we can't, we'll have to find an alternative way of doing it."