By Staff
NILES - Once again this fall, the City of Niles Street Department will be conducting the annual leaf collection program, which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Oct. 26.
The start date has been set back a couple of days due to the later than normal leaf fall. Originally the program was scheduled to start on Monday, Oct. 24.
The leaves are collected one ward at a time, starting the program in a different ward each year. Last year the collection started in the second ward, so this year we will begin with the third ward.
Please follow these few simple rules:
Rake leaves to the back of the curb and not onto the pavement;
Only clean leaves will be picked up. Leaves mixed with brush, limbs, trash, ashes, or other debris will not be picked up.
Leaves must be raked out in advance of the pickers. Leaves raked out afterwards will not be picked up;
Please move your vehicles to off-street locations when the crews are in your neighborhood. This makes the process of getting the leaves into the street and to the leaf vacuum quicker and easier. Cars parked in the street slow the collection process down significantly and force the crews to leave piles of leaves behind that can not be reached with the equipment.
Please do not cover the water meter castings in the boulevard area. This prevents meter readers from taking actual readings and requires them to estimate your water usage.
As with past years, we will go around the city two complete times, weather permitting. It is important to rake as many leaves out as possible in advance of the first pick up, since the second time around may be halted or delayed by bad weather. Normally the crews work ten hours per day, Monday through Saturday. It is always our goal to complete the entire program prior to Dec. 15, again, weather permitting. Should you not be able to rake your leaves out in time to be picked up by the city, you may take them to the Southeast Berrien County Landfill, 1540 Mayflower Road, Buchanan, and dispose of them.