Your Turn: Develop a Better Leaf Pickup Plan

There's no shortage of criticism over a proposed plan to have Ridgewood residents bag all the fall leaves themselves.

According to the informal poll here on Patch, about 70 percent of people say the village's idea is "terrible" considering the high taxes they pay.

Director of Operations Frank Moritz and Streets Department head John Spano offered a plan to officials intent on making a change, admitting they expected residents to pan the idea.

Instead of having towering leaf piles jumbled in the streets, narrowing roads and creating safety hazards for workers and residents alike, the residents should bear more responsibility and bag the leaves themselves, the pair told the council. "It's about safety," they said.

The plan calls for residents to leave the bags – some of which would be provided by the village for a small cost – on their own property and wait for the village to grab them; the pickups would increase from three seasonal passes to one a week with the yardwaste schedule. Registered landscapers could still dispose the leaves and small branches into the dump on Lakeview for no additional fee.

"This recommendation will solve the staff issues, the equipment issues, the appearance issues, the collection issues," Village Manager Ken Gabbert said. "As the mayor pointed out, it may have some controversial components."

That it did.

A minority of commenters said they saw the change as a positive one but others said it was an overreaction to the October swowstorm and questioned if the idea could even work.

"Impractical," in summing up the plan. "Even if, and it's a big if, most people bag their leaves, what about all the masses of leaves and tree debris that cannot be attributed to someone's house? The Village will still be on the hook for cleaning that up. Many people will also simply not bag. What will the Village do about them? Issue hundreds of tickets? 'They aren't my leaves. They just blew in front of my house.'"

"It will only put more cost on the homeowner who is already overburdened with high taxes," . "For those of us who rake our own leaves the added burden of having to put leaves in bags is over the top. Pickup the leaves as you always have and stop the nonsense."

Some suggested keeping the same plan in place with on a temporary basis. Others saw purchase of  as a possible solution.

Here's your task, citizen: if the proposed plan is not to your liking, what would you rather see? Let's see if a plan can be hatched that addresses the manpower issues, equipment costs, logistics, safety issues as well as direct and indirect costs to the residents.

Add your pitch below in the comments.