Don't want your street to flood? Keep leaves out of the gutters

Public works officials in Batavia and Geneva are asking residents to make sure fallen leaves aren't piled up in street gutters. They fear that heavy rains Thursday night into Friday will send the leaves on down to clog stormwater inlets.

The rain total through Friday was estimated at just less than 2 inches, according to AccuWeather.

Combine that with heavy leaf fall this week, and you have a situation that can lead to flooded streets. Besides clogging the stormwater inlets, wet leaves also make for slick driving.

"They're dropping pretty good right now," Geneva public works director Dan Dinges said of tree leaves on Thursday.

Geneva, St. Charles, North Aurora and Batavia have leaf vacuuming programs under way, in which residents rake leaves to the curb. They are supposed to keep the leaves up on their lawn not in the street. Geneva went so far as to make a humorous video, available on the city Web site geneva.il.us and Channel 10, demonstrating the right way and wrong way to set out leaves for pickup. Geneva is also issuing warning citations and tickets to properties where people have raked leaves in to the street.

Residents who see a clogged inlet are asked to clear it themselves if possible, or call their public works departments: Geneva, (630) 232-1501; Batavia, (630) 454-2400; North Aurora, (630) 897-8228; or St. Charles, (630) 377-4486.