With snow in the way, Geneva curbside leaf collection might not resume soon

Sunday's snow blanketed piles of leaves waiting to be sucked up in curbside collections in Geneva.

And some people are perturbed about it, including a couple of Geneva aldermen.

"I don't want to be put in charge of this program ever," Alderman Jim Radecki said Monday, "but we're in kind of a mess right now."

He was speaking to Geneva's public works director, Rich Babica, at a committee meeting.

Geneva leaf pickup began Oct. 31. The town is divided into three zones. It normally takes two to three days to pick up a zone.

Each zone was to have two guaranteed pickups. A final sweep was planned for the week of Dec. 3, weather-permitting.

The problems started right away.

"We had an almost complete (leaf) drop in the first cycle," Babica said. It took nine days to complete the first pass, he said.

Work was also delayed by snow that fell Nov. 13, and by the Thanksgiving holiday. The contractor could have worked the Friday after Thanksgiving, but the city "discourages" outside contractors from doing work on days city offices are closed, as it was that day. It does so because city employees won't be around to answer questions or handle problems the contractor may have, Babica said.

And of course, there was this week's snow. So the second cycle is unfinished, and the December pickup is in doubt.

Babica is meeting with the contractor Wednesday to determine whether curbside pickup can continue this year, when the snow melts. Aldermen also asked if the contract calls for a spring pickup, if work can't be completed this fall.

Meanwhile, in December, residents can get rid of their leaves by putting them in yard-waste bags. No stickers are needed.

Alderman Dean Kilburg said Monday's snow was forecast at least one week in advance and questioned why the contractor didn't use more crews to vacuum before the storm. "I did not see any sense of urgency" in the workers, Kilburg said.

Geneva used to start its leaf pickups earlier and end in mid-November. But residents complained that sometimes all the leaves hadn't fallen by the time their last pickup was done.

In 2007 and 2008, early snows meant some leaves were not picked up until spring. Back then, the city had its own leaf vacuum. But the device would be removed when snow hit because the truck to which it was attached also plowed snow.