Geneva extends pickup for leaves

Did it seem like the leaves on the trees in your yard hung on forever this year?

It's not your imagination, and Geneva's public works department knows that. So it is giving residents extra time to get those leaves raked to the curb for free pickup.

A two-time, six-week sweep of the leaf vacuums through the city began Oct. 15 and was supposed to end last Saturday.

"As everyone knows, the leaves did not fall per our schedule," public works director Dan Dinges said.

So the city has added a third collection.

Workers started earlier this week in Zone B and will follow in Zone C, then Zone A.

Zone A is everything east of the Fox River. Zone B is west of the river and north of Route 38. Zone C is west of the river and south of Route 38.

"We hope to be done with all the zones by the end of next week," Dinges said.

Three of 11 public works trucks are outfitted with equipment to pick up the leaves. The rest already have been outfitted with snow plows for the winter.

If the weather forecast calls for major snow, the leaf collection will end. Workers need a day to disassemble the leaf equipment and install the plows.

"It does make it difficult when the leaves refuse to fall," Dinges said.

According to George Ware of Batavia, dendrologist emeritus for Morton Arboretum, trees in this area "were fooled" this summer by several periods of lack of rain. Soil moisture, at the right time, affects leaf color and leaf drop, he explained.

On many trees the leaves just stayed green, or went to brown and black. Sugar maples, which turn colors later than other trees, were OK. They benefited from the rains that came in late August.

"Trees were responding to an unusual summer. The leaves tended to persist," said Ware, who volunteers on the Batavia Tree Commission. "It was a weird performance and an unusual display."