Annual war on leaves gets under way Oct. 27

Every autumn like clockwork, days grow shorter. Cooler heads prevail. And trees turn brilliant shades of red, yellow and gold before dropping their leaves to pile up on lawns and roadways.

Thus it's also annually the time for Greencastle Street Department workers' thoughts to turn to those falling leaves. Or at least thoughts of how to get rid of them.

And as Public Works Director Brad Phillips told the Greencastle City Council last week, that annual battle is about to begin.

"It's that time again," Phillips said, noting that city leaf-collection efforts will begin on Monday, Oct. 27 and continue through Nov. 26, which is the day before Thanksgiving.

The cut-off allows the city department time to get its equipment converted to tackle snow removal chores that are certain to follow.

"As usual, we will be following the trash routes," Phillips said of the customary leaf effort, "so please have them (the leaves) out at least the day before because we only go through each day's route once during a week (unless they are ahead of schedule)."

Meanwhile, that pick-up schedule does not include the two fall holidays for city workers, Tuesday, Nov. 4 (Election Day) and Tuesday, Nov. 11 (Veterans Day).

Residents within city limits are advised to rake their leaves only to the side of the curb or into the area between the street and sidewalk.

For those locations that do not have a curb or sidewalk, Phillips advises residents to put their leaves out near the street, just not into it.

"Leaves only," Phillips cautioned, "no limbs. We'll throw those back up in the yard if they're out there."

Simple rules of Greencastle leaf pick-up to keep in mind include:

-- No bags are to ever be used; leaves should be raked into the area between the sidewalk and curb or to the edge of the yard if there is no curb (never into the street where they can be washed into the storm sewers).

-- Never mix in any kind of trash or tree limbs or with leaves (tree limbs or foreign objects can damage equipment and put the leaf vac out of commission at a most inopportune time).

-- Burning leaves (or trash, for that matter) is not permissible within the City of Greencastle.

-- The collection schedule follows city trash routes as closely as possible. So if your trash is picked up on Mondays, the leaf vacuum will probably get your leaves that day as well (unless the effort gets behind because of inclement weather or mass quantities of leaves).