Saline City Council Supports Maintaining Loose Leaf Collection Service

For years, Saline residents have raked leaves to the curb and watched workers from the Department of Public Works come by and haul them away.

That city service will continue after council considered a recommendation to save money by doing away with the service.

The Problems With Loose Leaf Collection

Treasurer Elle Cole said the chief factor was cost. In 2023, the city spent $83,000 on loose leaf collection - a cost that's grown 52 percent over a decade. In addition, the city spends $60,000 annually on contracted bag pickup.  Cole also said the loose leaf collection causes operational delays at the DPW, where the beginning of leaf pickup season makes it more difficult to finish summer projects and the end conflicts with winter preparations.

In addition, Cole said, the leaves on the street can block the catch basin and cause flooding and even icy conditions. Leaves in storm drains can also cause issues.

The Recommendation

Cole recommended phasing out the loose-leaf collection over a couple of years. The city would buy bags for citizens to use for bag pickup. Each parcel would get a maximum of 15 bags with more available upon approval of the city manager. The bags would cost $2500-$4500.

Cole said the issue was first brought up after the city staff was instructed to review the costs and benefits of services in an effort to raise the fund balance, which had dipped after the city decided use federal COVID relief money on an infrastructure project and use general fund dollars to backfill the Rec Center losses during the pandemic.  The same service review led to the outsource of the Saline Police Department dispatch service.

Cole said the issue continues to arise because the city is paying twice—once for the loose-leaf collection and once to Waste Management for bag collection.

"We want to get a discussion going and see how each of you feel about the leaf collection pickup," Cole said.

Council's Reaction

The issue was a discussion item at Monday's city council meeting - so there was no official vote. But all six council members in attendance (Janet Dillon was absent) stated their opposition to eliminating curbside loose-leaf collection. Council did express some support for exploring the reduction of leaf-collection season.

Mayor Brian Marl offered his opinion first.

"My position today, on August 19th, is the same as it was when you first broached. This subject with me," Marl said. "I would not be supportive of eliminating loose leaf collection in its totality. I think that is a unique and special service and something that is valued by our residents. But your points are well taken. And I do think there's some opportunity to compromise and find middle ground on this particular issue."

Marl suggested reducing leaf collection from 4-6 weeks to 2-3 weeks.  He said it would require flexibility from city staff, noting leaves fall at different times depending on the weather. He said reducing leaf-collection would also require a lot of public education.

Councillor Nicole Rice said the city also needs to think of senior citizens.

"It's much easier to find a younger student to sweep everything to the edges than it would be to get them to bag everything up," Rice said.

She said reducing weeks of service with lots of communication is the way forward.

Councillor Jack Ceo said the service is part and parcel to the community.

"It's part of how we've always operated," Ceo said. "I understand we need to cut costs, and we need to conserve time and energy, perhaps curtailing the leap collection by some amount this year and gradually diminishing it as we get people used to this other way of disposing of leaves."

Councillor Dean Girbach said that in 5-10 years, this service might not be available if city residents expect the city to cut taxes.

Girbach noted that there could be other services worthy of review, like mowing the parks each week.

Marl noted the opposition to eliminating the loose-leaf collection was "as close to unanimous as we're going to get" and the discussion ended.

Public Comment

Sal Randazzo said he believes the loose-leaf pickup is a serve that has worked well.

"I just see a generalization of city services continually being reduced to the citizens as taxes keep getting increased and the city gets larger and the employee payroll gets bigger and the amount of equipment the city has gets bigger," Randazzo said.

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