Residential loose leaf pickup program will continue this year in Riverhead

There will be loose leaf pickup in Riverhead Town this fall, after all.

Following months of wrangling with the town board, Highway Superintendent George Woodson has agreed to pick up loose leaves for a three-week period beginning Nov. 30.

The highway department has been conducting the leaf pickup every fall for years, but like other highway chiefs, Woodson has sought to end the practice.

“It’s not a highway function,” Woodson argues. He said the job takes resources he doesn’t have to spare, pulling crews away from winter storm preparation tasks like putting up snow fencing along roads where open fields cause drifts that make roads impassable.

Woodson also argues that the cost of the leaf pickup should be borne by the general fund, not the highway fund — since, he says, “It’s not a highway function.”

The highway superintendent said he agreed to conduct the loose leaf pickup this year on the condition that the town board understands the highway department will not be doing it in 2021.

At the last town board work session, board members asked Woodson to pick up the leaves this year with the understanding that this would be the last year they’d ask him to handle it. But given the late point in the season — and the cash-strapped town budget — the board has no alternative. Terminating the program altogether at this point is not feasible, board members told Woodson.

Supervisor Yvette Aguiar and Councilman Frank Beyrodt — who serves as the town board liaison to the highway department — met with Woodson and Deputy Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski yesterday to work out a plan.

“It’s good to have a face-to-face meeting,” Beyrodt said. “It went much better.”

The going got a little rough at the work session Thursday, with Woodson and some board members expressing their exasperation with the ongoing standoff.

Another unanswered question that presented a stumbling block was where the highway trucks would dump the leaves, because existing yard waste facilities were filled to capacity and farmers who had, in the past, taken the leaves for use in their fields are no longer willing or able to do so. According to officials, the town engineer was able to get permission from the State DEC to have the leaves deposited on a town-owned site on the north side of Youngs Avenue, adjacent to the former animal shelter.

Woodson said today in order for the leaf pickup program to work, “people have to abide by the rules.”

The rules prohibit mixing loose leaves with other types of yard debris.

Leaves must be put out in one pile, not in a line across the front of the property.

They must not be deposited in the roadway and must not block storm drains.

Leaves should not be put out until the week pickup is scheduled for the area.

The pickup is a residential-only service. The service is not for use by landscapers.

There will only be one pass through each area, during the week specified:

Brookhaven Town line to Hulse Landing Road – week of Nov. 30;
Hulse Landing Road to Northville Turnpike – week of Dec. 7; and
Northville Turnpike to Laurel Lane – week of Dec. 14.

The town’s contract with its solid waste contractor requires the contractor to pick up leaves packed in paper bags on designated yard waste collection days.