Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home officials are asking residents not to pile leaves in the streets because the city’s street sweeper is not capable of picking up the leaves.
“People have had misinformation in the past,” said Code Enforcement Officer Gina Riley. “They’ve piled them up (in the street), and that’s the problem.”
The city is trying to get word out and will send reminders in water bills this month, Riley said. Other cities do have leaf pickup, but Sweet Home doesn’t have the capability.
Unfortunately, Riley said, an Albany Democrat Herald story announced that residents should pile their leaves in the street for pickup. “People have been told to pull it 2 feet from the curb. That’s just not true.”
It’s a lucrative compost business in some places but not in Sweet Home.
Leaves should be placed in yard debris cans, Riley said.
“Our sweeper is made to keep dry debris away from the rain gutters,” Riley said. That’s why most of the trees downtown have small leaves that curl when they fall off.
It’s mainly the big leaves and big piles of leaves that cause the problems, Riley said.
The request only refers to leaves intentionally placed in the street, Riley said. The sweeper is capable of handling small amounts of naturally falling leaves.
Riley is addressing piled leaves as a street obstruction, she said. The leaves can disrupt traffic. Many neighborhoods have narrow streets and on-street parking. Large piles of leaves extending into the roadway limit parking and the ability of vehicles, especially school buses, to safely negotiate the streets.
It can disrupt surface drainage, causing leaves and debris to clog storm drains and ditches and leading to localized flooding, Riley said.
On a dry day, it could be a fire hazard, Riley said. There have been many examples of car fires caused by hot catalytic converters igniting dry leaves.
Leaves can also cause a slick surface, causing accidents, Riley said.
While it may be rare and an extreme example, Police Chief Jeff Lynn said that two children were killed recently in the Forest Grove area when they were hiding in a pile of leaves in the street when a vehicle drove through the leaves.
City officials don’t intend to cite people, Lynn said.
“The city of Sweet Home is just trying really hard to educate the public right now,” Riley said. City officials say piles of leaves in streets causing problems