INC NEWS - Picking up leaves!

Fri Dec 8 13:32:43 EST 2006

Having studied the yard waste issue, I'd like to chime in here. In my  humble 
opinion, the only logical conclusion is to roll the entire yard waste  
program into the tax base. This is because higher income neighborhoods  participated 
in the yard waste program at a much higher rate, presumably because  it was 
easy for them to afford the expense. Those neighborhood's worked  well.

Lower income neighborhoods didn't participate as much, so a greater amount  
of their yard waste ended up in the storm water run off systems. Water crosses  
all economic lines, so low income leaves can cause flooding in high income  
basements. 

If the cost per household is $60 per year, it would be great if you could  
get the citizens to pay it, but we've had enough years to prove that they won't. 
 Just one house dumping yard waste down the storm water systems is enough to  
offset several others participating. So it's a losing bet unless you can get  
nearly 100% participation, which we can't.

So the least expensive choice for all of us is no charge collection at the  
curb. 

Think of it just like garbage collection. If there was a fee for that,  and 
just 10% opted out and dumped their garbage anywhere and everywhere, it  would 
be a great deal more noticeable than leaves dumped down a hillside. 

But that's what happens with yard waste when we charge for it at the curb. 

Yes, that means the higher income areas will pick up slightly more than  
their share, and the lower income neighborhoods will get a break with their  lower 
tax values. But if it were garbage, instead of leaves, none of them  would 
mind, given the choice of Durham looking like a dump.

Those leaves aren't as visible, but they cause more problems than many of  us 
realize. 

Perhaps someday, we'll all enjoy cleaner streets and the ease of raking our  
yard waste to the curb where efficient vac trucks will suck it up. 

Bill Anderson

In a message dated 12/7/2006 10:30:15 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
Donald.Long at durhamnc.gov writes:

The City  does not currently have leaf vac trucks. We are looking at the
feasibility  of requesting them in the next budget cycle.

-----Original  Message-----
From: bragin at nc.rr.com [mailto:bragin at nc.rr.com] 
Sent:  Thursday, December 07, 2006 11:02 AM
To: Nancy Grandjean
Cc: Ken Gasch;  Council Members; inc-list at durhaminc.org; Baker, Patrick;
Long,  Donald
Subject: Re: INC NEWS - Picking up leaves!

This is the way it  was done in most places i've lived prior to moving to
Durham. The key is to  get the leaves picked up on a regular basis before
they enter the drainage  system, where they negatively impact the system
both physically and  ecologically.

My understanding is that the vacuum trucks, if they do in  fact exist (i
haven't seen them myself) are a relatively new investment on  the part of
the city.

Barry Ragin

----- Original Message  -----
From: Nancy Grandjean <nancyg at centralpets.com>
Date:  Thursday, December 7, 2006 10:52 am
Subject: Re:  INC NEWS - Picking  up leaves!
To: bragin at nc.rr.com, Ken Gasch  <ken.gasch at hldproductions.com>
Cc: council at ci.durham.nc.us,  inc-list at durhaminc.org,
patrick.baker at durhamnc.gov,  donald.long at durhamnc.gov

> (Sorry if this comes through as a  duplicate message; it didn't go 
> through the first time I sent  it.)
> 
> Given that the city already has the leaf vacuum trucks,  why can't 
> we rake leaves to the edge of our property and have them  vacuumed 
> up, instead of wasting time, money, and environmental  resources 
> putting billions of leaves into (relatively small) bags?  (Plastic 
> bags would be even worse environmentally.) I'm sure there's  a 
> logical reason . . . . (ho ho)
> 
> Nancy  Grandjean
> 
> 
> >-----Original Message-----
>  >From: bragin at nc.rr.com [mailto:bragin at nc.rr.com]
> >Sent:  Thursday, December 7, 2006 02:30 PM
> >To: 'Ken Gasch'
>  >Cc: council at ci.durham.nc.us, inc-list at durhaminc.org, 
>  patrick.baker at durhamnc.gov, 
> >donald.long at durhamnc.gov
>  >Subject: Re: INC NEWS - Picking up leaves!
> >
> >My  informal survey, from driving around my neighborhood on pickup 
>  day,>shows around 25% - 35% participation in the yard waste program  
> in my
> >neighborhood. (Every year i tell Claire not to  renew our yard waste
> >subscription, and every year she goes ahead  and does it anyway.)
> >
> >A couple of years back, i did  another informal survey of municipal
> >policies throughout the state  of North Carolina. There were a 
> bunch of
> >cities that did  not have separate fees for collecting yard waste. 
> There>were some  cities that charged a fee for a yard waste cart, 
> but not a
>  >subscription fee. There were a few that gave the cart away for 
>  free, but
> >charged a subscription fee. There was one other city  (can't recall
> >which, may have been Winston or Greenville) which  charged for both.
> >Durham was the only one, however, which charged  both an initial 
> fee and
> >a subscription fee which did not  have a policy of picking up all 
> leaves>in the city during the fall  season regardless of 
> participation in the
>  >program.
> >
> >The city does an absolutely terrible job  of informing new 
> residents of
> >the policy that leaves in  plastic bags will not be picked up. Why 
> should>we jump directly to  fining people for gathering their leaves 
> in plastic
> >bags  when they are at least attempting to keep their yards, and the
>  >streets, free of leaves?
> >
> >Addtionally, many of our  neighborhoods have large curbside trees
> >dropping leaves directly  into the streets. In my neighborhood, if you
> >were to have seen the  piles of leaves at Knox Circle deposited 
> there by
> >nature  last week, you'd realize there is nobody to whom a fine can be
>  >given for this.
> >
> >Charging citizens extra for leaf  pickup in Durham is like charging
> >citizens extra for clearing the  roadways of snow in Buffalo. It's 
> a fact
> >of life, and  should be budgeted for out of general revenues.
> >
> >That  said, i'm still glad to see that the city is at least thinking
>  >ahead by (apparently) purchasing some hardware and actually 
>  putting it
> >to use.  
> >
> 
> 
>  ---------------------------------------------
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> 
> 
>  
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