Stonington Leaf-Collection Effort Under Way

You wait for it all fall, homeowners: curbside leaf collection. Here's the skinny, complete with do's and don'ts, directly from the Stonington Highway Department:

Starting this week, the Stonington Highway Department has begun our annual leaf pickup program. We will continue to pick up leaves throughout November and into early December; or until the first snowstorm when we switch over to winter operations. 

The purpose of our leaf program is to assist residents and business owners in taking away leaves on properties that have no other place to put them and to help keep the leaves from blocking catch basins, gutter lines and drainage ditches. We do not pick up leaves on private roads or off of the Town right of way. 

The Department uses two leaf vacuum machines that can suck up the leaves within approximately five feet from the truck, so the Department requests that you rake the leaves into piles along the edge of the curb or pavement. However, please do not rake the leaves into the road or sidewalks as they can impede vehicular and/or pedestrian traffic and therefore can become a safety issue. Also, please make sure that there are no limbs, rocks, trash and/or any other heavy objects in the leaf piles as they may break our machine and slow down the whole operation. The loads of leaves that we pick up are brought to the transfer station and after some time and processing turned into a compost material that residents can use. 

For the most part, we are planning on having one crew in the eastern half of the town (Pawcatuck area) and one crew in the western half of the town (Mystic area). The crews work their way through each section of Town, so if you put your leaves out we should be there within a week or so. If you are looking to have your leaves picked up and you haven’t seen a crew come through your neighborhood in that time period, please feel free to call the Highway Department at 535-5055 and leave a message with the date of your call and the property location that you are looking to have the leaves picked up at. Please understand though, we do not make appointments as we try to follow a designated route. 

Additionally, if you have any questions with our leaf program, feel free to call the Department at 535-5055. Thank you in advance for working with us to get the leaves picked up as quick and efficient as possible.