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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, residents not happy with this years Village leaf collection . Reader says , “The inappropriately named “leaf collection” program in Ridgewood is not being executed as it should be. I agree that the leaf fall has been late this season, but this is no reason to fail us in clearing the huge piles that now block our streets, and will soon block our drains.”
“I have witnessed several near-collisions on the local roads due to attempting to navigate the piles, and have even witnessed an elderly person slip and fall due to leaves building up in the crosswalks.
On the roads surrounding the schools I regularly see dangerous situations with pedestrians due to the parents inability to park up to drop their kids, and pedestrians with kids being limited in their ability to cross safely. The situation is particularly hazardous around RHS and especially dangerous on streets like Kenilworth (used by parents to drop their kids to Somerville).
When is the Village manager going to actually deploy a suitable process on this issue. 1.5 hours of leaf duty for teams per day is unacceptable. Is it going to take the death of a parent and child to act responsibly and according to what they have promised to deliver for the taxpayers?
The fact that the roads are now so dangerous is outrageous. It may well be that it’s “cool” to occupy the working day visiting a social media “guru”, but I wonder how social the manager’s media will be when someone is killed?”
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Back in the day we walked to school, so the leaves in the street didn’t bother us. We often got yelled at for playing in the piles.
From what I see one hour and a half each day doesn’t do anything, I don’t know who came up with that. The village leave Pro should be working every single Saturday. I witness other towns work every Saturday, but not in the village yet from taking a ride throughout the village, the villages definitely behind a week in Schedule, they should be working every Saturday to be on top of the leaves. What is the excuse?
Its absurd. A week to put leaves in the street; then 7-10 days to pick them up
If there was a snowstorm this week, the villages screwed. Sleep program is not working out. There’s a lack of supervision on the road, and no one’s blocking the roads there’s definitely going to be a terrible accident, and this could be avoided. And if anyone disagrees go for a ride, you’ll see if yourself. It’s a mess. What is going on what happened. Back to the drawing board beard
No but seriously, another example of how rinky dinky everything in this town is. Ah, but they can pay the new parking Gestapo to troll around all day in his dedicated cruiser with the obnoxious flashing lights … actually, maybe someone could hand they dude a rake and it could be a win-win for everyone.
Post of the day !
It was even funnier before the site administrator edited it.
Local surrounding towns have proper equipment, man power and a plan
When can Ridgewood look into a truck that vacuums the leaves up, like neighboring towns.. seems fast and efficient.
If there was snow this week or weekend it really would have been a disaster
Ridgewood has that truck
Vacuums leaves on main roads
I think the leaf collection this year has been great. On our street they picked up on schedule and did a great job cleaning up afterwards, and we are on a main street. I would suggest that everyone take a deep breath and quit their f’ing whining.
Easy for you to say, your leaves are gone. The rest of us are dealing with mountains of them. Think beyond your own circumstances, you selfish twit.
“Main Street”!
Most likely one of the council streets
You must live in Glen Rock!
Our area had one pickup thus far. The leaves have been in the street for 3 weeks since the 2nd pickup never arrived. Can’t blame the weather.
Maybe a deal w the landscapers so they can charge u to blow the same leaves back to the street
Piles of leaves blocking one side of residential streets is a hazard and accident waiting to happen.
What’s the difference between a pile of leaves and a parked car?
$13.00
If the leaves are in teh middle of the block..not much..other than one might be tempated to drive over some of the leaves and if they are wet and you brake you might lose control.
Also cars dont kill the curb grass even if they were parked there for 3 weeks.
The bigger issue is the pile of leaves at the corners, and cars have to drive into oncoming lanes of traffic to make a turn. This was the cause of a serious accident back in 1991.
I’ve found the leaf pick-up this year to be much better than in previous years.
I know for a fact, the town people doing leaf removal are working full days.
And, starting Saturday, 11/18, they will be working with overtime pay every Saturday into December.
It’s always the same, every year. When the first snow falls, everyone will remember and again wonder – “why does it take so long to pick up the leaves?”
Better this year, are you out of your mind? What street do you live on you better go to the eye doctor. The past few years, it’s been horrible. There’s no one blocking roads, like they do another towns. And there’s no direction, where is the lead man. we think the village manager needs to come out and work with the crews so he sees what’s going on he’s everywhere else with his photo shops. Get out of the village hall and then maybe you can see what changes need to be done because obviously you’re not the right permission from your staff.
Agree
Can’t manage a town from the office.
Embarrassing. That’s why the village is in the toilet. I definitely lack of know how. Talk about poor performance you got it.
This town needs a real village manager. We have been missing one for years now. None in the 10 years I have been here has done a half decent job. This latest hire is more of a poser who instead of wearing boots and going out with different teams and crews to assess and lead by example, likes suits, photo ops and social media.
Leaf collection is easy: lease 10 or 20 powerful vacuum trucks, split the area into 10 equal parts and vacuum every single week. But we can’t do the easy thing because it is too much work. Instead we go for the ridiculous approach of utilizing heavy excavators and trucks who can block a whole avenue while loading a pile of leaves. Meanwhile the asphalt and sidewalks get damaged as well.
Forget this place. Mediocre at best.
u r hired
I can respect all comments but, gee there are more important things to worry about other than leaves. My opinion.
Such as?
The town should stop collecting leaves at the curb, bag or mulch for leaves, this will save a lot of tax payer dollars. Many towns in NJ are doing this already.
you must live in the lawns with no trees
those of us on the west side with big oak trees need the leaf pickup
and dont forget our much larger property tax bill subsidize you whiners
They try to implement that years ago, but it failed. They should bring a contractor in the village. Dpw can handle all the work. The bottom line is Village staffing should’ve been working every weekend. There’s no excuse my parents live in Wyckoff and the leaf crews been working the past three Saturdays but not in Ridgewood if it’s snowed Thanksgiving week village will be in one big mess big deal, they work an hour or so every day what’s that going to do. Not sure who comes up with the system, or who is in charge, but the mayor and council need to get involved on a day-to-day operations, and please don’t come back and say the mayor and council can’t get involved that’s ridiculous They need to get involved. I want to see a picture of the manager holding a rake, working with the leaf vacuum the guy standing everywhere else smiling, I want to see that photo op.
No overtime for leaves or otherwise permitted. All money is reserved for the destruction of Schedler. The 100k going to the guy playing “historic consultant” and his team could have gone to overtime. REMEMBER THIS COME NEXT ELECTION.
How come another towns? They are blocking Roche with barricades and vehicles, but not in Ridgewood. There’s going to be a major accident and it’s gonna be on Ridgewood hands. they are doing nothing to avoid an accident or someone getting hurt. And Glenrock, in Paramus, In Waldwick, in Hohokus, Wyckoff, they put up barricades back up vehicles with lights in Ridgewood no safety precautions, why is that. At least another towns they have detour signs . Is this the first time the village is picking up leaves. If so, we can understand. If not I need to have better planning come on Mr. manager this is your opportunity to fix the problem.
What happen with the new truck??????????
Supervision is in an unmarked car. Explanation Chris?
There better be no cover-up. This is not going to be swept under the carpet.
📖 📕 📝 🖊️ eyes 👀 🛞 truck 🛻 🚛🪝🛟🛠️🆘🕖🐁🐶👷🏼♂️🫵🏼👎🏽😳🫣 (pre—trip) duhhhhhhhhhhhhh’
The schedule is useless as nobody follows it. The pickup process is unsafe and damages the roads. Require landscapers take leaves with them. Require bagging for those who do their own lawns. Look a the towns that do it this way to see the difference. Their streets are wide, safe and clean. Ours are narrow, dangerous and a mess.
for my 47k property tax bill on the west side with the big trees they better pick up my leaves in the street
47K? Gail Price is that you? The Mayor already paid you.
Lake Wobegon is having a kerfuffle
Yes, regarding the unmarked vehicle, which is a blue Ford explore that has no village markings on it. Which is used for the department of public works, it should be officially marked lettered numbered that vehicles not used for the police department for on the under cover work. and why are we paying a working foreman/supervisor? To be riding around in a brand new $40,000 explorer. When the rest of the foreman/supervisors are in pick up trucks, that vehicle can go to, and should be used by the village manager, not foreman of the street department. He’s not a superintendent or Director with the taxpayers demand. This be addressed immediately. Or how about we just call the news to do an investigation . The mayor and council and Village manager need to take care of this now the village is short on staffing, the foreman should be utilizing the pick up truck and picking up animals, putting out barricades, raking leaves off a curb line, and whatever else needs addressing. Not sitting in an SUV. That’s our tax dollars at work. Unacceptable.
What is going on. Ware is the village manager on this. Is he being told a b -s story. We think the manager needs to move his desk to the fleet building.
This is a mess out there. Houston Houston, you out there, we’re having difficulty. We think the mayor council manager need to come out and observe what’s going on. I need to get involved. And please don’t come back with some nonsense remark that we don’t get involved with day-to-day operations, that bullshit has to stop now.
“Where is the Village Manager on this?” In the corner, wearing a dunce hat, where the Village Engineer told him to be.
We can’t believe that the Director still has a job, why is the Director keeping this quiet, why is it always being swept under the carpet. This guy is full of shit. Why is the bomb in public works have an unmarked vehicle. Who authorized us, we wanna know immediately. no other departments utilize a vehicle that is unmarked except the detective bureau. We have a few of the visuals in the village. We cannot condone this kind of useless waste of money anymore. All foreman and supervision lead man should and will utilize a pick up truck. There are no more superintendence throughout the village. There are only , two directors left one on Parks department,one on engineering, one in utility company. One manager,
Wow, we wonder who’s running the show, is it someone from behind the curtain?
My neighborhood smells so nice I’ve been burning leaves all weekend,
Just do it extremely safe. Have all the precautions ready.
are we allowed to burn them?
We got a lot of rain coming, with all these leaves in the street we’re gonna have A problem. This is gonna be interesting. Good luck.
Yeah, who came up with that saying no leaf left behind. Please, dream on.
Pickups have been a failure. Many left behind in the middle of the street after coming out the back of the vacuum truck. This is making the roads a slippery mess. Witnessed people driving over curbs to get around equipment, cars backed up in both directions and dangerous U-turns. Accidents waiting to happen.
Great to see happen today, a well organized full leaf operation doing leaf pick ups in side streets, with multiple equipment out from all departments. Working in unison, efficiently picking up the leaves, backpack blowing clean the curbs grass areas, sweeping the streets clean! No leaf mess left behind!
Had heard the “Boss” said “all hands on deck”. He runs a tight ship for sure!
Some towns do not even have leaf pick up – you have to bag them or use a private service