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Ridgewood residents question leaf collection policy
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The Village Council carried the public hearing and proposed adoption of a new leaf removal policy to next Wednesday following a strong opposition posed by several residents this week.
Ridgewood has put forward a new policy that if passed would enact strict enforcement of the existing regulations. The proposal also defines the penalties associated with any violations as well as the proper disposal of leaves, including the appropriate dates, location of leaf piles on property, and the streets that cannot be blocked with leaf piles at any time.
In preparation for the leaf collection season, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 22, the village mailed a “Leaf Collection Guidelines” document to residents with their most recent tax bill. The document provided several reminders and highlighted portions of the proposed ordinance.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/172773201_Ridgewood_residents_question_leaf_collection_policy.html
It states: “The following locations have no leaves in the street nor are sidewalks to be blocked” … followed below by a listing of the named streets.
All leaves are to be placed directly in the street (EXCEPT AREAS SHOWN BELOW)
Thats pretty clear!
Read paragraph b; it clearly states sidewalks should not be blocked on the noted streets; it says nothing about a prohibition on putting leaves in the street.
(b) No owner or occupant of any premises abutting any of the following streets or thoroughfares listed below, nor any person or entity working or hired on the behalf of the owner or occupant, shall throw, discard, pile or place leaves in front of their premises at any time in such a manner that the sidewalk directly in front of said premises is obstructed or blocked for pedestrian traffic: 1. North Monroe Avenue 2. East Glen Avenue 3. West Glen Avenue 4. North Maple Avenue 5. South Maple Avenue 6. North Van Dien Avenue 7. North Pleasant Avenue 8. South Pleasant Avenue 9. Ackerman Avenue 10. Lincoln Avenue 11. Godwin Avenue 12. Linwood Avenue 13. East Ridgewood Avenue
Directly in front of premises is the public right of way; sidewalks and to curb and street.
paragraph (b) says no owner (etc) of any premises abutting any streets listed below, (etc) not to place leaves in front of their premises (etc) .
note: premises; abutting premises; in front of.
They will get it right by 2015
who’s they . some of you people need to know how to clean up leaves. you don’t just throw it into the road. make a nice clean pile. and put the brush and wood in a pile away from the leaves. that’s what i do and my block is done with no problems. I see some people just don’t care about any one but them self. then they cry when the road floods .
this mayor and council need to wake up and see what the hell is going on with some of these jerks on how they put leaves into the middle of the road. the poor d p w workers are down to the lowest amount of man power then ever before. they are doing the best that they can. the parks are down to 4 workers , they had 10 at one time. in the road dept they had 28 in 1990. in 1995 they had 18 and now they are down to 7, yes 7. so how can they do all the work that needs to be done. they can not. and stop the bull shit . if you took parks and road dept you have 11 workers. and that,s still not good. people we are not getting what we pay for in taxes. ware did all the tax money go from all the workers who left?????????????????????????? hummmm. that’s a lot of money.
it,s real funny that the ridge wood news is not doing a story on the village work force. why is that. I think that would be a good story, don’t you all feel the same. we the tax people pay tax’es for service and they keep cutting the work force. they don’t re hire any one but part time help. and they don’t give a hoot because they are making little pay and no perks. so why should they work hard for us. people shit pay get’s you shit work. end of the story. this mayor and council need’s to hire workers.
I live on one of the restricted main roads in town. I have always done my best to minimize leaf intrusion into the street and to comply with the town guidances. Always. My leave piles aren’t the ones in the middle of the street adn have never been a safety hazard. But, the fact is that my property is 50′ wide and 250′ deep with alot of big trees. Subtract out a 15′ wide driveway curtain and that leaves me with a 35′ strip of grass, 24″ wide to pile the leaves. Even if I bag all of the leaves, there’s no way that they are going to fit on that 35′ X 24″ area. I want to comply but it’s going to be a challenge that I do not believe I can live up to. I really hope the leaf police apply a little common sense and discretion to the ticketing that may go on. Go after the flagrant violators (and we all know them when we see them) and leave the rest of us who are trying to comply alone.