Laserfiche WebLink
Mr. Johnson updated the council on the history of, and most recent developments surrounding, the City's <br />leaf collection program with particular emphasis on how the program had related to the adoption of the <br />City's Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan (CSWMP) in 1993. <br />Mr. Johnson provided a brief overview of the City's leaf collection schedule and noted that enhancements to <br />the program in 2009, would include greater public awareness strategies as well as increased resources for <br />on-street bicycle lane maintenance. <br />Mr. Johnson commented that the City's leaf program utilized staff and equipment from both the surface and <br />stormwater maintenance teams, as well as certain additional resources from the Public Works Department's <br />Parks and Open Space Division. <br />Mr. Johnson reported the leaf program divided the City of Eugene into five separate collection areas with <br />two rounds of collection on more than 470 center-line miles of improved streets and one round of collection <br />on approximately 50 miles of unimproved streets. He further reported that the program maintained <br />approximately 80 center-line miles of on-street bike lanes. <br />Mr. Johnson briefly reported on the City's leaf collection program from the previous year and noted that <br />City crews working under the program had collected more than 16,000 cubic yards of leaves with <br />approximately 54% of that amount being delivered to private properties, 32% being delivered to <br />community gardens and parks and the remaining 14% delivered to commercial recyclers such as Rexius <br />and Lane Forest Products. He noted that no leaves collected under the program had been deposited in local <br />landfills. <br />Mr. Johnson briefly described how leaf collection programs satisfied the requirements of the City's National <br />Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit and further described elements listed in an <br />agenda item summary memorandum related to 1) the public guidelines for leaf collection; 2) the program's <br />public awareness media strategies; and 3) various leaf disposal alternative strategies for members of the <br />community. <br />Mr. Johnson noted that the total amount of on-street leaves collected in the past decade had remained at a <br />fairly constant level of approximately 16,000 cubic yards per year which he further noted represented <br />roughly 2,000 truckloads of leaves collected each year. <br />Mr. Johnson briefly described three identified trends that were likely to significantly affect the collection <br />strategies of the leaf program in the near future: 1) an overall increase in leaf volumes due in part to the <br />City's various street tree-planting efforts and the maturation of the urban forest leaf canopy; 2) an increase <br />in the regulatory processes applied to the City's Stormwater infrastructure; and 3) an increase in the <br />number of cyclists and local on-street cycling facilities. <br />Mayor Kitty Piercy arrived to the meeting at 12:21 p.m. <br />Mr. Johnson commented that the trend of increased cyclists in the community and the efforts to maintain <br />safety for those persons with respect to the amount of leaves for on-street collection would represent a <br />significant challenge to the City's leaf program. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 16, 2009 Page 3 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />