In a 5-2 vote Tuesday night, Oak Park’s Village Board of Trustees approved requiring residents to bag leaves for collection starting in fall 2024.
This will end the practice of raking the leaves into piles on the streets.
Bagging leaves is intended to be a way to reduce safety issues associated with the leaf pile method, officials said, including fires, lack of visibility, clogged drains — which contributes to flooding — parking and biking issues, and children playing in leaves. Kids in leaf piles by curbs sometimes can’t be seen by drivers, making the previous fall rite of passage riskier for them.
Residents and some members of several commissions, including the aging in communities commission and disability access commission, have expressed opposition to the requirement to bag leaves. The top concerns, according to Erica Helms, the village’s environmental services manager, were costs associated with buying landscaping bags or hiring others to bag leaves and the physical demand associated with bagging.
Village President Vicki Scaman and Trustee Ravi Parakkat were the two opposing votes to the decision. Scaman raised concerns about the cost of the program, lack of time for community engagement and quick turnaround for implementation this fall. Parakkat echoed resident and commission concerns about cost and physical demand, in addition to sustainability concerns.
Resident concerns
Ann Joachim, an Oak Park resident who spoke during public comment, said she’s opposed to bagging leaves because of the extra work and cost burden on residents. If village contractors were faster at removing leaves on the street, the safety concerns would disappear, she said.
Robert Larson, another Oak Park resident opposing bagged leaves, agreed that safety concerns could vanish with a quicker pickup time. He suggested the board put the issue on a referendum for the voters to decide.
Scaman acknowledged the village did contribute to higher piles of leaves when the collection program was reduced from eight to six weeks.
To counteract the cost and physical demand concerns, the village has come up with several proposals. One is to expand the current sidewalk shoveling program that allows those physically or financially unable to shovel snow or hire someone to do it for them to access free assistance.
The village allocates about $50,000 for this program, but because there was relatively light snow last winter, there are funds leftover, according to Rob Sproule, the village’s public works director. The contractor is on board with this idea and is putting together a proposal to bring to the village, Sproule said.
Another possibility, Helms said, is to create a fall leaf collection coupon program that would reduce the cost of leaf bags and drive sales to local businesses. The village has also considered having complimentary bags available in village buildings and at community partners including the Park District of Oak Park and the Oak Park Township.
To connect residents who need assistance bagging leaves with volunteers who can help, the village may create a community volunteer portal, Helms said. There will also likely be a 24-hour hotline for residents to report leaf violations.
Sustainability
One of the reasons the board cited to direct staff to move forward with the bagging leaves proposal was sustainability. One option for those looking to avoid bagging is to simply leave their leaves where they fall and let them compost.
The village will be working to educate residents on the benefits of leaving their leaves to compost, including returning nutrients to the soil and protecting biodiversity in the environment. Leaving leaves also provides a habitat for insects like butterflies to thieve and benefits the overall ecosystem in Oak Park, Helms said.
The bagging leaves initiative will minimize greenhouse gas emissions from the heavy equipment required to pick up leaves from the street, Sproule said. Garbage trucks emit less, he said.
Trustee Cory Wesley questioned whether leaf bag pickups could happen at the same time as trash pickup. Sproule said it couldn’t because the leaf bags and garbage bins will be located in different places, and doing it together raises the risk of mixing landfill waste with compostable leaves.
Parakkat, however, questioned whether the requirement to bag leaves would instead start to make residents view their trees as work. That could, in turn, disincentivize people from creating and maintaining a green environment in Oak Park, he said.
Board debate
Trustee Lucia Robinson pointed out that the issues with raking leaves into the street are not one-offs, but reoccur each year. Sproule said car fires happen nearly every year as a result of leaves in the street. The concern about children playing in leaf piles going unseen by cars is also one Robinson brought up in earlier board discussions.
“The emails that we have received, that are dismissive to that point, I quite frankly find appalling,” she said. “Someone’s child is going to be run over by a car … That way outweighs any convenience argument, from my perspective.”
She also suggested the village coordinate with service-oriented high school clubs to increase the number of volunteers available to help older or physically disabled residents bag leaves.
Trustee Brian Straw, who also supported the change to bagging leaves, said he appreciates the burden on residents to rake and bag leaves. A Wednesday Journal letter to the editor by Mark Wallace questioned whether the trustees would commit to bagging their own leaves, too. Straw said he would bag the leaves he can’t leave to compost.
The board also voted in favor of amending their contracted agreement with Lakeshore Recycling Systems to switch from the previous leaf collection program to the bagging model. This amendment does not result in an increased cost to the village or its residents. LRS will honor the rate of $2.42 per month per household at least until the end of its contract in March 2027, according to the village.
To ensure residents are educated about this change, Sproule said the village will work to have direct correspondence with residents in addition to village articles, newspaper advertisements and social media alerts.
