Milwaukee lead collection deadline extended; what you need to know

Those of you who have done leaf collection already were able to do it on a maybe nicer and sunnier day earlier this week, but if you haven't, deadline is not as close as you might have thought. It's actually just been extended, so people now have an extra two weeks to either bag or rake their leaves to the side of the curb. DPW says that they've extended this year now to help the trees that may be having later leaf leaves that are falling again. A lot of that. Due to some of the drought conditions that we were seeing earlier in the year but then causing the trees and the foliage to happen a little bit later and then as a result the leaves falling later. So again an extra two weeks. The new deadline is now November 29th. So not this Sunday but two Sundays from now I actually want to bring in DPW Commissioner Gerald Krushke joining me here on Fox 6 Now. Commissioner Krushke thanks so much for joining me. Absolutely. So I'm sure procrastinators like myself, very excited to hear the news about the extension. So for people who still haven't done it, what are the rules on how to get your leaves ready for pickup? Great question. So there's multiple ways we take care of leaves and we've articulated this earlier in the year. So the first thing we want people to know is if they can mulch in place, it's great for the environment. It keeps leaves out of the right of way. New this year, option two is we're allowing folks to bag their leaves. It's an option. They don't have to, but we've had over 800 and some residential units bag leaves already, which is a positive. And then three, we have the mechanical. And what that means is we're allowing folks to rake their leaves out to the streets, and we're trying to keep them one feet off the curb. And then what we do is we come down and we mechanically push those into larger piles and we collect them over a period of time. So the caveat I do want to put out is we extended the resident push-out to the 29th. What that means is residents put their leaves there. We still will be picking up leaves two to three weeks after that rake-out. So if you do see a pile you can still add to it, but because trees are dropping later This is why we extended the deadline. Yeah, and I've noticed that too because even with the foliage things happening later as well And I know you had mentioned the bagging option Which is new this year and I know it was implemented to help with flooding because of the leaves being in the sewers and things like that and you said it sounds like people are Catching on and going the bagging route Absolutely. It's been a positive experience so far. If folks don't want windy conditions like exist today that the leaves blow back into their yard, this is a great option for them to keep it tidy and nice and only do the job once. Yeah. And I know the storms were clogged. I mean, a lot of this, the challenges with the weather or things that were out of anybody's control here. I mean, you know, the weather here in southeast Wisconsin is so unpredictable. I mean, we get snow in the fall or in the spring and things like that. But are there any other things being done? I mean, after the flooding that we saw even in April, any other measures being done to try and prevent the same thing from happening as far as either leaf collection goes or any other thing beyond that? Obviously we've said all the multiple ways we've expanded the way you can get rid of leaves. Additionally we've been tracking where we have larger piles and identify them in a quicker manner. We've addressed more staff this year than we have and kind of switched schedules. We used to be in the middle of the night now we have folks starting at 4 a.m and working 10-hour shifts going through so we can try to get as many leaves out as possible just in case we have one of those you know 100-year storms like we've had in the past year. Better knock on wood, because I feel like that's going to happen now, because you seriously never know with the weather here. And so I know deadline, November 29th, you talked a little bit about what happens from there, but how do people request pickup? I know it's not technically necessary, but encouraged? Yeah. Yeah, so I would say if you're actually putting your leaves out on the street, you don't necessarily have to call. Our folks are going through neighborhood by neighborhood, and we do have an online map where people can track where we are. If you do have bag collection, we identify those bags in the curb, but if you do want those picked up in a more quick fashion, then you can just call 286-CITY and just say that you need a leaf request picked up, and we'll be by there much quicker than us identifying it during our regular sanitation route. Nice and efficient way to do that for sure. And there's the app too, right? Great ways to get things going and getting underway and I guess good news for people who are still procrastinating and didn't want to get that done by Sunday. Commissioner Krushke, anything else you feel like is important for people to know? No, I think as early as people can get their leaves to the curb or in bags, it just helps the efficiency of us unless we have to do going into December. And we do understand that there are a lot of leaves still stuck in some of our trees. So this is why the extension was put in place. But if you can get them out there as soon as possible, it helps us out when we move into December. All right. Yeah. So I will not be procrastinating and I will get this done. We appreciate all that you guys do seriously every year from leaf collection to then plowing the snow and all the things like that. We appreciate you guys helping the city operate and run smoothly. And so I can get my car through the streets. Uh, but again, appreciate you taking the time commissioner and I'll get to bagging those leaves. Maybe not today, but tomorrow. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.