Racing to Remove the Leaves

The Millburn Public Works Department has been working with extra contracted crews since the bizarre blizzard of October to clear up debris on top of its normal fall leaf removal duties.

It’s been a race against time – trying to get everything cleared from the streets before the next snowstorm.

“Shhh, don’t even say that word,” said Millburn DPW Superintendent John Bace, who said he has had four crews working on debris and two crews picking up leaves and still is hoping to get it done by New Year’s Day. “We don’t want any snow. But we’ll deal with whatever comes our way.”

Now that the majority of the debris is cleared up, he said, there will be more crews out picking up leaves and, so far, most of the leaf removal has been in the South Mountain and Wyoming areas of town because they had less tree debris.

They tried to work with the township's zone schedule but it has all but been abandoned this year because of the magnitude what they were dealing with just with debris, he said.

The township has repeatedly asked for residents to be patient as they try to get everything cleaned up.

“This probably reminds people who’ve been here awhile of what it was like eight years ago before we got organized and started doing it in zones,” Bace said. “It’s really been rough, getting hit with two catastrophes with the hurricane and the snowstorm.”

The piles of leaves and what’s left of the debris have been a concern for some residents for awhile, because in areas where there are no sidewalks, joggers and children walking to school have to maneuver around the leaves. Some roads in Short Hills are so narrow that it makes it difficult to get through when cars meet near leaf piles.

There are new piles of debris, he said, that people and their private tree companies have put out, but the township has asked that private companies remove their own debris.

The main concern now is if it snows, some roads could be impassable.

Earlier this week, the forecast was calling for a chance of snow for Wednesday and Thursday, but as if the weather gods heard Bace’s prayer, today the national weather service forecast changed to rain.

Still, he said, he knows snow is inevitable, and he is doing what he can to get everything cleaned up before that happens.