Jimenez works to retain leaf vacuuming
Mason Supervisor Andres Jimenez told Annandale Today he is working to ensure Fairfax County permanently retains its leaf vacuuming service.
Jimenez is also urging the county executive to make the program more accountable by picking up leaves in a timely manner. Currently, the county posts the leaf pick-up schedule online and on signs posted in neighborhoods, but is often late, sometimes by as much as two weeks. “It’s ridiculous,” he said.
The county vacuums fall leaf piles on curbs for 25,000 customers, representing just 5 percent of the county’s population. The vast majority of leaf vacuum customers, however, are in Mason District.
In July 2023, the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services recommended ending the leaf vacuum service after the 2023-24 season, due to rising costs.
After a county survey showed widespread support for the program, county staff in October 2023 withdrew the proposal it had submitted to the Board of Supervisors to eliminate the service for the following year.
Related story: County backs off plan to eliminate vacuum leaf service next year
The plans to end leaf pickups were postponed, the county announced, while it “reviews potential alternatives to the current service model.”
Meanwhile, the county redistributed the vacuum trucks this season to reduce idling and increase the number of homes served at one time. While residents may see fewer trucks in their neighborhood than in the past, those trucks will be more active.
The drought conditions have resulted in dry and fluffy leaves, which fill up the trucks faster, the county reports. This has caused some temporary schedule delays.
Last year, the county vacuum leaf collection program picked up more than 6,600 tons of leaves. The leaves were ground into leaf mulch and used for plants at the solid waste facilities.
25 responses to “Jimenez works to retain leaf vacuuming”
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My only gripe is that they’ve already increased costs to “improve reliability and on time pickup” and service doesn’t seem to be any better this year. We’re also fully at their disposable to future rate increases as it requires a lengthy process and a majority of neighbors to discontinue service. Where do we go from here?
It should be noted that the tax rate for County leaf pickup increased 58% this year, ostensibly to bring the price of leaf collection service in line with the actual cost. But even with this tax increase, service delivery tanks further. Perhaps somebody on the BoS should actually start holding DPWES Director Christopher Herrington’s feet to the fire on this and demand immediate and sustainable corrective action. His tenure in this position hasn’t been particularly effective.
Yeah, holding the government responsible for providing excellent service. That’s hilariously out-of-touch coming from people who live within the DC Beltway.
“Currently, the county posts the leaf pick-up schedule online and on signs posted in neighborhoods, but is often late, sometimes by as much as two weeks” doesn’t sound like excellent service to me, whether your inside, outside, or on the Beltway.
I was thinking about this the other day, amid the backdrop of our leaves still out front a whole 2 weeks later, and the yearly neighborhood email discussion (fight?) over the pro/cons of leaf removal, including but not limited to noise pollution from gas blowers, the fairness of having county leaf collection when there are a few people in the neighborhood who don’t use it, the professed biological and ecological goodness of just letting the leaves fall and decompose in place, the professed badness of leaves providing a home for rodents and critters, et cetera.
I wonder if the county could/would change the service to mulch and bale the leaves and leave the bales on the curb in place of the leaf piles.
In years past, I’ve thought that the biggest slowdown to the leaf collection process was that the trucks fill up after about an hour of vacuuming? At least that is what I attributed it to. They’d start at like 8AM down my deadend street, and then an hour later they’d bug out for the day, only having done part of the street.
I feel like mulching/baling the leaves could be a win/win. Faster overall process. No leaf buildup on one’s lawn or streets. You get leaf mulch ready to respread.
There’d still be all the gas blower noise though.
I’m a firm believer in municipal services being part of the county’s responsibilities, but is a service offered to 5% of the population. In a perfect world it would be stricken and trash/recycling by the county implemented for all residents, and then everyone is responsible for their own leaf disposal.
That there are complaints about a rising cost for the privileged few should really highlight how foolish it is to dedicate time and resources to it.
Several points:
1) The households who get leaf collection services pay for it in an extra line in their taxes that people who don’t get it don’t pay for.
2) There is a petition process to add collection services. I think I read that parts of Reston just added it a few months ago. If you want this in your neighborhood, start the process.
Some of us work 80 hours a week for 20 plus years and buy big properties for our families and pay much more in property taxes than the average bear.
These properties can generate 50-200 cubic yards or more of leaves. These cannot be left in place, nor handled with electric leaf blowers.
More like the opposite is true. If your property is so big, you have plenty of room to pile the leaves toward the back of your property. Electric blowers are more than adequate to do the job that’s needed. But how about picking up a good ol’ rake, which is much more efficient than any leaf blower, and getting some healthy exercise and fresh air instead of causing more needless noise and pollution?
Compost piles the size of pallets make sense. Ever been to Green Spring Gardens? They have a good example of how to set up a multi-stage composting system using pallets.
However, leaf piles as big as several SUVs will become HAVENS for rats. Ask me how I know! 😉
Leaf pick-up scheduled for Nov 7 in my neighbor – they haven’t picked them up from my house yet – ridiculous – couldn’t keep my job if I was almost 3 weeks late
The government is a monopoly and is not well known for providing high-quality cost-effective timely services.
If you bought leaf pick-up services in the competitive private marketplace and was dissatisfied with one service provider, you could move your business to a better service provider.
However, you know best. Certainly, Supervisor Jimenez, while working to make the current government leaf pick-up services permanent will also ensure stringent service level standards are instituted that result in mass firings of career government employees if they do not meet the standards.
Who gets fired from a government job? Nobody.
This whole exchange is pretty funny. On the one hand, you have people whose noses are out of joint because they don’t have leaf collection and believe everyone in the county should have leaf collection, and appeared to be unaware that those folks who do pay extra on their property taxes.
Then you have the people who have leaf collection and are carping about adherence to the posted schedule. I, for one, have leaf collection in my neighborhood. I am happy to pay a small additional fee for the service and don’t spend my time worrying about when they get picked up, just happy that they do.
Really funny that people are complaining that it takes too long to pick them up! Except that piles of leaves in the road for weeks: Attract Norway rats, cause car accidents by turning roads into the width of a one-way road, and clog drainage pipes causing flooding in low lying areas. SO funny!
I also have the service and honestly don’t mind if it’s a bit late. I’m thankful to Andres that he is fighting for the service.
This year, I checked on line to see the pickup schedule (since the ridiculous street signs are worthless). The Schedule showed that 4 areas began on one day and our area began two days later. There is no way that this schedule could be accurate since you cannot vacuum the leaves in four areas in two days. Again, the management of the leaf pickup gave a date that could not possibly be wrong (for them) so that they couldn’t be criticized. It was also a date that could not possibly be right (for the customer). Something needs to be done with the management of the leaf pickup. The leaf pickup does not need to be abandoned.
I would like to see the County promote in-place mulching of leaves. That returns nutrients to the soil and eliminates the need for leaf pick up service.
Thank you, Leafy Guy!
Why are we paying Jimenez?
If this is all he can accomplish, then he needs to go. Fix up the edge of Fairfax County in Annandale (specifically, Landmark Plaza area).
Mr. Jimenez: Thank you for pushing to keep leaf pick services indefinitely. It is one of the services I care most about, and it is essential in my wooded neighborhood. If they are raising the fees, then as your constituent, I expect you to keep them accountable to improve service accordingly. I also hope someone is talking to the other localities who offer it to see how they are doing it. Thanks.
The leaf collection process is irretrievably broken. Although the leaf tax has been raised, the resources required to promptly collect the ever expanding piles of leaves haven’t materialized. The leaves I raked into my gutter during the first week of November are now at the bottom of the huge leaf pile that’s accumulated since then.
From what I can determine, the vacuuming trucks are still working half way up Sleepy Hollow Rd. from my street. I understand that some of you posters are seemingly content to accept any service you’re offered regardless of how overdue it is. However, that doesn’t represent value for money. Particularly if, like me, you’ve had to rake the same wind blown leaves back into the gutter several times.
I’m baffled about why Supervisor Jiminez proposes to continue this service when it’s obviously a failed exercise. Since I’m not looking forward to continuing this annual exercise in frustration, the next leaf collection will be my last. After those leaves are finally collected, I’ll be disposing of my leaves by other means.
Just burn the leaves. Many of us with larger properties are able to do this legally. I’ve been doing it for years. Just don’t do it on a windy day, and do it one small pile at a time.
Uh, where do you live?
Good ol rake? It’s clear you don’t understand the volume being discussed here. That’s like saying… empty a swimming pool with a coffee mug.