Trustee Jim Taglia rightfully requests resident input on curbside leaf collection. On this and other budget decisions, I submit that the board should consider not just cost but also resident benefit, including realistic assessment of service alternatives.
Leaf collection lends itself to such analysis. According to the March 8 Wednesday Journal article on the Village Board President forum, Oak Park spent $212,000 on leaf collection in 2019 and $28,198 less in 2020, so approximately $184,000 last year. Oak Park has 23,193 households living in various structures from single-family homes to 50+ unit apartment blocks (see www.towncharts.com). An analysis of the residential housing distribution suggests that Oak Park has somewhere around 12,000 housing structures, most with a yard and trees nearby that drop leaves. For each housing structure, Oak Park spends around $184,000/12,000 = $15.33 or $2.56 per structure for each of the six collection weeks.
To replicate the village leaf pickup, each resident with a lawn must purchase paper yard waste bags ($2.22 for five at Menards) and affix one green Waste Management sticker per bag ($2.50 each). From a pure cost perspective, residents cannot even fill one bag let alone five, 10 or even more required to remove the same curbside leaf volume evident around town every autumn.
While not as straightforward an analysis, I daresay our consolidated village leaf collection has a smaller carbon footprint than the alternative. Despite dodging leaf piles while driving and the related parking challenges, trucks idling in our alleys for bag pickup cannot beat the leaf pile consolidation and dump truck removal.
For a good analogy, consider shipping bulk freight by train rather than a fleet of trucks. Trains have incredible scale that make them four times more fuel efficient than trucks. Our scaled leaf collection should have much greater efficiency than bag pickup in our alleys.
Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla states that “people should just keep their leaves on their lawn.” Her constituents disagree as the large curbside leaf piles every autumn suggest broad participation in a program that has clear resident benefit.
Sean Kelley, Oak Park