HELENA — Autumn is here and the leaves are changing color and starting to fall. The fallen leaves can look really pretty around the city of Helena, but it can cause issues for town maintenance. Public Information Officer Jake Garcin says some people may not be aware of some of the problems fallen leaves can cause through winter as well as into next spring.
“Some of the challenges we face is too many leaves end up in the streets, we risk equipment getting broken, or simply not being able to clean the streets well enough, and then leaves are frozen and end up sticking around for the remainder of the year,” said Garcin.
If any residents have any urgent questions or need assistance with leaf disposal, Garcin says to contact the city’s appropriate departments.
"Especially with leaf disposal, we do have green waste disposal, yard waste disposal at the transfer station year-round, but there are some ways you can have bags of leaf’s picked up from your home if you need help,” said Garcin.
The city does offer curbside leaf disposal by request. The city staff can pick up less than 80 pounds with no more than 12 bags per request. Permit holders will have the weight deducted from their annual allotment. Maintaining your property and properly collecting yard waste helps the city more than you may realize.
“We appreciate everybody doing their part and helping to keep not only their yards clean of leaves,” said Garcin, “but also the sidewalks and streets cleaned, because it does impact a lot more than just our streets this time of year, it does affect our streets going into the winter and next spring so we really appreciate it.”
