Davison on leaf and limb

Athens-Clarke County Mayor Heidi Davison was kind enough to give some additional insight into the leaf and limb pickup response

Echoing the observations made by Jim Corley, Athens-Clarke County's solid waste director, Davison said the volume of tonnage was far beyond what the community expected and what it had previously dealt with. She conceded that it had been frustrating to have so much debris accumulate across the community, but that the system was simply overwhelmed.

There appear to be, however, some hints of confusion. Corley recommended against waiving the landfill fees for leaf and limb delivery, but also pointed out that such a waiver was beyond his control. He told me that only the mayor and commission could issue such a waiver, thus implying that it was that body's responsibility to do so if it so desired.

Davison responded by pointing out that such decisions would fall under the guidance of staff as they are 'day-to-day operational questions that are handled by staff and management' and that the commission 'trust(s) these individuals to use their expertise and experience to make critical decisions.'

She concurred with Corley, though, that a waiver would have negatively impacted the community's enterprise fund, which is supported by the fees from the landfill. Likewise, she said that even with a waiver, there is no way to ensure that folks would take advantage of the opportunity ...

One way or another, whether paying for the use of private vehicles, waiving fees, or assigning personnel the costs to get the job done still exceeded the department's budget. I honestly don't think having a couple of people checking the vehicles would have necessarily been a good use of time. First of all, we have no idea how many would have personally delivered their debris, which could potentially have left staff waiting and the sheer size of the piles, assuming it was brought by individuals, probably would make it difficult to check for any foreign material.

Davison said the usual spring maintenance of yards added to the already large piles, and she also suggested that lawn service companies contributed to the problem. She said that 'some people took advantage of the situation' which compounded the problem ...

Lawn maintenance crews, who are by law required to remove debris from properties they service, simply left the leaf and limb behind knowing it would be picked up by staff thereby also increasing the amount to be hauled away. Boom trucks experienced failure on and off throughout the process.

Davison did praise staff for their response, particularly with their immediate action in partnering with other departments to remove fallen leaf and limb, as well as downed wires, from roads in the days following the storm. Once that job was complete, they set out to sweep through the neighborhoods one-by-one - working six days a week - until all debris was removed.

Overall, I think the staff did a good job. ... despite the length of time to complete the work and some level of frustration, I'd say staff worked hard and performed well under some tough circumstances.