Winston Salem Times

City crews plan to start collecting leaves on Monday, Oct. 30, in quadrants one and two. Quadrant one is the area roughly east of U.S. 52 and New Walkertown Road. Quadrant two is the area south of U.S. 421 and west of U.S. 52.

Collection will continue clockwise to quadrants three in the western, and four in the northern part of the city, after quadrants one and two have been collected. Collection will continue until trucks have made three passes through each neighborhood.

The city has designed a collection plan that is anticipated to make crews more agile in collecting leaves this year, said Assistant City Manager Aaron King.

“Last year we had a number of trucks break down, a higher than usual volume of leaves fall earlier in the season, inclement weather and staffing shortages, all of which contributed to collections falling behind,” King said. 

This year the city has a total of 24 trucks compared to 17 last year. The city will also have 12 automated trucks in service, which brings the total number of crews to 36, more than doubling the city’s resources. Collecting two quadrants at once is expected to make collections more effective, King said.

Residents can look up their quadrant on the city’s website: www.CityOfWS.org/606/Leaf-Routes to anticipate when trucks will be passing through their neighborhood, King said. The city also plans to post weekly updates on CityOfWS.org which will show in greater detail the areas where trucks will be collecting. Residents can also access leaf collection information on the Winston-Salem Collects app.

Residents who do not have access to a computer can call CityLink at 311 and a CityLink agent will look up their estimated collection date. 

 To ensure the best leaf collection experience, follow these guidelines:

• Do rake leaves to the edge of the yard, behind the curb and not in the street. 
• Do include leaves only in your leaf pile. Do not include sticks, rocks and other debris in your pile as it may damage equipment and impact leaf collection and your estimated collection time. 
• Do not park vehicles on, in front of or near leaves. This will impact leaf collection and your estimated collection time.
• Do not put leaves on a tarp or over a storm drain. 
• Do not burn leaves inside the city of Winston-Salem limits.

 Keep in mind that leaf collection is provided to single-family houses only. For year-round leaf collection, put leaves in a city yard waste cart. Call CityLink 311 for information about how to get a yard waste cart.

Original source can be found here.