Fall leaves may be beautiful while changing colors, but they are keeping Winona Lake and Warsaw street crews busy picking them up before winter comes.
Winona Lake Street Department employees began picking leaves up Oct. 1. Warsaw street crews began picking up leaves Monday.Residents are advised to rake leaves to the curb and not in the street.
Leaves are collected from Winona Lake streets and alleys and are dropped off at a pit on Freedom Lane.
Pete O'Connell, Winona Lake public works director, said the department has four employees picking up leaves Mondays through Fridays.
He said the department is picking up and average of three loads of leaves with two trucks each day. The four street department employees will continue to pick up leaves until snow falls.
O'Connell advised that leaves should be in piles to the curb without tree limbs and sticks.
Scott Stanley, Winona Lake Street Department employee, used a leaf vacuum to pick up leaves Wednesday afternoon.
"On Mondays we call the leaf pile a leaf bomb because there is a larger amount of leaves to be picked up in the town," Stanley joked.
He said the department works an average of 10 hours a day to pick up leaves in the town.
Warsaw Street Superintendent Lacy Francis said Warsaw Department of Public Works began phasing in leaf crews for the leaf season Monday.
Additional trucks and crews will be added as warranted with the full crew beginning the beginning of November with five trucks.
Leaves must be free from grass, sticks, brush and trash in order for the leaf truck to pick them up, Francis said.
Leaves in the alley will be picked up at the end of the leaf season, typically late November or early December.
