Cookeville Public Works Begins Coordinating Leaf Pickup

Cookeville Public Works began its annual leaf pickup around city neighborhoods Monday.

The leaf pickup will be using three, four-man crews, scheduling routes largely based on demand. Cookeville Director of Public Works Blake Mayo said leaf pickup is very important this time of year for cleanliness and safety. Mayo said that citizens are encouraged to rake their leaves in a neat pile beside their curb, and remove any other debris.

“The biggest issues are of course putting them next to any kind of lines or things we can’t get the vacuums under and around,” Mayo said. “Also on top of any kind of utility lids that can be picked up with these very powerful vacuums and then of course we want to keep them out of the street because these things can get very slick and hazardous for folks driving.”

Mayo said to try and keep leaves out of ditches, and away from any mailboxes, meter lids, or poles. Mayo said keeping foreign objects like sticks out of the leaf piles is appreciated as it will tear up vacuums. Mayo said citizens can expect leaf pickup to come by their residences every four to six weeks on average.

“How we do it is we’ll just systematically work our way through the city,” Mayo said. “Rather than taking calls, we’ll start on one side and then just work all the way through the typical areas picking up as we go.”

Mayo said that if citizens choose to bag their leaves they can give the city a call and they will specifically come to pick up bagged leaves.

“It’s quite important,” Mayo said. “In fact, we’ll actually get temporary employees to make sure we have at least our four, three-man crews running.”