Town considers bylaw to curb leaf and grass blowing

EAGLE STAFF

The town should have a new tool to use in the spring against people blowing leaves and grass into the street.

Staff asked for a bylaw after receiving complaints about the practice by those who’d rather not rake them up and bag them, during the Nov. 3 council meeting.

Some complaints arrived shortly after the street sweeper had passed, Bob Bors said.

“Typically, between the leaves falling and the first snow, we might get the town done once,” public works superintendent Bors said about street sweeping.

Although the Loraas pickups of compostable yard waste have ended for the season, people may still take leaves and other compostable material to a spot beside the public works yard. They’ll remain there until the spring, Bors said, answering a question from councillor Greg Carlson.

It’s a Loraas decision to end compost pickup at the end of October, chief administrative assistant Amanda Bors said, suggesting an amendment to the nuisance abatement bylaw by the spring, as blowing leaves doesn’t disobey any current bylaw.

A bylaw prohibits people from blowing snow onto the street, and two or three complainants suggested that the town should have a bylaw against doing so with leaves and grass clippings, Bob Bors said.

Bylaw enforcement officer Dennis Ogg said he’d talked to about six people who had been doing it “and the street sweeper had just gone through there.”

He expects more deer moving into town as winter approaches.

Birds have torn up garbage bags, looking for food, and people shouldn’t take bags out until the morning when it’s picked up to avoid that, if they aren’t using secure containers, Ogg indicated.

“We have a very detailed bylaw” about the containers that residents should use, Bob Bors said.

A private contractor removed the poplar tree on Herschel Place, he said. The town didn’t have a lift needed, he explained. Councillors had approved removing the tree at town expense during their previous meeting.

Staff had also begun building a new road in the cemetery to join two areas “and allow us to open up another 52 plots,” he said. Staff had also begun draining the sewage lagoon.

Earlier, staff helped with finishing the changes in the AGT Centre, building new benches for the players and penalty boxes and installing framework for glass for the heated seating area, he said.

“It will be fully enclosed again” when new glass arrives, Bors said. That work wasn’t part of the contract that covered most other changes at the arena, he said.

“The curve of the boards changed . . . and it wasn’t in the contract to re-enclose” the area, he said.