It's leaf season again in Knoxville and that means that the regular bi-weekly yard waste collection schedule is on hold - at least until February.

Beginning Nov. 1 - and continuing until Feb. 1, 2007 - the City of Knoxville's Public Service Division is operating on customized schedules for each of the city's six service areas. Those schedules are designed by the managers of each service area to make sure most of the leaves are off the ground by Christmas.

"The manager determines the schedule based on past experience (with leaf pickup) and on what is currently occurring in their area," said Bob Whetsel, the city's public service director. But Whetsel said that by the end of leaf season the public service department would have picked up leaves in every neighborhood in Knoxville on at least four occasions.

City residents, however, can still get a general time frame when leaves will be picked up in their neighborhoods. "You can call 311 to get an approximate schedule when we will be in your neighborhood," Whetsel said.

The city uses trucks equipped with suction devices to pick up leaves and they need to be raked to within five feet of the curb for pickup.

Please don't rake them into the street and try not to block drainage ditches if possible.

If residents bag leaves Waste Connection, the city's trash pick-up contractor, will take up to five bags of leaves with normal trash pick-up. They won't take more than five so don't try and slip that sixth or seventh bag into the mix.

Brush collection continues during leaf season but it will be done with limited resources.
"I would encourage people not to cut brush this time of year," Whetsel said. If someone has to cut brush, though, they can call 311 to report to the city that there is brush that needs to be picked up and public service will pick it up as soon as it can.

Please do not mix brush collections in with leaf piles because the leaf collection equipment is only designed to pick up leaves. "We collect approximately 8,000 tons of leaves a year," Whetsel said. "That's 25 percent of our yearly total of yard waste."

The bulk of leaf collection takes place between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25.