Leaf-Dumping Fee Upsets Contractors

ANDOVER, Mass. – Local landscape contractors who have counted for years on free access to the town's leaf-composting area to dispose of their annual fall bounty say the town's new $1,500 access fee is so onerous it will drive them away from providing fall leaf-cleanup services.

Two weeks ago the Board of Selectmen adopted the flat fee in an attempt to discourage out-of-town dumpers, says Brian Major, chairman of the Board of Selectmen. The fee will go into effect Oct. 15.

''What we were seeing was a huge increase in the volume of leaves we were taking in at our leaf dump, much of it coming from out-of-town landscapers," Major says. ''We adopted the flat fee simply because it is easier to administer."

Residents will still be allowed to drop off carloads of leaves at no charge, but any vehicles with commercial plates outfitted for leaf removal will have to pay the annual fee, according to Town Manager Reginald ''Buzz" Stapczynski.

But Steve Coates, a longtime town resident and owner of Green Ridge Landscaping, suggests a per-load charge in the range of $10 to $15 might be more lucrative for the town because he can reasonably explain that charge to his customers.

''At $1,500 I am seriously considering telling my customers I can no longer do fall cleanups because it is too expensive for them," Coates says. ''I only do 10 to 15 cleanups a year, which means I would have to charge an additional $100 on top of the $200 to $300 I am charging for the service in the first place."

Coates says he is also angry that the selectmen have imposed an across-the-board fee because of a problem with out-of-towners.

''As I see it, the out-of-town businesses who aren't even picking up leaves in Andover have ruined it for the rest of us," he says.

Michael Colombosian, who runs M.J. Colombo Landscaping, says he would continue providing the service but that it would be less convenient for him to haul the leaves back to his own yard than use the town's dump.

''That's a lot of money all at once, so I guess I will have to bring them back here and compost them myself," Colombosian says.

Randy Pickersgill, who manages the town's 3-acre leaf-composting area on High Plain Road as Andover's superintendent of parks, grounds and forestry, says the volume of leaves the town took in last year increased by one-third.

''By November last year we were overwhelmed with leaves, and you couldn't move around," Pickersgill says. ''The facility just couldn't handle it."

It takes about a year for the leaves to break down into compost and, while Pickersgill says the town has no problem getting rid of the resulting loam conditioner, the town paid $33,000 last year to have the leaves ground up into small enough pieces to compost properly.

''Not only don't we have the space for all the leaves we're getting, it is costing us to grind them up," he says.

Judith Shaw, whose family business, Wildwood Nurseries, provides leaf-cleanup services, says the fee could help her business, because Wildwood Nurseries operates its own leaf dump.

Pickersgill says he developed the fee based on a survey of other area communities' fee structures.

Pickersgill says it is also difficult for the town to track where the leaves are coming from, so charging all commercial landscape contractors seemed more fair.

''We wanted a fee that separates those who are the real services from those who just do this on the weekend as a side thing," Pickersgill says.

Major says the selectmen agreed when they voted in the new fee they would reconsider whether it is working at the end of this leaf pickup season.

''I am not opposed to a per-load fee structure, but the fact is every time you increase the number of transactions between the town and the landscapers, that increases our administrative costs," Major says.