City gives update on leaf clean up project

JACKSON, Tenn. — One month ago, the City of Jackson set out on a new goal: clean up the leaves around Jackson and make the streets less prone to flooding.

“We’re working on mapping these to see where all we’ve been, so that we have a record too, that we’ve been there,” said Alex Reed, special assistant to Mayor Scott Conger.

The map shows the areas they’ve cleaned so far.

“[When] we first started, we had the capacity to do maybe 10 to 12 yards a day. About three crews running over a six month period, that’s about 3,000 yards they could do,” Reed said. “When more rain would come, it would wash these leaves into the storm drain. Situations like that could cause flooding in yards, flooding in roads, and that’s something that nobody wants to see.”

Reed says they are still pretty far away from their ultimate goal of 20,000 yards getting cleaned up, but he does say that efficiency has increased in recent weeks.

“Now they’re able to do 12 to 15 loads a day on four leaf teams. We’ve been able to double the amount they do to about 6,000 with that,” Reed said.

Reed says they’re still committed to the project due to how many residents called in when the city asked about the need for leaf clean up.

“In four days we got 300. That’s when we asked for them,” he said. “Set an expectation on what we’re going to do too. What are we able to do with what we have? If the maximum we can do is 6,000, then we have to find other ways to maximize our time there,” Reed said.

The initial rollout was so successful that they’re planning on keeping it going past this year.