After a long battle over how the City of Rochester handles their leaf pick-up the Rochester City Council finally made the decision to repeal the yard waste / leaf pickup ordinance that was established in 2014. 

Complaints on the ordinanace were first launched earlier this year. Concerned citizens brought strong emotions and packed the March city council meeting. The leaf ordinance had loosely defined when the city would pick up leaves, so long as they were not raked by a lawn care company. At the March meeting, Lake Manitou resident Sarah Wild shared her views after learning about the ordinance in the fall of 2022 when the city refused to pick up her leaves because she had hired a lawn care company to do the raking. 

Worried about the task at hand, and not wanting to overwhelm city employees with extra work, a modification for the ordinance was tabled several times before council members settled on the repeal during the July Rochester City Council meeting. 

During fall leaf pickup, the Rochester Street Department operates debris loading machines. Due to the age of the machines and the dusty conditions they operate in, it's often difficult to keep all four machines on the streets at all times. Keeping employees and enough heavy equipment operators has also been a recent problem.

Instead of having leaf pick up available any day a week to city residents, the city council agreed that the best way to ensure city employees will not be overwhelmed is by having designated set times for leaf pick up in sections across Rochester. 

A policy has yet to be set on the matter.