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For nearly 30 years residents in North Branch have had their seasonal leaf debris vacuumed up in spring and fall.  You rake the leaves into your property street-frontage and the city makes the leaves disappear.

The city council has begun discussions on whether this should be discontinued, a fee be charged, or if the program should be left automatic, on a schedule as-is.  

The question is one of fiscal efficiency. A vacuum truck is a couple hundred thousand dollars,  and North Branch might be looking at needing a replacement— which initiated conversation about the program itself.

Public Works Director Matt Fraley told council the program requires $62,000 to run annually. Trucks travel 3,000 miles on their leaf pick-up routes and an estimated 450 staff hours are needed. Going off of GPS data from just this spring’s leaf collection; there were 681 parcels who participated out of 4,900 properties within the city. 

Fraley is new to North Branch and he added that the fall season leaf program data was not immediately available. The mayor offered his opinion that the usage statistics will probably double in the fall.

Council asked about companies that can provide leaf pick-up.  

They asked if the vacuum program is no longer available will the city need to expand access at the compost site?  

The city of Lino Lakes charges a fee and a container for leaf pickup. Is this something North Branch could look into, the council asked.

Mayor Kevin Schieber suggested doing a survey to gauge the public’s support of the options. 

Council member Jeff Goulet remarked that for a program that’s active a few weeks of the year, it is expensive.

Council member Patrick Meacham asked for data on where the several hundred personnel hours could be applied if the program is halted, and staff could be directed to other tasks. Might the city avoid adding a position entirely?

The council agreed to get answers to some of these issues and the program will be back on the August 12 city council agenda.

Staff was also given an assignment to draft an interim ordinance to be considered that would place a moratorium on high energy-use developments, like data centers.  The council agreed it wants to “get ahead” of any future controversial applications.  There is no definition of a high use utility project in city code and no regulatory language now.

A future meeting was set to discuss Automated License Plate Readers.

Mayor Schieber mused on the social media chatter he’s encountered recently and said the city needs to respond to statements and claims that are floating around.  For one thing— the readers the city recently approved to be installed were funded using state “Public Safety” monies the legislature appropriated to law enforcement agencies with a window of two years (or the end of 2026) to spend.  The readers are not relying on local levy dollars.

The informal meeting will be August 5 at 6 p.m.

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