By Erin Delmore
Correspondent
“Let’s not use the leaf blowers to blow around blades of grass,” said Maplewood Mayor Victor DeLuca.
That’s the crux of a new ordinance in Maplewood. The town is banning commercial leaf blowers starting tomorrow through the end of August.
“We’ve just seen these situations where you have landscaping crews come in and all of a sudden they strap on four of these leaf blowers and chase around blades of grass,” DeLuca said.
DeLuca says landscapers don’t need to use the high-decibel blowers in summer, when residents are more likely to spend time in their homes or yards and be bothered by the noise. Then, there’s the allergy issue.
Some residents say they don’t want this stuff — grass clippings — getting kicked up into the air. But the landscapers we spoke with said they have two options: use a leaf blower to move it back onto the lawn or use a rake or a broom, which leaves some behind anyway.
“Absolutely we need them more during the spring and fall to do our spring and fall cleanups — as far as cleaning up branches, leaves, things like that — but during the summer months, it’s not about grass clippings. Nobody’s blowing off the lawn. It’s just about clearing the sidewalks and keeping everything clean,” said Jody Shilan, executive director of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association.
Shilan’s association represents 550 companies in New Jersey — around 10,000 professionals, including contractors who work in Maplewood.
“We talked about it at our board meeting that if it was a noise ban, then everyone would have to abide by a noise ban. But it’s not. If it was just blowers, then nobody should be able to use blowers. It’s specifically for commercial landscape contractors who use it and that, I think, is unfair and that we’re being targeted,” said Shilan. “People have talked about, why can’t you do it with a broom? The reality is, it will take 10, 20 times longer to sweep your driveway with a broom than it will with a blower. You could use water and a hose, but that’s just wasting water, which is inappropriate as well, so there really is no good solution,” he said.
“If you have a leaf blower, this’ll take about two minutes to clear off but if you weren’t using a leaf blower, you’d have to use a broom, maybe a rake, and a shovel to clean it up, so it’d end up taking 15 to 20 minutes to clean up,” said Gregory Goldstein of Green Meadows Landscape Contractors.
More time means more manpower at a higher cost to the landscaping company, which, they say, could get passed on to the customer.
DeLuca stressed this isn’t a permanent ban. He called it a 90-day trial period at which point, he hopes both sides will come to a resolution. And he added he doesn’t expect the town will ever ban leaf blowing year-round. The need is plenty. After all, it is Maplewood.