That funny because I see no evidence of such clean up. Not only are threes still down but the front of our home has become the catch all of the two blocks. There has been no clean at all on McKinley ave.

Obviously Mr. Lepore does not get out much. If he drove through any neighborhood in town he wouldn't be making such salacious claims. Obviously imcompetence is an abundance in his department if he thinks the clean up is close to finished or perhaps he meant he is close to finished.

@ Toni Headley and the always negative whopeful: Individual obsevations are always subjective. Keep in midn that there are +/- 130 miles of municipal roadways from which debris had to be cleared. If (as per Mr. Lepore's estimate) 75% of the Township is done, there are still 32.5 miles of roads left. These could well include those in and around yoru neighborhood. This is a very labor intense and time consumming process. Be patient.

I'm in the section of town near the Montclair border. There has been no sign of any cleanup in this area.

Don't you know that all the clean up starts up the hill?????

All one has to do is drive Mt. pleasant ave and you know Mr Lepore doesn't get out at all. My one way street is a noway street

@ Chris: Rather obviously, you're unaware that Mt. Pleasant Avenue (a/k/a Route 10) is a state highway and does not come under the purview of the municipality.

And yet the ever incompetent Mayor Parisi and his equally clueless sidekick, Lenny, told all of the residents to put the storm debris curbside and made no distinction of county vs municipal roadways. Why tell people to put the debris curbside if they weren't intending to collect it and furthermore why is Lenny declaring the job done when it is obvious that the job hasn't even begun. There is something wromg here and it is township director trying to snowball the residents with false information.

And now with heavy rains jsut beginning to plague the area the roads are impassible. Great job there Lenny!

It's kind of creepy that someone is using my nj.com username on the West Orange Patch... right 'wohopeful', who posts under westorangevoice on nj.com... and which he stole from someone else. I however, believe that it is smart for the town not to spend EXTRA TAX DOLLARS for storm cleanup. Perhaps we should move our debris closer to the curbs and be patient.

I agree with most of the posters here.
I've seen no evidence of any clean-up since that tree service came thru on November 5 freeing up the power lines so PSE&G could do their work.
Rosemont Terrace, Mayfair Drive, Nestro Road, Ronald Terrace and the Redwood School area are still a mess with piles of tree limbs still in the roads and many limbs still hanging precariously over yards and driveways.

I understand this is a big job but I'm more than disappointed in the Mayor's lack of leadership and public information concerning the clean-up.
Why can't I find anything on the Town website about it?

Real snow is coming in a month or so and if these piles of tree limbs are still in the streets what are the snowplows going to be able to do with them?

"Most of the storm clean up will be cleaned up by this weekend,"
Who are you kidding?

@WOLifer: First, your observations, like anyone else's, are subjective. Exacly what percentage of the Township's 130 miles of municipal roads have you travelled in order to formulate your opinion? The "many tree limbs hanging over yards and driveways" are neither within the purview, nor the responsibility, of the municipality or DPW: they are, sad but true, the responsibility of the homeowner. As to the Mayor's "leadership," I'd say there has been a great deal of it; safeguarding people and property being the first concern and the establishment, staffing and supplying shelters was done incredibly well. A significant amount of information was also disseminated through local media, the Township website (the fron page is changed regularly to reflect curren events) and the reverse 911 system. Do understand that a significant, unplanned and unbudgeted event occurred here and, like it or not, every subsequent action taken comes with a price tag. The Township is picking its fights and spending wisely.

The Mayor has failed to take action on the cleanup necassary and now the township is a mess and the Director fo Public Works is declaring the job done. How supercilious can Lenny Lepore be that he cannot see the mess, he obviously is trying to save his job since he is inept at it. Well the residents of this town from all corners have weighed in and their neighborhoods still are littered with the 10/29 storm debris which the Mayor directed everyone to put curbside. It is time to come clean Mayor Parisi and Lenny Lepore, you both failed and need to start getting your jobs done or be gone.

Our house must be in the remaining 25%. No sign of a cleanup, much less any routine leaf pickup. We're in the lower Gregory section.

To the new wohopeful....puppets and regimes aside... Mayor Parisi's street was just cleared of debris about 10 minutes ago, Lourdes section. And since you're being so critical of this humongous cleanup effort, the likes of which have not been seen before, what would your solution be to solving it, without, of course, costing the taxpayers any more money?

to begin with we need real leadership in this town and not the puppet regime of Parisi and company. The gross negligence and incompetents such as Lenny Lepore need to be the first to go. It is time to clean house at 66 Main Street!

Anyone who can declare that 75% of the town has been cleaned when it is plainly obvious to everyone that it is not the case, is absolutely delirious and should be bagging groceries at the Shop Rites and not being paid hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to tell a lie and not do their job properly. Our puppet Mayor Parisi should refelct on his failures this weekend and resign at the December 6 council meeting.

I believe I asked YOU, WoHo, what you would do if you were in charge of the cleanup, and instead you only posted the usual spew of name calling and ad hominems.

Just FYI-
I filled two cans with branch debris this morning and garbage collection took them.
I have two more ready to go on Wednesday.
I plan on continuing to prune and place as much of my debris out for garbage collection as possible.
g

The debris I'm putting out for garbage collection is from my curbside pile.
I'm pulling out and cutting/pruning the limbs/branches down to size so they fit in my garden debris cans and placing them out for garbage collection.
Just trying to help clear the street before snow falls.
Better than just waiting.
My pile's a little smaller.
g

@WOLifer: If your pile of branches and twigs is "at curbside" and not in the street itself, there's no harm nor foul but, disposing of it in regular garbage just creates an unecessary cost for everyone. We're all better seved by having this debris picked up and recycled.

WOLifer you are to be applauded for taking matters into your own hands and finding a way to clear your street of the hazardous debris which our puppet Mayolr Parisi and his incompetent sidekick Lenny Lepor have been unable and unwilling to deal with.

Puppet Mayor Parisi made sure his street was cleaned up before the Thanksgivign holidays, most likely so the Prism folks had someplace to park when they came over for Thanksgiving dinner.

@ wohopeful: And you are to be applauded for your never ending anonymous and nonsensical comments.

Hate to burst the bitching and complaining bubble...But early Friday morning the DPW was on the job and my area has been cleaned and cleared of all storm debris. I'm sure ours isn't the only area (although Gary I have not driven the 130 miles of road to check this out) It is a huge job and the DPW employees should be praised for their efforts

@ Alf: Then we're in complete agreement; it's a tough job and the Township's employees are doing a stellar job. Common sense and patience should remain the rule of the day.

@Gary - you mention above that yard waste should be put curbside to be picked up by the DPW instead of being picked up by garbage collection. How exactly does this work? Do you need to call DPW for a pickup? My neighbor routinely puts out yard waste into those brown lawn bags and they sit curbside for weeks until eventually the bags get so wet and beat up that the stuff just falls out and blows all over. I have never seen the DPW pick up this stuff. In fact, the WO town website actually tells you that yard waste can go in the regular trash.

@ Mac: These guidelines are provided on the Township's website...

LAWN/GARDEN DEBRIS: This debris is collected in limited quantities with household garbage. Grass and small hedge clippings must be placed in plastic bags or garbage containers weighing less than 50 pounds each. Small branches, bushes and
small shrubs must be tied in bundles cut in 4 feet lengths and weighing less than 50 pounds each. Large branches and tree limbs are not permitted in refuse collection but may be brought to the Environmental Center or disposed of privately. Leaves are not
permitted.

2011 Leaf Collection Program

West Orange’s Fall 2011 Leaf Collection Program will consist of the collection of both bagged leaves and loose leaves placed along the curb and gutter of all public municipal streets.

Bagged leaves will be collected from October 1 thru December 31, 2011. Leaves may only be placed in brown biodegradable paper bags which are available at the Public Works Building, 25 Lakeside Avenue, the Municipal Building, 66 Main Street and the Recycling Center, 590 Mt. Pleasant Avenue. Their cost is five (5) bags for $2.00. Bagged leaves will be collected weekly in accordance with the schedule below. Bags containing materials other than leaves will not be collected.

That's exactly what I thought. For the majority of the year any kind of yard waste must go into the garbage collection. The only time they recycle this stuff is in the fall during leaf collection. So I'll have to tell my neighbor that putting brown lawn bags out in July is a waste of time :)

Put anything you wish to get rid of in black plastic bags at the curb and they take it no questions asked.

@wohopeful: Typical of the kind of post you routinely make and clear evidence of your lack of civic-mindedness and concern for the environment. While the average refuse collector has neither the skills nor time to act as a crime scene investigator, everyone has a legal, moral and ethical obligation to source separate their refuse and see it that it is properly disposed of. "Put(ting) anything you wish to get rid of in black plastic bags at the curb and they'll take it no questions asked" is the mindset of a moron.

Moreover, what woho says is untrue. I have witnessed collectors tear a hole in a black trash bag to quickly verify contents, and seen them leave behind a bag that did not comply. Once it was a neighbor's bag of leaves and twigs, and once it was remodeling debris in excess of the monthly allotment. So tossing anything you please in a trash bag and dropping it at the curb is not only irresponsible -- it may in fact be refused pickup.

FYI:
Good news!
DPW came and cleared Nestro Road yesterday, Monday, Nov 27.
Looks like a very good job..road feels strangely wide and clear..Yeah!

The bad news is there were orange cones in the street in front of my house to keep cars from driving over a live power line still on the ground [this is about 5pm] the line ran unguarded across my lawn to my house.
Up above I could see a 3-4 ft piece of framing hanging from near the peak of my roof and could now see the insulation above my upstairs closet.

No note on the door, no message on the phone..
What happened here?

-Apparently, when they were trimming the town tree in my front yard they accidentally pulled down my power line.

Well, I still had power and immediately called PSE&G to come put the live power line back up.
PSE&G took about an hour to come and successfully, but temporarily, attached the power line to my house [I need to have the framing repaired to have it permanently fixed].

I called DPW this morning, Tuesday, Nov 28, and asked if they knew anything about my power line being pulled down during their work on Nestro Road yesterday.
At first Vicky said “No, no one reported anything like that..” [I asked if she could please ask someone else..]
A couple minutes later she came back and said “Yes, they had knocked down my power line yesterday while working and had called PSE&G and that I should call Business Administration for an insurance claim form.”

..to be continued.

Sorry to hear about your troubles and it is absolutely unconscionable that you were not notified about the damage to your home. Yet another example of the incompetent management of the DPW allowing harm to a taxpayers property and trying to hide it.

But on a fortunate note for you, now is the opportunity to make sure you and your family are made whole again and potentially get yourself a new roof as a result of the framing damage. Find a good lawyer and contractors experienced in working these types of claims before you file your claim to ensure you get the maximum payout you deserve. No doubt that your taxes have already paid for it hundredfold.