Scott Phillips shares best, worst parts of fall leaf collection

Scott Phillips might not recommend jumping in big piles of fall leaves.

Leaf collection season in Chapel Hill officially began Monday — and Phillips said he and his crew usually find some unexpected items mixed in.

Snakes, toilet lids, hypodermic needles and even dirty diapers have been sucked up from the piles by Phillips’ giant leaf vacuum, a wide tube attached to a truck.

“We find a lot of interesting things in leaf piles, things you don’t want to find,” he said.

For street truck drivers, leaf collection brings a welcome change of pace from their usual road patching duties.

“I guess the best part is being outside, not being shut up in an office all day,” Phillips said.

Phillips has been driving a street truck in Chapel Hill for five years.

“Scott’s a real good worker,” Greg Ling, streets supervisor with the Department of Public Works. “He’s one of them that, depending on our needs, sometimes he drives and sometimes he works the ground.”

He said Phillips’ experience working the ground is an advantage to the men he works with, since he knows the best way to position the truck.

“The driver has a lot to do with how easy it is to collect the leaves,” he said. “If the driver knows what he’s doing and has good maneuvering, it saves the shoot guys a lot of effort.”

On a typical day, Phillips drives the leaf vacuum truck while two of his co-workers operate the vacuum tube.

“One of our difficulties is getting rid of the leaves we collect,” Ling said. “A lot of the time it takes longer driving leaves to get rid of them.”

Leaves are taken to a mulch dealer, J.V. Brockwell Trucking, and can also be delivered to individual residents who want them.

Around Halloween, Phillips said crews often find pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns in leaf piles.

“If people throw pumpkins in the leaf pile, it’ll suck the entire pumpkin up,” said Phillips. “But these machines can suck the bricks out of the sidewalk.”

He said having the leaf machines is a big convenience for town residents.

Phillips said that other cities, like Burlington, where he resides, have to bag their leaves and only collect three times a year.

Chapel Hill leaf collection continues through February, and the crews will not stop collecting due to bad weather.

Phillips said working outside is both the best and worst aspect of his job. Come rain or shine, the crews are out collecting leaves.

“The weather is kind of a double-edged sword,” he said.

But Mark Shrader, a street crew supervisor, said Phillips never complains on the job.

“He’s one of the top people in my department,” Shrader said.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.