Join the discussion with your elected officials starting now.

Good morning.

Uh, welcome you all.

Great to see you.

Thank you for being here for Mayor Council.

Um, we will start with introductions, and then we have both a general session and an executive session calendar.

Excited to get through both.

Would you care to start us off those distinguished gentlemen from South Denver?

Thank you, Mayor Paul Cash from South Denver.

Good morning, we had a sword, District Five.

Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District Four.

Good morning to Manny Sandoval, Northwest Denver District Five.

Welcome.

Happy Tuesday morning.

We will start off with announcements.

If anyone has announcements they want to share for fellow members or for the listening audience at home.

Look at that.

Everybody's ready to get to work.

Councilman, no updates on do you hockey or anything you want to put in?

No, nothing, nothing there, but I would do want to uh let folks know that the uh final in-person meeting of our your city or voice community engagement community empowerment process will take place.

I believe it's tomorrow night, uh, the 15th at Cook Park Recreation Centers.

Six to eight, I believe it is, and uh 7100 uh Charter Creek drive south.

Uh be there.

It's great discussion.

We need people's opinions on how to convince the city to do a better job of supporting the neighborhood groups.

Wonderful.

Thank you, Mark.

Well, I would like to thank uh the president for hosting me very early Sunday morning uh mile high veterans at 1717 Federal for the Broncos watch party.

Thank you for all you that came out early morning for the London game.

That was a great event, and thanks for staying to the end to guarantee a victory despite some folks who wanted to leave early.

Um the president was not having that.

All right, we are gonna jump in uh to a presentation from our Dottie team on leaf drop.

Everyone is doing the same thing, which is watching the leaves fall in your yard and figure out how to how to pick them up and clean them up and put your children to work.

And so we're gonna give you a good guidance on how to manage that.

Thanks so much, Nina, for being here.

I'll give it over to you.

Good morning, everyone.

Thanks for having me.

I'm excited to talk about Leaf Drop 2025.

Um, so just gonna share um a bit about our drop sites that have opened and some friendly reminders to be a successful leaf dropper.

Um, so first, what is leaf drop?

It is one of our annual seasonal diversion events.

We do this event in partnership with the City Forester office, with the Office of the City Forester.

Um, and it is a uh opportunity for residents to drop off leaves and pumpkins at convenient drop sites throughout the city, which we then transport directly to our complex processor.

So our weekday drop sites have officially opened.

We opened those last Monday.

Um we have three standing weekday sites that um are open through November 21st, 8 to 2, 8 am to 2 p.m.

So our Cherry Creek Transfer Station using the Jewell Avenue entrance, and that is a different entrance than our drop site.

Um at the Jewel Avenue entrance, we have that set up for you.

Um, the Havana Nursery on Smith Road and Havana, as well as our Central Platte campus using the Bayod entrance.

Um you just go past the animal shelter just a bit, you'll see that site set up for you there.

And then we'll also do pop-up events and some additional sites November 8th and 9th, that's a Saturday and Sunday.

Um so we'll have some um additional drop sites, Bruce Randolph High School, Transfer Station again, Kennedy High School, Sloan's Lake, and Veterans Park.

Um a few friendly reminders for leaf drop.

So, first reminder is that leaves must be in favor of yard waste bags, so you know your kind of standard leaf bag.

Um, we do not accept leaves in plastic bags.

So if you are bagging your leaves in plastic bags, please um make sure to empty those out on site, or better yet, you can download a coupon to receive a free five pack of compostable yard waste bags and through a partnership with Ace Hardware.

Um so right up there, there is a direct link to find that leaf drop or find that coupon for those free bags.

Um also if you go to Denvergov.org/slash leaf leaf drop, just the main leaf drop page.

Well, we hyperlink to that coupon there.

And just make sure to check which Ace Hardware stores are participating.

So you go to the race stores.

Um because we are transporting all of these leaves directly um from the event to our compost processor.

We don't want those plastic bags because plastic bags are not compostable.

So we ask you to either empty them out or use those paper bags.

Um, next reminder this is for Denver residents, residential use only, and this is not for commercial uh customers or landscapers, you know, things like that.

This is for residential use.

Uh similarly, we only take hitch trailers, so no more than six feet in length, and we only take those at the Cherry Creek transfer station site.

That's the only site that is equipped to handle those from, you know, just a safety infrastructure side.

Um, but a reminder that at on the drop site side, which is you know open throughout the year, we do not take hitch trailers there.

It's just for the seasonal divert for the uh diversion event here on the Jewel Avenue side.

Um please only drop off leaves on designated times and locations.

Please do not drop off leaves at Veterans Park tomorrow.

That would be considered illegal dumping.

Um please wait for our designated times and locations.

Um and then we also ask for residents to separate branches and other compostable materials.

We do want this to just be leaves and pumpkins and twigs and you know other things that get raked up are fine, but we do try to separate the leaves only for this leaves and pumpkins only for this event.

Um reminder that branches are accepted in your compost cart and at the Tray Creek drop site at the recycling drop off as long as they are no more than four feet in length and four feet, four inches in diameter.

But for leaf drop, we just want as much as possible leaves only.

Um similar to the plastic bags, we ask residents not to use twine or staples to secure those bags, and those materials are not compostable.

Um so we want you to just roll and crimp your bag to secure it.

Um, and then just an additional reminder to please uh don't rake or blow your leaves into the streets because that can cause issues for our street sweeper and storm drainage systems.

So either take advantage of our leaf drop program, compost cart, or um you can uh just leave them in place too.

That's another great option, too, to let your, you know, your lawns weather uh over winter.

Um and then an additional reminder that you can compost your leaves year-round.

So uh leaf drop is great, a great opportunity.

It's very uh well-utilized program, especially this time of year.

Denver has so many great trees that you know, we could also have a lot of paper yard waste bags full of leaves.

Um, but leaves are accepted in your compost cards year round.

You can just put them directly into the cart, you can bag them, you don't have to bag them, and just an additional reminder that all of our solid waste customers can request a compost card at any time.

Um they are included in your uh solid waste services and no additional charge.

So fall yardway season is a great time to start composting if if you have not already done so.

Um we can take all yard waste, leaves and weeds, and you know, your garden, your tomato plants that are getting done with their useful life, those can all go straight into the compost cart.

Um, and um, while we were here talking about organic material, we figured we would just give a compost update.

Um, so far we are at 70 over 75,500 compost customers citywide, um about 42% participation, and we have seen a pretty significant increase in compost tonnage.

So year to date, we're up 55% compared to uh year to date last year.

Um we have uh so far composted or collected 17,000 tons of compost this year.

Last year, in the entire year, we collected a little over 16,000.

So we have already surpassed our tonnage from last year, and then a reminder in case the last slide didn't sell you, reminder that you can sign up at any time to get a compost cart by either calling 311 or using the request function on your Denver utilities online resident portal.

Um, and we you can get a cart at any time.

So if you request it now, there's still time to get all of your fall yard cleanup in the carts.

Um and that is it, except for a one additional reminder that rebates are available for solid waste services.

We like to just throw that in wherever we can.

Um so the online application and more information are available at Denvergov.org slash dotty rebates.

That's leaf drop.

Excellent.

Are there questions about leaf drop?

Council Taurus.

Thank you.

Question about composting.

How do you know that you only have 42% participation rate?

Um that's 75 uh over 75,500, that number, that's out of our total customer base.

Yeah, but how do you know?

Uh that those are people that have requested it.

Okay, okay, got it.

Thank you.

And how is that increase since it started?

We started at about 16%, and now we're at 42.

So we started a little under 30,000.

And that was two years ago.

That was at the start of 2023.

Okay.

Um, we had a little under 30,000 people composting.

That was from the previous subscription based.

Where's where it's rolled over.

Um, so now we've added quite a few.

Okay, got it.

Thank you.

Think subscribers.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, it's curious to me that we're still doing the leaf drop when we have composting available.

So is there a plan to phase out the leaf drop eventually?

Because my parents have gigantic trees and it all you know shrinks down over a couple days in the bin.

Yeah, we're still seeing the demand for leaf drop because we do have so many trees in.

But anybody can come drop off, right?

So I think that residential will be serving people outside of the city of number two.

It is for Denver residents only.

Do we check that?

Do we check that?

We do sometimes, yeah.

Sometimes when we have the company too.

But okay.

It's still, you know, it's a great program.

I know I fill up my compost cart.

Um, and then and then some.

So I always fill out my compost cart on a weekly basis and then bring additional bags to Leaf Drop just to kind of clear it out.

Yeah, so but we'll, I mean, as we continue to add more customers to compost customers for the program, we'll assess.

Okay, continue to assess, but we're still seeing the demand from Denver residents.

Other questions.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thanks for all your work and thanks for the helpful information.

We will get it out to our residents for the folks that are listening.

You know now how to get a compost card if you don't have one.

We're gonna try to get more and more adoption.

Uh and so you can go to Sunny Hey311 right now, you can request a bin and it'll get delivered to you.

Thanks so much.

Uh all righty.

Um, that was our only uh item for general session this morning.

Councilman Cashman.

Before you brought it up, because you brought it up earlier.

I wanted to let you know.

The University of Denver men's hockey team has started off with two wins and one tie.

See, I knew you were gonna have a positive update for us.

Absolutely.

We're anticipating big things this year.

We're ready for another dual parade again in Denver.

Um, thank you so much.

I will now entertain a motion to move us into an executive session pursuant to DRMC 234 and 6.

Um, for the purpose of discussing the acquisition sale or use of real estate by the city.

All in favor.

Any opposed?

Great.

With that, we will enter into executive session.

Thank you so much to members of the public for joining.

Have a great Tuesday.