The voucher makes it so that residents can dispose of their leaves at the town's recycling center free of charge.

Residents may fill out a voucher form available on the town Web site and pass it along to their private contractors, who then present it at the recycling center. Residents may use as many vouchers as needed over the 10-week leaf collection period that ends Dec. 18. Commercial, industrial, and mixed-use properties are not eligible for the program.

"We knew this was a difficult transition to the new system for many residents, and we wanted to provide some level of assistance to the extent we could afford it," said Mayor Scott Slifka, who said the reinstatement of the voucher program was a bipartisan decision.
He said that the public works department found $125,000 worth of savings in this year's budget from changing the way the current leaf collection program is administered, and that the cost of the voucher program will be paid for with that savings.

Town Environmental Services Manager Dave Gabriele said there were too many factors - number of trees, size of property, number of times leaves were collected - to estimate the average savings the program would provide to residents.

The normal tipping fee for a private contractor would be $39 per ton, and the town will still pay a per-ton rate of $27.50.

The voucher program was eliminated last year because it had been abused, Gabriele said, with contractors recycling leaves that were not collected solely from West Hartford residents.

This year, some measures have been taken to prevent misuse of the program, including reminders that it is for West Hartford residents only, a promise that random checks will be made to confirm that the voucher was filled out by a resident. Gabriele said that if ineligible leaves are recycled using the voucher program, the town will seek restitution in the form of the lost tipping fees.

Vacuum leaf collection, where residents rake their leaves to a curb and a machine is used to suction them up, was eliminated in the spring for a savings of $542,492 this fiscal year, according to Town Manager Ronald F. Van Winkle said.

Slifka said that a major cost driver for the vacuum leaf collection program was that the town only got one bid for the contract. He said that with private contractors stepping in this year to provide vacuum leaf collection to residents, a number of smaller players have entered the market, which might provide a way for the town to reintroduce vacuum leaf collection in the future by seeking out multiple contractors who would serve individual neighborhoods, rather than one contractor serving the entire town.

"Next year or year after, once we have time to assess the new data, we may be able to rebid the program in a different way," Slifka said.