Riverhead officials at odds with highway department over who picks up residents' leaves 

 The issue of who is responsible for picking up loose leaves from Riverhead residents’ homes has once again resurfaced after the town’s Highway Department superintendent told officials recently his staff would not do the pick up without first receiving town funding.

The Riverhead Town Board invited Highway Superintendent Michael Zaleski to discuss the issue at the board’s Nov. 3 work session, but Zaleski declined to attend. Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said at the meeting that her office had been receiving “a tremendous amount” of phone calls from residents who were concerned that loose leaves had not yet been picked up from their homes.

“It’s a service they expect, a service they deserve,” Aguiar said at the meeting, adding, “We shouldn’t operate like this as a town.”

Riverhead’s Financial Administrator Bill Rothaar and Riverhead Town Attorney Erik Howard said at the work session town had already budgeted money for the leaf pickup in 2023 — the cost of which is estimated to be roughly $220,000 — which came from the 2022 budget.

However, Zaleski’s department already used that money in January to do the leaf pickup. Zaleski told Newsday on Nov. 3 while his department is not opposed to picking up loose leaves for residents, it has been done by his department as a courtesy — not as a responsibility that should be paid out of his own budget.

“There’s no leaf line of $219,000 in my budget, there’s a leaf line of $25,000,” Zaleski said, adding, “I know lawfully and legally that it’s not a highway function, and that it must be paid out of the town’s general fund.”

Former highway superintendent George Woodson had for several years been at odds with the town board over the same issue.

According to Zaleski, the town and the highway department initially agreed earlier this year for highway to pick up the leaves this fall only once it was clear whose responsibility it was to do it.

A letter from the New York State Comptroller’s Office in April said the highway department was not responsible for the pickups and if the town wants them to do so, they must pay the department out of the town’s general fund, according to Zaleski.

The town and the department agreed around August to fund those costs out of the general fund. However, in October, Zaleski said the town told him the money for this year had already been allocated to him from budgets in previous years — which he said he balked at.

Aguiar told Newsday on Monday the comptroller office’s letter also stated the town board could direct the leaf pickups to be a function of the department under town law.

“It says the town board can direct (loose leaf pickups) as a function. It did not say that ‘you can’t’, or ‘it’s not your job,’” Aguiar said.