McHenry has one of the longer leaf collection programs in the area, traditionally starting in early October and running into the second week of December, its public works director said.

Because of the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm, some of the leaves residents raked or blew to the curb for pickup that week are now under a foot or more of snow and cannot be collected with vacuums, Russ Adams said.

If residents can get their leaves into bags by their regular trash pickup day this week, they will be picked up as part of McHenry’s regular yard waste pickup. That program is set to end for the season on Friday.

Adams admits that he’s “not sure how useful that is at this point” and leaf pickup will have to wait until conditions improve.

McHenry’s waste removal company, Flood Brothers Disposal, has agreed to complete leaf pickup in the spring, Adams said.

“Obviously Mother nature threw a bit of a curveball at us with all of the snow,” Adams told the McHenry City Council last week.

He’s also talking to residents who have called public works, concerned leaves will be on their lawns until spring.

McHenry offers a 10-week leaf collection program, Adam said. Residents area asked to rake or blow their leaves to the curb line or edge of the road and not into the street. The city is split into two zones for leaf collection, each getting five full sweeps during the season, he explained

Zone 1 had four sweeps and Zone 2 was in the middle of its fourth cycle when the snow hit, Adams said.

Flood Brother’s “owes a [vacuuming] cycle through each zone and will do it in the spring once the snow is melted,” Adams said.

Had temperatures warmed enough to melt the snow, as it has in previous years with early storms, the haulers could have finished the season as normal, he said.

With more snow and cold temperatures forecast into the weekend, he doesn’t believe that will be an option.

“There seems to be no end in site, in terms of the snow going anywhere,” Adams said.

Cary also contracts with Flood Brothers for its leaf collection, which also offered the village an extension this fall, Village Manager Erik Morimoto said. But that town does not vacuum leave.