Street Department

Click this link to download the Branch and Leaf Pickup Calendar

Branch & Leaf Collection Information

• Branch collection typically begins the first week of April and continues through the year until the snow starts falling. This usually occurs in mid-December.
• Leaf pickup begins in October and last through December, weather permitting. It typically picks back up the following April.
• Each week, the route alternates from north to south with US 30 being the dividing line.
• Friday of each week, we concentrate on the streets that require flaggers. These are the main streets where traffic counts and speed limits require extra personnel to assure the safety of the work crews. Residents that live on a flagger street should call the office when they have placed a pile of branches or leaves along the roadway for pick-up. This helps assure that you do not get missed in a given week. Flagger streets are as follows: Main St., Burr St., Kennedy Ave. (from Junction to Main), Junction Ave. (from Kennedy to Joliet) Joliet St. (east of Austin Ave.), Cline Ave., St. John Rd., US 30, US 41, 77th Ave. and Austin Ave. (south of US30).

Branch Pickup Regulations

1. The Town of Schererville Public Works Department offers branch pick-up service, not tree removal service; please limit the items left curbside for pick-up to trimmed tree and bush branches only.
2. While we encourage the eco-friendly methods such as mulching and composting to dispose of weeds, grass clippings, garden spoils and other such types waste, these items should be disposed with your weekly trash pick-up. They should be placed in the 95 gallon tote provided by Republic Services our trash pick-up service or in a supplemental container if needed. Do not leave these types of waste curbside mixed in with branch piles, Schererville PW will not remove them from your residence.
3. Branches left curbside for pick-up are to be no larger than 6” in diameter. These are the limits of our chipping machines. Branches are to be placed in unidirectional piles in the parkway between the sidewalk and street. Branch piles placed in the street can create a hazard and you could be cited for creating a hazard in the street.
4. Schererville PW does not pick-up branches cut by contractors or tree cutting services. When a “for hire” service or contractor is employed to trim or remove branches and/or trees, they are expected to take the waste piles, trimmings and branches with them for disposal.
5. Tree services working within the corporate limits of our community are required to be registered as contractors with the Planning & Building Department. This helps assure our residents that the contractors they are hiring carry the proper insurance coverages required by Town Ordinance.
6. Residents with frontage on both a subdivision street and on a main thoroughfare are required to leave branches on the lower volume subdivision street for pick-up. When branches are placed along the main thoroughfares for pick-up it is dangerous for our workers to safely perform their duties. We understand that there are many residents that live on main thoroughfares having no other option but to leave branch piles on the main streets and we will continue to provide service to these properties, however we will no longer expose our personnel to this additional risk when a safer option is available, that being the lower volume, lower speed limit subdivision street.

Other Branch & Leaf Pick-up Policies

• To be assured you get picked-up, have your branches and/or leaves in front of your residence by 7:00 AM on Monday morning of your designated week. The Public Works Department will go through each neighborhood only once during a given week. We do not have the resources to go back through an area because leaves and/or branches were not ready on the day we came.
• Branches and leaves are to be placed in the parkway (grassy area) between the sidewalk and street within 5 feet of the street. Our machines must be able to reach the items or we will not pick them up. If you do not have a parkway, place them behind the sidewalk or along side of the roadway.
• Please do not place leaves and branches in the street. This causes flooding in the streets when they wash down and plug up storm water inlets.
• Leaves and branches must be placed in separate piles or they will not be picked up. Two different types of machines are used. Branches plug up the leaf vacuums and leaf piles plug up and dull the branch chipper blades.
• Residences that have frontage on two roads (houses that face a low volume subdivision street and back up to a main thoroughfare such as 77th Ave.) are strongly encouraged to place leaves and branches on the low volume subdivision street. It is much safer for our crews to work on these streets than to tie up traffic on the main roads and will help keep pick-ups on schedule.
• Avoid placing leaves and branches in ditches and drainage swales. Again, this contributes to flooding issues should they wash downstream.
• Do not place leaves in containers or bags during regular pick-up schedule. Leaves must be loose for our machines to handle them.
• Leaf and branch piles will be picked-up only from residences that pay for trash services with the Town. Piles placed in front of vacant lots or businesses will not be collected.
• Residents are welcome to bring loaded items to the Town Dump, Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM until 3:00 PM. Please sign in at the office and our staff will direct you to the proper disposal area. During times that we are not active in loose leaf pick-up, a special pick-up may be requested by calling the office; however leaves must be bagged for our crews to be able to handle them.

GRASS CLIPPING DISPOSAL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

• The Public Works Department encourages all residents to use a mulching type lawn mower to recycle grass clippings back into the soil from which they grew.
• Town crews will NOT pick-up GRASS CLIPPINGS. Grass clippings can be placed in plastic bags, paper bags, trash cans or other such containers and left out for the regular trash pick-up on your scheduled pick-up date. The Town’s scavenger service has 2 rules for grass clippings:
  • 1. The weight of a container must not exceed 40 pounds.
  • 2. They must be in a dry container that will not break if handled roughly. If paper bags have been rained upon, they lose their strength and break open when the collector tries to lift them into the trash hopper. The scavenger service employees will not attempt to lift them onto the truck when it is evident that they may break.

Winter Branch and Leaf Collection Policies

During the winter months of January, February, and March, it is necessary to tear down the Branch and Leaf Collection Trucks and rig them with snow plows and salt spreaders. Accordingly, we do not schedule regular pickups for branches and leaves during this period. Residents are welcome to bring loaded items Monday through Friday, 7am to 3pm. Please check in at the office and our staff will direct you to the proper disposal area.

During times that we are not active in loose leaf pick-up, a special pick-up may be requested by calling the office. Leaves must be bagged for our crews to handle them. We will also send a loader or 1-Ton dump truck out to pick up branch piles on an “as needed” basis. Again, residents will need to call the office to schedule a special wintertime pick up.

• Landscaping and Trees in the Parkway

Indiana 811 is a private, nonprofit, statewide organization which has the responsibility to manage the “call before you dig” process for Indiana. It is your responsibility to make sure that you and/or your landscaper make this call to locate all utilities and sewers at the digging site at least two full working days before you dig. Visit www.811NOW.com or call 811 to schedule a locate of your digging project.

Below is a list of trees suggested for planting in the parkway, however if sewers are located in your parkway, we would advise against planting at that site. These trees were selected for placement along the road because they are less likely to destroy sidewalks or asphalt with shallow root systems, but even these root systems eventually will grow into and cause backups in nearby sewers. Also, to help ensure a healthy tree, planting in parkways narrower than 6’ wide is not recommended and trees planted under power lines must have maximum height at maturity of less than 25’.

Most of these trees have crowns around 20’ wide at maturity, helping to prevent overhang into the street and damage to large vehicles, such as snow plows and garbage trucks. They have also shown some tolerance to road salt. Pyrus calleryana, commonly known as Bradford or Cleveland Pear, is not on this list. It is now considered an invasive species and no longer acceptable as a landscape tree.

FLOWERING TREES

• Amelanchier canadensis: Serviceberry 20’H x 20’W
• Cornus kousa: Flowering dogwood 20’H x15-20’W
• Crataegus crusgalli var. inermis: Hawthorn ‘Thornless Cockspur’ 20’H x 20’W
• Malus: Flowering crabapple 10-20’H x 8-20’W
• Syringa reticulata: Japanese tree lilac ‘Ivory Silk’ or ‘China Snow’ 20’H x 15-20’W

NON-FLOWERING TREES

• Acer griseum: Paperbark maple 20-30’H x 15-25’W *Gingko ‘Princeton Sentry’: 30-40’H x 15-20’W
• Nyssa sylvatica: Sour gum, Black gum or Tupelo 30-50’H x 20-30’W *Nyssa sylvatica ‘David Odom’: Afterburner Tupelo 35’H x 20’W
• Ulmus davidiana var. japonica ‘JFS-Bieberich’: Emerald Sunshine Elm 35’H x 25’W
• Ulmus ‘New Horizon: New Horizon Elm 40’H x 15-25’W
• Ulmus davidiana var. japonica ‘Prospector’’: Prospector Elm 40-50’H x 25’W
• Do not plant under power lines.
•  Look for single trunk rather than multi-trunk specimens.
• Narrow crown cultivars are available.

The Schererville Public Works Department policy is that we do not repair or replace mailboxes damaged during snow plowing due to improper installation. Our department will only repair and or replace mailboxes damaged by contact with our plows and trucks.

Our experience shows us that many incidents with mailboxes occur when there is an installation issue or a rotted component. Please be sure your mailbox does not have any rotting components and all connections are securely fastened. Your cooperation helps us provide you with better overall and more cost effective services. 

The Schereville Public Works Department prides itself in providing the best possible services to our residents.

SPECIFICATION FOR MAILBOXES: Face of box should be 6-8 inches behind the back edge of the curb and a minimum of 41 and a maximum of 45 inches of clearnace between the top of the curb and the bottom of the mailbox. If your street has no curb, the specifications are from the edge of the pavement. Please visit the USPS website for more info: https://www.usps.com/manage/mailboxes.htm

Public Works maintains the decorative street lighting that you will see throughout the town. These decorative lights can be found in various subdivisions and throughout the downtown area. If you notice that one of these lights has gone out, or see any other problems, please give us a call.

The overhead street lights located around Town are provided by NIPSCO. They have a very informative website, www.nipsco.com, where you can report problems that you find with the street lights that they maintain, or other outages. If you should see a light that is out, it can be reported to NIPSCO’s outage center, https://www.nipsco.com/stay-safe/outage-center. All you will need to do is provide the Pole Number (located on a small sign on each pole), the closest address, or find it on an interactive map provided on NIPSCO’s website. Additionally, you can call us and we will report the outage.

The Public Works Department would like you to take a few minutes to review the information below when the winter season begins to approach. This is mutually beneficial information that has value to every resident of the Town. 

The Public Works Department is responsible for snow removal and approximately 115 miles of streets throughout the Town of Schererville. This does not include US 30 or US 41 which are under the jurisdiction of the Indiana Department of Transportation (State Highway Department).

The main arteries receive the highest priority. These streets are usually pre-treated with a brine solution before a winter storm hits. This helps in keeping the snow from packing and freezing to the pavement. When plows are dispatched to begin plowing, they spread a dosage of road salt behind the trucks. This is thrown from a spinner on the back of the truck; thus drivers need to keep a minimum distance of 50 feet to avoid having salt strike their vehicles.

Town Ordinance 791 prohibits parking on the street when there is a snowfall of 2” or greater.

“No person shall park any vehicle on any street within the corporate limits of the town whenever there is two (2”) inches or more of snow thereon, until said snow is removed. Any vehicle which is parked on said street when depth of snow exceeds two (2”) may be towed away.”

Do not throw snow from your sidewalks or driveway onto the streets.

This causes ice patches and creates an unnecessary hazard for the traffic using the roadway. This is a general nuisance ordinance violation. Throw snow and ice to the side of the driveway and street. When snowplows are dispatched to re-clean a street, the snow and ice are usually plowed directly back onto the sidewalk or driveway from which it originally came; this usually leads to frustration to both the home owners and our plow drivers.

Please help keep fire hydrants clear.

This will assist the Fire Department should the need arise to use the hydrant. Should an emergency arise, a hydrant buried in the snow and difficult to find will cost Fire Personnel valuable time in responding. Public Works employees are typically not available to undertake this task until after the snow has been plowed from all streets. 

Cul-de-sac's

Cul-de-sac’s present the Public Works Department with several challenges in clearing them of snow and ice. First, they are wider than most streets and accordingly hold more snow. Second, they usually have a higher density of driveways leaving very little room between them to plow the snow. In some cases, cul-de-sac’s have virtually no openings between the driveways that allow us to divide the load and lessen the amount of snow that is pushed on each driveway.

Plow Routes

Once the mains have been plowed and salted, we move to the secondary streets in the subdivisions. These are usually the main entry streets as well as the streets leading into the third tier in a subdivision. We finish by completing the third tier streets within the subdivisions (streets that service the residents of that street and their visitors and guests). We always attempt to keep these streets open making one or two passes up and down them during a snowfall event. However, the finishing (pushing the snow back to the curb line) is usually not completed until the snow has stopped falling and the mains and secondary roads have been completed.

We will continue to spread salt on the mains the same as we have in the past years. On second and third tier streets we will only be applying salt to the intersections, curves, and hills. We advise all drivers to use caution when using the roadways under adverse conditions.

Mail Box Specifications and Information

• The face of your mail box should be behind the back of the curb by a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 8 inches.
• There should be a minimum of 41 and a maximum of 45 inches of clearance between the top of the curb and the bottom of the mail box.
• If your street does not have curbs, these specifications are from the edge of the pavement
• This is the time of year to check your mail box for a secure mounting post, any cracked, rotting, or defective components, and that it meets the specifications listed above. Mail boxes that do not meet the minimum specifications listed above are likely to be damaged during snow removal and the Public Works Department will not repair or replace them.
• The Public Works Department will not repair or replace mail box damage that occurs because the latch does not hold the door completely and securely closed. 
• The Public Works Department will not repair or replace mail boxes that have been damaged due to being hit by the snow that comes off of the snowplow when it travels down the street. 

We greatly appreciate your cooperation in these matters so that the Public Works Department can maintain the streets in a safe, efficient, and economic manner. Should you have questions during the winter, we can be reached Monday-Friday, 7:00am – 3:30pm, at 219-322-6688 or 219-322-5486. Should you have the need to contact us after hours or in an emergency, we can be reached through the Police Department at 219-322-5000 (non-emergency). Emergency numbers are 219-322-2121 or 911.