Euclid residents are among several communities in the area who will be having to wait a little longer to see the fallen leaves collected from their front lawns. The reason for the delay? A mulch fire last year. According to reports at the time, Green Vision Materials, one of the larger businesses who take in cities leaf litter and turn it into compost and other products, had a mulch fire break out at their Wickliffe processing facility on Dec. 17, 2023. The effects of the fire — which was large enough that it took several hours to be put out and caused a halt to Amtrak’s Cleveland to Erie passenger service –will still be causing delays nearly a year later. Public Service Director Daniel Knecht said that because the fire the company was still not accepting any new leaf deliveries. In an interview after the Nov. 4 Euclid City Council meeting, Knecht said the city is working with other smaller collection centers in order to still process fallen leaves. However, because the larger center is currently not open, the collection process will be at a slower rate compared to the past. “Last year that facility had a fire and since then they have been struggling with meeting the requirements of Wickliffe’s Fire Department to run a safe facility, so they are currently closed to taking any new materials until they are able to meet those requirements,” Knecht said. “The leaves that we collect here in Euclid are no longer going to go to that facility, we are going to be taking them to a facility in Eastlake, which will make the time longer between runs,” he added. “In some cases it could triple the time that it takes us to empty the truck and come back to resume collection.” Knecht said that last year Euclid collected around 13,000 yards of leaves and that many other cities were in an awkward position of having to find a way to deal with the seasonal bulk. “But, as I told council, all communities around here who are using Green Vision Materials, which is quite a few of them, are in the same position of having to scramble to find other places to take their leaf’s for recycling.” Knecht added. Updated information on leaf collection within Euclid can be found at https://www.cityofeuclid.com/leaf-collection-central.