Real Estate Information Archive

Brush Pick-Up Schedule - 2016

CITY OF ST. CHARLES - 2016 Brush Pickup Schedule

The Brush Pick Up program includes the months of April, May, June, July, August, September, and October. Only residents that pay an additional monthly fee on their utility bill are eligible. Review your City utility bill to see if this fee is included, check My Neighborhood or call Utility Billing at 630.377.4426 for verification.

East Side                              West Side

April 18                                 April 25

May 16                                  May 23

June 20                                 June27

July 18                                  July25

August 15                              August 22

September 19                        September 26

October 17                            October 24

*November: No Pick Up

CITY OF GENEVA  - 2016 Brush Program

The City of Geneva's brush program provides monthly pickups from April through November. The collection is intended for the disposal of limbs/branches that are removed by the property owner for normal maintenance and upkeep, not for lot clearing. The City's contractor will not collect material produced by a private contractor.

For more information, please call the Geneva Public Works Department at 630.232.1501

West Side                            East Side

April 4                                   April 11

May 2                                    May 9

June 6                                   June 13

July 4*                                  July 11

August 1                                August 8

September 5*                        September 12

October 3                              October 10

November 7                           November 14

* Holiday observed. Crews will begin the following scheduled workday.

CITY OF BATAVIA - 2016 Brush Collection Schedule 

Curbside residential brush pickup resumes in May for residents that pay the monthly leaf/brush fee on their utility bill.  If your brush was out at 7 a.m. on Monday of your scheduled collection week and not collected by the end of the workday on Friday, please notify the Street Division at 630.454.2400 no later than the following Monday. 

East Side                              West Side

May 9                                    May 16

June 13                                 June 20

July 11                                  July 18

August 8                                August 15

September 12                        September 19

October 10                            October 17

              November 28 - Citywide

How to Prepare Brush/Limbs

• Brush should be put out before 7am on Monday of the scheduled pick up.

• With cut ends facing the street, branches must be at least 3 feet in length and less than 12 inches in diameter.

• Do not tie bundles of brush with rope or wire and do not pile higher than 4 feet.

• Branches must be on the parkway, in front of your house or along the frontage where refuse/recycling is collected.

• Please make every attempt not to park in front of the piles; crews will be unable to pick up the brush.

• Tree trunks/stumps: If you take down a whole tree, please be aware that the maximum size that the crew has the ability to pick up is 12” in diameter by 12’ long.  Anything larger or longer would need to be cut up or split before pick-up.

• Small branches, trimmings and leaves: These items can be placed in a generic brown paper yard waste bag and place one refuse sticker on each bag. Yard waste bags will be picked up on your weekly refuse pickup day.

• Severe storms could delay the timeliness of the pickup due to an extremely large volume of material to be collected. Every attempt will be made to deploy additional staff and equipment if such delays do develop.

If you are interested in more information about the benefits of home ownership in the Fox Valley Area please contact a real estate professional with the Rullo Team.

Get outside and enjoy this beautiful fall weather and have a great looking yard in the spring! 

Below are a couple of things you can do now before the snow flies.

 LAWN CARE:

Contrary to popular opinion, fall is the best time of the year for lawn care. Fertilization, weed and thatch control, establishment of new lawns, and renovation of poor quality lawns should be done over the next few weeks.  Now is the time to prepare so that you start next spring with a healthy lawn. 

• Keep mowing until your lawn stops growing.  Don’t mow too short, if anything, leave it a little bit long.
• Don’t starve your lawn. If you live in the northern U.S., fertilize one more time around Thanksgiving.
• Kill broadleaf weeds like dandelions and ground ivy. Time your herbicide application around the first time there is frost in your area or when the temperature dips to at least 40°F overnight.

SPRING FLOWERING BULBS:

“When fall is in the air, it’s time to put spring in the ground”.  Autumn is the time to plant spring flowering bulbs.  Bulb experts usually recommend planting bulbs when the nighttime temps drop into the low 50’s or 40’s for two weeks, although you can even plant in December as long as you can still dig. 

• Choose a spot where the soil drains well. 
• Spring-flowering bulbs like sun, but you can plant them under trees that will still be bare when the flowers bloom. 
• The rule of thumb is the planting hole should be about 3 times the length of the bulb; dig individual holes or a wider hole that can hold a number of bulbs. 
• Plant them pointy side up

Sure, it is delayed gratification, but the appearance of flowers and a beautiful lawn at the end of a bleak winter will be worth the wait.

  If you are interested in more information about the benefits of home ownership in our area please contact a real estate professional with The Rullo Team.

2015 Tri-Cities Leaf Collection Schedule   

Be sure to check the 2015 Leaf Collection Maps and Schedules for boundaries, schedules and availability.

New Fourth Street Commuter Parking Lot Coming This Fall!

A minimum of 70 new commuter parking spaces will be coming to downtown Geneva this fall. Trees and brush have been removed from the future parking lot at Fourth Street and Crescent Place. Construction is set to begin in October and is expected to be completed by mid­-November, weather dependent. The parking lot will be designated for commuter permit parking during the day but will be open for free public parking during the evenings and weekends. The project has been a high priority in the City's Capital Improvement Program. The parking lot and expansion of the Third Street Commuter Parking Deck were needed to accommodate parking that will be lost as part of Union Pacific's future plans to add a third rail line, which will remove 145 existing surface parking spaces. For more information about the Fourth Street parking lot construction, call Assistant Public Works Director Brian Schiber at 630-­232­-1501 or send him an email [email protected]

If you are interested in more information about the benefits of home ownership in the Fox Valley Area please contact a real estate professional with the Rullo Team.

It's that time of year again, when little goblins and ghosts will be going door to door trick-or-treating. Children and parents are encouraged to trick-or-treat in their neighborhoods between their City’s recommended Halloween hours:

• St Charles recommends that you limit trick-or-treating to 3 to 7 pm on October 31
• Geneva children and parents are encouraged to trick-or-treat in their neighborhoods between the City’s recommended Halloween hours of 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, October 31. **Families also are invited to two additional candy collection opportunities in Geneva. Participating downtown businesses will be offering free Halloween treats to children from 2 to 5 p.m. Thursday, October 29, and Geneva Commons will host trick-or-treating from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, October 25.
• Batavia’s suggested hours for trick-or-treating are from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 31

Spring Ahead ~ Fall Back

On Sunday, November 1, 2015 at 2:00 a.m., set your clocks back one hour … or you could just turn your clocks back before you go to sleep in order to save yourself the hassle. Don’t worry about your cell phones because they reset themselves. If you’re out still partying for Halloween, many bars and restaurants are staying open that extra hour, which means another hour of fun, but you’ll have to check with your local establishments! 

This is also the perfect time to remember to change the batteries in you smoke and CO detectors!

Credit for Daylight Saving Time belongs to Benjamin Franklin, who first suggested the idea in 1784. The idea was revived in 1907, when William Willett, an Englishman, proposed a similar system in the pamphlet The Waste of Daylight.

 The Germans were the first to officially adopt the light-extending system in 1915 as a fuel-saving measure during World War I. The British switched one year later, and the United States followed in 1918, when Congress passed the Standard Time Act, which established our time zones. This experiment lasted only until 1920, when the law was repealed due to opposition from dairy farmers (cows don’t pay attention to clocks). 

During World War II, Daylight Saving Time was imposed once again (this time year-round) to save fuel. Since then, Daylight Saving Time has been used on and off, with different start and end dates. Currently, Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday of March and ends at 2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November.

It's spring and you've always been told that this is the perfect time to put your home on the market. And that's TRUE, but what else should you be looking at before putting your home up for sale,  to make sure you garner the highest possible price point ...and ensure that your home will sell quickly? Here are a few things to consider when you're objectively looking at your St. Charles or Fox Valley home:

Aside from just being an incredible house that you have put your loving touches into, what should your prospective Buyer know:

1. Are you living in an area with spectacular views of wooded lands, water, historical significance?

2. What is your neighborhood like? Is it extra friendly where neighbor helps neighbor when someone's in need?

3. Your local schools....what are they like, can you highlight something specific with the teachers, teaching philosphy, awards?

4. Do you have outdoor living space? Great patio or deck, outside stove for cooking summer meals, plenty of space for entertaining?

5. Is your yard exceptionally large or beautifully landscaped?

6. Do you have a corner lot?

7. Have you recently put on a new roof, siding, shingles, windows?

Then look inside your home and do the same.

1. Do you have a fireplace and hearth that is different than many they may see in other homes?

2. What about your kitchen, the heart of your home? Granite or Marble Countertops? Exqusitely designed? Center island with vegetable sink?

3. Is your home friendly to the environment? Have you used energy efficient windows & doors, do you have solar panels, is the flooring bamboo or cork?

4. What about storage space, mud rooms, bonus rooms?

5. Is there beautiful hardwood under your carpets?

*Above is a graph that shows the percentage of viable home buyers that felt these "Hidden Gems" were worth every penny they cost in the overall sales price of a home:

These are all things that you want to highlight about your home, that let's a buyer know that your home is different and special and it's the only one they'll want to buy! At The Rullo Team, we look at all these points with you to develop a marketing strategy that optimizes all the special features of your home and in turn highlights those for your potential buyers.

If you plan to put your St. Charles area home on the market for spring, NOW IS THE TIME. Give us a call and we'll be happy to come to your home and evaluate all these points with you as well as the current market conditions in the Fox Valley area. Buying & Selling homes in St. Charles, Geneva & Batavia IL is what we do best! I've lived here my entire life, and participate in many community projects and events. I consistently rank in the Top 1% of all Realtors Nationwide, and continually stay up to date on the real estate and commmunity changes within our area.  What that means to you is you'll be getting a team of individuals that have exceptional local knowledge, newest technology and real estate knowledge in place to give you the best exposure and quick sales process that you deserve.