When West Hartford eliminated its leaf vacuuming program last fall in favor of bagging, it was sure to save $500,000. The question was how many bags of leaves would town crews have to collect?

The original estimate of 400,000 or more proved much too high. When the 10-week collection ended in mid-December, crews had picked up 224,262 bags of leaves from the curbside, according to a Hartford Courant report.

Public Works Director John Phillips said residents opting to mulch leaves or have them carted away by private contractors accounted for the difference.

The town rented packer trucks with a 25-yard capacity for the collection and manned them with town crews. The collection was so efficient crews were able to keep up with regular tasks, like catch-basin repair, and used little overtime.