Loose Leaf Pickup to Resume on Lord's Hill on Tuesday

The roadside pickup of loose leaves in Wenham will resume in the Lord's Hill neighborhood on Tuesday, after the Veterans Day holiday, according to Wenham Department of Public Works Director Bil Tyack.

After that neighborhood, the DPW will then continue to Cedar and Cherry street and all side streets off Cherry Street to Route 1A.

From there, collection crews will jump to the east side of town at Grapevine Road near the Beverly line. The DPW will head west down Grapevine Road, picking up all the side streets.

After Grapevine Road, crews will continue on to Dodges Row, Walnut Road and Larch Row to Route 1A, then do streets on Main Street including Fairview, Patti, Fiske, Lake, and Great Pond roads.

Lastly, the DPW will pick-up Main, Arbor, Perkins, Porter and all side streets.  

This loose-leaf pick-up will end by Dec. 14. If needed, a bagged leaf pick-up will be conducted on Monday, Dec. 17.

A year ago, the collection - which is a rarity as most cities and towns have moved to collecting leaves in barrels and bags - was proposed to be cut and instead be done as bagged collection. Town officials said the time spent on leaves could be better used to prepare the town for winter.

It takes the entire DPW staff between four and six weeks to complete the collection across the whole town.

The collection method is so rare that former Wenham Finance and Advisory Committee Chairman and current Hamilton-Wenham Regional School Committee member Roger Kuebel joked that Wenham is the “last town east of the Mississippi” to still do it.

It went to a vote at Annual Town Meeting in 2011 and voters opted to keep the loose leaf collection and fund its $30,000 annual cost.

Anyone with questions about Wenham leaf collection can call the DPW at 978-468-5520, extension 6.