Published in the April 9, 2019
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — When the Nahant Street Yard Waste Facility (aka “The Pit”) officially opens its 2019 season tomorrow, there will be 14 extra dates for residents to drop off their yard waste.
The expanded schedule comes thanks to the efforts of Town Councilor Edward Dombroski, who worked with DPW Director Rick Stinson and Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio to come up with a schedule with “continuity and predictability” in order to make it easier for residents to know when they can bring their yard waste to the facility.
The Nahant Street Yard Waste Site will be open to Wakefield residents from April 10 to Dec. 7 in calendar year 2019. Permits are required and must be renewed annually. The cost of a permit is $25 payable by check/credit card or cash. Commercial vehicles and trucks over one-half ton are not allowed access to the Nahant Street Yard Waste Site. Landscaping companies are not allowed to use the Nahant Street Yard Waste Site. All leaves brought in plastic bags must be emptied. Plastic bags must be removed from the site by the owner.
Dombroski presented the new and expanded Yard Waste Facility schedule at last night’s Town Council meeting.
The 2019 schedule includes all Wednesdays, every Saturday and the second and fourth Sunday of every month (except certain holiday weekends). The hours of operation are 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesdays; 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays; and Sundays from 11:45 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The facility will be closed on Saturday, April 20 (Easter weekend) and on May 12 (Mother’s Day). According to the calendar distributed last night, the facility will be open on Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day and Columbus Day weekends
The only other exceptions to the schedule are Saturday, May 18, Saturday, Nov. 9 and Saturday, Nov. 23. Those days are scheduled curbside yard waste collections days. Not only was it considered unnecessary to have the facility open on curbside pickup days, it was also deemed to be dangerous with the large trucks coming and going all day.
Dombroski pointed out that the facility will also be open five additional Sundays that fall outside the regular second and fourth Sunday rotation. Those dates were already on the schedule before it was revised and the decision was made to keep those dates for this year only. Those “bonus” Sundays are May 5, May 19, June 2, Aug. 4 and Nov. 17.
Both Dombroski and Maio indicated that any additional cost associated with this year’s expanded schedule could be absorbed within the budget parameters already established.
Town Councilors Tony Longo and Paul DiNocco said that they agreed with the expanded schedule but would also be looking at the traffic for each 2019 date and if trends are seen showing low traffic, they might seek to remove some dates from next year’s calendar.
Dombroski agreed that tracking the number of visits by date would be important but cautioned that it might be difficult to discern trends with just one year’s worth of data. He also noted that weather can be a big factor in the traffic at the site on any given day.
Dombroski also noted that it will be interesting to track the number of Yard Waste Permits sold to see if that increases. He said that in a typical year around 2,200 permits are sold.
Yard Waste Facility Permits can be purchased the DPW Office at Town Hall, 1 Lafayette St. The office is on the first floor, just inside the front entrance on the left. For opening week at the Yard Waste Facility, Saturday office hours have been added. The Department of Public Works Office will be open this coming Saturday, April 13, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. for residents to purchase permits for the Nahant Street Yard Waste Site.
The Town Council’s vote to approve the expanded Yard Waste Facility schedule was unanimous.
“I’m really excited about getting this initiative passed tonight,” Dombroski said. “I pushed for a partial expansion last spring, with the ultimate goal of getting to this point. I think it will prove to better serve our residents.”
