Residential leaf disposal site now available in Windham

By Ed Pierce

Summer has ended and as Windham residents are taking a long look at their yards to prepare for the winter months ahead, they are busy collecting leaves and unwanted brush that has built up on their property since spring and wondering how to get rid of them.

Windham's Leaf and Brush Disposal Site at the end of 
Enterprise Drive behind the self-storage building in 
North Windham is now officially open and will 
close for the season at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16.
COURTESY PHOTO

Windham’s Department of Public Works has announced the window of availability and hours for dropping off leaves and brush for fall disposal and residential clean-ups in town.

The Windham Leaf and Brush Disposal Site is now officially open and will close for the fall season at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16. The Leaf and Brush Disposal Site is located at the very end of Enterprise Drive off Route 302 behind the self-storage building in North Windham.

Windham DPW officials ask that residents who are dropping off items for disposal at the Leaf and Brush Disposal Site to separate leaves from brush and place them in the appropriate areas where the marked and the posted signs there indicate.

For those who are transporting leaves to the Leaf and Brush Disposal Site in paper or plastic bags, DPW requests that the leaves be removed from the bags and the bags taken back home for proper disposal there. They also ask that residents not bring any unwanted brush or branches larger than 12 inches in diameter to the site for disposal. Grass clippings are allowed but large heavy tree stumps are not permitted for disposal at the site.

As a reminder, residents are not allowed to dump garbage, metal trash, rubble, old televisions or appliances at the town’s Leaf and Brush Disposal Site.

The Town of Windham does not offer a collection for leaves at the curb, and bags of leaves should not be placed in weekly recycling bins for collection.

Typically, about 600 to 700 yards in cubic feet of leaves and unwanted brush are collected at the town’s Leaf and Brush Disposal Site every year during the fall season.

To use the service, load up your vehicle and take bags for disposal to the Leaf and Brush Disposal Site which will be open around the clock to Windham residents.

While Windham's Public Works department once handled both spring and fall brush disposal services, the town now is assisted in this bi-annual collection by R.J Grondin and Sons, a family-owned construction company.

Larry Grondin, vice president of Grondin and Sons, said that it was a "good fit" to offer the town assistance with brush disposal.

"After we helped with Public Works' new building, the initial plan was to just help out while construction was taking place,” he said. “Though we settled on us taking over with the brush disposal entirely since they no longer had the room for it. It's worked out so far for us both and we like working with them."

All materials gathered during the spring and fall brush seasons are given new life through Grondin and Sons.

Instead of burning the leaves and brush like residents in the past once would, Grondin and Sons find new purposes for the materials. The leaves are composted, and wood-based materials go toward creating new heating materials.

Grondin said it’s great knowing that the leaves and brush gathered are repurposed rather than sent to a waste facility. The disposed materials gain a new purpose, and it also provides residents with a local site place to self-dispose of leaves and brush free of charge.

For further details about Windham’s Leaf and Brush Disposal Site, call the Windham Public Works Department at 207-892-1909 or visit www.windhammaine.us. <