Haverhill’s Earth Day Cleanup ‘Best Turnout Yet’

Fred Clark and Haverhill City Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan clean at Winnekenni Park during Haverhill’s Earth Day Cleanup Saturday. (Photographs by Jay Saulnier for WHAV News.)

Haverhill’s annual Earth Day Cleanup attracted more volunteers from across the city than usual despite dreary weather conditions Saturday.

Organizer David LaBrode, who has been working with Haverhill’s Brightside since 2000, told WHAV “It was the best turn out yet.” Crews could be seen from one end of the nearly 36-square-mile city to the other.

Haverhill City Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan said he had 40 volunteers alone helping collect rubbish, rake grounds and plant flowers around Winnekenni Castle and park. Crews there concentrated on entrances to the park.

“They filled eight giant garbage bags of trash along route 110 alone,” Sullivan said. He said nearby route 108 is so loaded with debris, cleanup there requires a separate effort. Besides the 40 volunteers working on the playgrounds, tennis courts, parking lots and Winnekenni Basin area, Sullivan said, another 10 inmates from the Essex County Sheriff’s Department cleaned closer to the castle.

Eagle Scout Lucas Rouleau also pitched in, along with volunteers from Career Resources Corp. Rouleau plans to spearhead an effort this year to document the ruins of the Thomas Sanders’ Birchbrow Estate, high above Plug Pond. Signage and a historical narrative are planned, Sullivan said.

The spruced up entrance to Winnekenni Park with hundreds of new flowers. (Jay Saulnier photograph for WHAV News.)

The spruced up entrance to Winnekenni Park with hundreds of new flowers. (Jay Saulnier photograph for WHAV News.)