Meeting Notes
Greenfield Recycling Committee (GRECOM)
Feb 6, 2012
In Attendance: Candi Fowler, Dan Wolaver, John Matthias, John Eber, Carol Burgess, Neal Brown, Diane Boilard, Mike Steere
Minutes of 2/2/12 – approved
Discussion on PAYT article – is this the right time to do with for our town since we’ve done no public education….
Mike Steere indicated that the Budget committee’s approval of the budget for the recycling center was contingent upon placement of a PAYT program on the 2012 Town warrant. Absent that, the budget committee probably would have requested a reduction in Carol’s proposed 2012 budget
Given the March 17 deadline or Town Meeting, Neal expressed concern that there may be too little time for sufficient education of the public about PAYT. If that occurs, the normal level of public skepticism that comes with “change” and “something new” could easily lead to defeat of the warrant articles. He emphasized that the Board and GRECOM need to aggressively inform the public about PAYT in the time
leading up to Town Meeting.
Mike spoke about how PAYT in Greenfield could get other with other towns to throw their stuff here and make recycling even more profitable for us….Mike indicated that we need to start a “conversation” about PAYT and its ramifications this year– even if PAYT doesn’t make it this time around.
Neal spoke about how a negative impact of a “failure” to pass could well push the rest of the discussion down a negative path…..
Mike spoke about how various articles in the papers have not led to negativity but were supportive of PAYT…..
Carol shared that there’s a great deal of negativity….just in general…..she shared that there’s usually a big process in towns that implement it …..
John Eber – he proposed an alternative to the PAYT program….could we have an interim start/step……please see handout Alternative to Pay-Per-Throw
John M spoke about the alternative not being able to pay or generate the funds we are talking about…..
John spoke about recycling other things….we could take more recyclables when we increase the volume…..
Dan asked about talking simply – revenue in a different way – take less from the tax base….and charge for bags…..and eventually it will be a decrease in your taxes…..
Jon Eber spoke about how it’s going to cost him $104 per year in bags…..and the decrease in taxes would only be about $50 a year – is that worth it?
Will our taxes go down? Not really – because other, more substantial, taxes will go up because of everything – expenses, schools, tax lien houses – but we can talk about lowering the costs of the recycling center……..
The ‘back-and-forth” continued until it was voted unanimously (NOTE: Although present, Jon Eber was not officially a voting member of GRECOM) to recommend to the Selectboard that the relevant article on PAYT be included on the 2012 Town Warrant.
The group worked on the PAYT “Q & A” document for forwarding to the Board.
ACTION: Neal will make the changes to the document and speak with Aaron
ACTION: Neal will ask about info on the website
ACTION: Neal will create a cover page for the FAQ’s that includes the warrants and town meeting info
ACTION: Carol will put some flyers out at the recycling center, library, Harvester Market
ACTION: Carol will make a handout about recycling items that are taken at the GRC
Greenfield Budget Hearing Feb 9th at 6:30pm ….Town Hall
Next meeting: Thursday March 8th, 2012 – 7pm
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