Minutes of Transfer Station Committee Meeting -- December 8, 2004 10:30 a.m.
In Attendance: Steve Maddock, Pete Bleyler, Simon Carr, Cynthia Bagnolo, Marya Klee.
Apologies: Al Pryor.
1. Pete updated the committee on the Selectboard’s discussion. In General, they are happy with the concept of the revised flow, 2 day opening and enclosure of the transfer station. He will take these proposals to the Budget Committee meeting today (December 8) It is intended that the Selectboard will present a warrant article on the proposed transfer station changes. This would link both the pay-per-throw proposals and the construction costs of a pole barn, enclosure fencing and walkways/steps into a single item. If this was passed, we would bring in the pay-per-throw charges as soon as the transfer station was enclosed.
2. Operation:
a. Costs: We do not have a method of analyzing the various costs from either the town records or the NRRA summary. Pete will ensure that copies of all the recyclables and MSW invoices are passed to the committee so that we can produce a spreadsheet showing our exact debits/credits.
b. New Layout: Whilst we would like to reposition the packer along the lines suggested by NRRA, it was agreed that we should wait until we saw how the Highway department coped with the current traffic flow through the winter period. In the meantime we should plan on a publicity drive before launching the new layout.
c. Increased Opening Times: We would like to go to a two-day/week opening. In view of the fact that we are not planning to implement a compacter but to continue with Whitcher and the packer, we should ask Liz Bedard to assist us in applying for a waiver from the State.
d. Whitcher: we do not currently have a contract. Once we know whether the State is likely to give us a waiver, we should discuss two weekly trips of the packer and a contract covering this with Whitcher.
3. Enclosure Costs: We need to get some idea of the actual costs for a pole barn and enclosure. Steve will see if he can get a copy of the survey and Simon will draw up a proposal for costing purposes. We need to locate local contractors who could give us a guide price on this.
4. Pay-per-throw:
a. There was discussion on the practical applications. It was agreed that we should set up the operation so that there was no need for cash to be handled at the transfer station. This means that MSW must be only in marked bags. Other chargeable waste needs some form of coupon or sticker; we need to develop this.
b. It is hoped that the package awaited from NRRA might have some information on bag suppliers and costing.
c. Steve will talk informally with Nichols’ and the Country Store regarding them taking bags for sale to the public.
5. Pete had prepared a draft hand-out summarizing the recent changes for the transfer station, together with our plans to go Pay-per-Throw and the reasoning for this. We should also include that we intend to hold an open session in mid-February to discuss the likely issues. Pete hoped to get the revised copy out so that the committee could distribute it next Sunday morning.
6. Next meetings: To enable at least a representative to attend the monthly NRRA meetings, committee meetings have now been switched to the first and third Wednesday mornings each month, at the same time and location. The next meeting will be Wednesday January 5th 2005 10.30 a.m. at Lyme Center Academy.
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