TOWN OF NEWTON
Minutes
149-M SOLID WASTE COMMITTEE MEETING
July 28TH, 2010
The meeting came to order at 7:00 in the Selectmen’s office; attending were: Nancy Wrigley, Town Administrator, Bob Bartlett, Kevin Jolicoeur, Kim Hughes, Jack Kosec, and Mary Marshall.
Kim Hughes asked if the Mission Statement had been added to the website. The mission statement stated in the minutes was accepted.
Mary volunteered to be the contact person for the committee.
The minutes were accepted as presented.
Nancy asked if everyone had been sworn in. Mary, Bob and Jack will go to be sworn in Thursday evening.
Nancy asked if the ordinance adopted in the late seventies under RSA 147 would be superceded by the ordinance proposed under RSA: 149M. Bob brought up that of the ordinances being reviewed one of the towns was replacing a previous ordinance and one was amending. Mary suggested that the new ordinance should replace any existing ordinance so as to avoid redundancy.
Review of ordinances: Jack emphasized that we should strive to keep the ordinance simple and easy to read. Kim pointed out we can extract parts from any ordinance that seems appropriate to our needs. Nancy pointed out that in the New Boston ordinance reference was made to rules and regulations that were to be created by the board of selectmen. She suggested that everything should be spelled out in the ordinance.
Mary questioned whether any of the towns had experience in the enforcement of the ordinance. Bob outlined a citation procedure that would entail having the employees at the Transfer Station fill out a citation with one copy to be handed to the resident and one copy sent to the selectmen. Kevin said that in the towns where the Board of Selectmen or the police back up the citations the enforcement is successful. Kevin suggested that 80% of the violators would respond to a simple letter from the board of selectmen, before any citation is issued.
Mary suggested that we might revisit the concept that there could be a special permit anyone who wanted to pick up other residents transfer station material for pay, because then if anyone lost their transfer station access there would be an alternative method for getting rid of household waste. Nancy raised the issue of whether a business would bring in waste from outside of town. Kim reminded us of the trash audits performed in one of the towns. Kevin said that the attendants already have the ability to go through trash brought for disposal. Any individual found not in compliance with the ordinance could lose their business permit. Kevin pointed out that there are a lot of people in town who would make use of this type of service. He also suggested that the transfer
station would need a client list from the haulers.
Kim raised the question of whether there might be a request from the town residents for Newton to go to curbside pickup. Nancy pointed out that the issue had been raised before and the town turned down curbside.
Kim questioned whether we should look into surveillance cameras. Kevin said they had found a price of $700.00 to $800.00 dollars for the system for two wireless cameras, monitor, etc.
Fee Free Weekend was reviewed: The cost is coming in at $10,000 more than the budgeted $15,000. The overage will have to come out of the transfer station budget. The C & D seemed to be the culprit in sending the $$ over budget.
Kim asked what the outline of the ordinance should be. Mary suggested that Kevin prepare the outline for next month and the committee could pick and chose portions of ordinance to fill out the outline.
Kevin will also provide figures relative to the comparison of costs for each aspect of the transfer station to Bob who will work on some graphic representation.
Kevin and Mary will work on descriptive articles about each service provided by the transfer station explaining all the recycling. They will also take some pictures for the website.
Kim will work on something to put on the website on Fee Free Weekend.
Kevin described the process that would happen if the Town were to adopt Pay As You Throw.
The next meeting will be August 18th at 7:00pm.
The meeting adjourned at 8:40.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Marshall
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