149-M SOLID WASTE COMMITTEE
Minutes
March 22, 2011
Call to Order: Kevin Jolicoeur called the meeting to order at 6:20pm. Attending committee members: Nancy Wrigley, Kim Hughes, Mary Marshall, Bob Bartlett and Kevin Jolicoeur. Also attending were Larry Foote, Selectmen’s Liaison and Chief Streeter.
Minutes: Kim Hughes, seconded by Nancy Wrigley, motioned to accept the minutes of February 3rd. The motion carried unanimously.
The committee saw the finished quick time copy of comparative costs of disposal items at the transfer station.
Fine Schedule: Chief Streeter researched the statutes for creating the summons to be issued for violations of the transfer station ordinance. RSA 31:39 is the basic statute giving the Selectmen authority to enforce ordinances was expanded with section c. The Chief reported that he had spoken with Paul Sanderson, an attorney for LGC, about using an ordinance violation in order to avoid a court appearance and a fine schedule. The legislative body, the town meeting, should adopt the schedule per RSA 41:9-a however, the amount of the fine under 147 is $3000.00 in the District Court. So if someone were given the option of going to court or paying a modest fine it is likely they would pay the ordinance fine. The committee may establish the schedule and then have
the town meeting approve it next year. If the fine schedule is not approved then violators will have no option but to go to court which require taking time out of work and a possible fine of up to $3000.
Chief Streeter also went to Manchester to see how their citation is created and a sample fine schedule. He presented a sample summons/citation for the committee to review and suggested that it could be used by the town for all town ordinances
Larry Foote questioned the need for the ordinance and fine schedule and was brought up to date on the necessity of having both in order to enforce the selectmen’s policies.
Kevin distributed a fine schedule he had begun working on which listed a number of violations and the fines for first, second and third violation. The citation for what on the schedule would appear as a first violation would actually follow two previous violations that would have resulted in written warnings along with copies of the ordinance and selectmen’s policy.
Kevin suggested two additional violations that were not listed: smoking and inappropriate parking. The consensus for the fines for smoking were $50/$100/$200 and for parking were $30/$50/$100. Kevin will review the Selectmen’s Policy for possible violations that are not listed yet.
Once the committee has completed the fine schedule it will not be in force until approved by the Board of Selectmen.
Larry Foote expressed concern about how the fines would be imposed relating an incident for which he would have been issued a warning without any feedback from attendants that he had violated the ordinance. It was suggested that the attendants do not indicate it is okay to proceed to the compactors if the car at the gate had not completely stopped. Nancy will look into the availability of workshops to help train the Transfer Station personnel in public relations.
Nancy suggested that the fine schedule be brought up at the department head meeting on the 29th with the intention of letting the departments know that town employees will be expected to adhere to the ordinance.
Obsolete Ordinances: Nancy will take the old transfer station ordinance (1978) to the Board of Selectmen for their disposal as obsolete.
Kevin announced that the Board of Selectmen has gone out to bid for a Hazardous Waste day.
Bob Bartlett suggested that Kevin contact UNH for free advice on the traffic pattern through the transfer station. Kevin will look into this avenue.
Nancy asked who was interested in continuing on the committee. The appointments will be made and Nancy will let us know when we can be sworn in.
Next Meeting: The next meeting will be April 4th at 6:00pm.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:50pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Marshall
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