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May 7, 2008 Minutes, Town of Trenton Solid Waste
Committee
(as approved 6/4/08)
Attendees: Chuck Starr, Dotty Young, Bob Kates, Mike
Swanson, Mike Gilmartin, Peter
Rees, and Tom Sproule.
Administrative:
1. Notified all in
attendance of letter of appointment and requirement to swear in at the Town
Office.
2. Agreement for
meetings to be held 7PM first Wednesday of each month, next meeting Jun 4, 2008.
3. Peter Rees to
become Acadia Disposal District (ADD) Alternate Representative for the Town
of Trenton. ADD meetings are held third Thursday each
month at 10AM at Somesville Fire Station.
4. Tom Sproule to become Committee Chairperson.
5. Chuck Starr to
become Committee Secretary.
Committee Member
Requirements:
1. Mike Swanson
to contact Gott’s for info on cost of recycle dumpsters.
2. All members to
look at Salty Way
location for potential Town Recycling center.
3. Contact Eric White and Susan Sargent for interest in
Committee.
Discussion:
1. Bob Kates
(eight years as Trenton ADD rep) led beneficial introduction to his role as
the Town of Trenton Representative to ADD.
ADD being an organization chaired [Director, ADD] by Tony Smith, and
consisting of 5-6 area towns (Trenton, Tremont, Mount Desert, Southwest
Harbor [SWH], Cranberry Island, and soon Frenchboro),
that conduct the business of representing the towns in their administration
and contracting with EMR, Inc (Lee Wooster) for town solid waste
disposal.
2. ADD has
offered EMR a buy out for the SWH Transfer Point, and is still in
negotiations. ADD has contracted
with engineers and experts to support their negotiations. ADD has performed cost analysis to
operate a transfer point.
3. Contract
negotiations are still ongoing, with a potential for a large increase. The current contract expires on Jun 30,
2008, and the new contract will be for the next five years. Contract itemization includes Incinerator
fee, fee per ton, handling and access fees, etc., and can include fees at
EMR discretionary adjustments and cost-of-living increases, numbers that
favor EMR. Discussion centered on
options for the contract to allow the town and committee to propose
cost-savings alternatives, these were:
a. Stalling the current contract, to
buy time for alternatives.
b. Shortening the length of contract
time.
c. Escape clause if town wants to
exercise options to EMR disposal.
d. An ongoing parallel project
(collection point) that would reduce the contracted tonnage fee and test
the effectiveness of a potential solo effort.
4. Some options
to the current transfer point procedures were generally discussed to
provide cost savings and ease-of-use for Trenton residents:
a. Buy land and build a Trenton transfer
point.
b. Direct curb-side pickup.
c. Recycling/Residential Disposal Center
in Trenton.
d. Land from Federal Government for a
transfer point.
e. Watching for a new Bangor Recycling Center
that would facilitate direct shipment of collected recycling for a profit
to the town.
f. Using Ellsworth Transfer Point.
g. Have ADD continue to pursue negotiations
to purchase SWH Transfer Point
5. Start a cost analysis for collection
locations; small (dumpster based recycling), medium (dumpster and
residential refuse), and large (town transfer point). Other towns (Tremont, NEH, Bar Harbor) already have
started variants on these plans.
6. Trenton, having signed
up early in the negotiation phase, has a preferential and reduced fee plan
for the Orrington Incinerator.
7. General discussion and reasons for why
there are so many costly spikes in the town tonnage use at SWH Transfer
Point, with potential areas (honor system management, non-residential
dumping, etc) for abuse and how this may be resolved, and if ADD can
formulate a plan for monitoring.
8. Discussed the need for an education
program to inform residents of recycling/trash management and to alert
residents of any changes, issues and policies concerning solid waste. Talked about using the Town of Trenton web site as
one forum for this.
9. Curb-side pick up was discussed for
problem areas (camp road and bulky waste issues) and could be followed up
with further cost analysis.
Meeting closed at 9:00PM
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