|
Town of Trenton
Solid Waste Committee
Agenda for June 4, 2008 meeting
1. Attendance – is everyone sworn in?
2. Official election of officers
-Chairman,
Secretary, any others?
3. Vote to accept minutes from May 7, 2008 meeting
(attached)
4. Bob Kates handouts
5. Update on status of Eastern Maine Recycling (EMR)
contract
6. Discussion of recycling dumpsters for cardboard and
newsprint
-cost
of dumpsters (Mike Swanson)
-location
-arrangements
for pickup
-do we
have a recommendation to pass to the Selectmen?
7. Continue discussion of possibly locating a large
dumpster in Trenton
for regular trash to be hauled directly to incinerator, and other possibly
ways of cutting out ‘middle man’ expenses.
8. Communicating information to citizens
-web
site, Trenton TV, other (how to post, who will make it happen)
-how to
dispose guidelines (compost, fluorescent bulbs, microwaves, etc.)
-add
SWC regular meetings to town calendar
-post
special events, such as fall MDIHS toxic drop off
9. Other topics?
10. Adjourn meeting
Next meeting is Wednesday, July, 2, 2008, 7PM in the
town office.
Minutes for June 4, 2008 meeting (as approved 7/2/08)
Attendees: Dotty Young, Bob Kates, Mike Gilmartin, Peter Rees, and Tom Sproule.
Administrative:
1. Letters of
appointment were available today for all members of the Solid Waste
Committee, including the five present plus Chuck Starr, Mike Swanson, Garry
Webber and Eric White. Members present were reminded of
requirement to present their letters at the Town Office to be sworn
in. Although Tom is the only one
present who has done this so far, we are treating this meeting as
‘official’, and voting where required.
2. Election of
officers: Tom
Sproule is nominated and elected to be Chairman – 5
yes, 0 no. Chuck Starr is nominated
and elected to be Secretary – 5 yes, 0 no.
3. In absence of
Chuck, Tom is taking the minutes for tonight’s meeting.
4. It was mentioned
that for Peter to ‘officially’ become the alternate
representative to the Acadia Disposal District, he needs to be appointed by
the Selectmen, so that should be brought to their attention.
Discussion and
action items:
1. Bob Kates had
handouts for us to help us better understand our solid waste. Some highlights: (1) Weights for determining our per ton
charges by EMR and PERC are both based upon the weight at the EMR gate/scales
and the driver’s statement of what percentage is from our town
– trash from all towns is commingled before being sent to PERC. (2)
The policy to remove corrugated cardboard from the waste stream had an
immediate impact on weight. For example, .6 tons of corrugated cardboard
was collected in February 2004, 10.7 tons were collected in February
2005. While our recent agreements do
not make us money from the recycled cardboard, we are at least not paying
the waste disposal charges for that weight.
2. Bob provided
for our inspection a couple of copies of the “Final Report, Solid
Waste Management Options for Acadia Disposal District”. A separate summary handout showed us that
while various strategies considered had widely varying initial capital
costs, the general operating costs were all rather similar. One option we have kicked around which
the report did not consider is to
have some form of in town trash collection which takes it directly to PERC
(bypassing EMR and thus saving about ½ of our per ton costs) but which does
not require the capital expense of a full-blown transfer station.
3. Update of EMR
contract. There have been no changes
since our last meeting, however, it is anticipated that EMR will attempt to
present a proposed contract on short notice and pressure the town to sign
on to it by July 1 – which is prior to our next SWC meeting. Action
item: Tom will ask Janet Muise to provide
us with a copy of the contract when it becomes available. Further, when a meeting is scheduled for
EMR to present the contract to the Selectmen for consideration, members of
the Solid Waste Committee should attempt to attend.
4. Consideration
of dumpsters for paper and cardboard recycling: Mike Swanson was supposed to contact Beth
Gott after our last meeting and report to us concerning the costs to buy or
rent dumpsters and to have them dumped as needed. Since he was not here tonight, that
information was not available.
However, the Committee strongly felt that the costs would be
justified, and that we should proceed with a proposal to make to the
Selectmen at their next meeting (Tuesday, June 17). Action
item: Dotty will contact Mike Swanson to see if he has the
information from Beth Gott. Action item: If he hasn’t, Mike Gilmartin will contact Beth Gott to get that
information. The committee members
present discussed possible locations for the dumpsters. Due to the construction mess, and being
‘out of sight, out of mind’, we felt that the Salty Way area
near the salt and sand storage facility was not appropriate. We unanimously agreed that the far end of
the Town Office parking lot was the best location to start the recyclable
collection, due to its high visibility and plenty of room. It is possible that they may be moved to Salty Way in
the future, especially if we choose to expand the number of containers and
space required. Action item: Dotty will inform Janet that we
intend to make a presentation at the next Selectman’s meeting on June
17. Action item: Tom will make the presentation, and
other members of the SWC will attempt to attend and offer input if
needed. Dependent on having the cost
information by then, Tom will present the SWC recommendation that the town
either purchase or rent two dumpsters for collection of paper and
cardboard, that they be placed at the far end of the Town Office parking
lot, and that arrangements be made concerning pickup. Details of signage and parking lot
markings have not been addressed at this time.
5. Concerning the
idea of the town obtaining a large dumpster for collection of trash for
direct shipment to PERC (bypassing EMR), the Committee members present
agreed that it is a more distant goal, lower on the list of priorities, and
that we will not take action to research it further at the present. In conjunction, we discussed the
possibility that companies that collection trash from households might be
persuaded or given incentives to take the trash directly to PERC rather
than to EMR.
6.
Communication: Committee
members present agreed that it is desirable to start a
‘information/advertising campaign’ to help inform Trenton residents
about the paper and cardboard recycling dumpsters and other information
which can help them dispose of their waste properly, and hopefully reduce
our total waste bill. Viable means
of communication include postcard mailings, the town website, the town
cable TV channel, and handouts to (and education of) the town’s
children through the elementary school.
Committee members agreed that all of these methods of communication
can be successful, and that none of them make others unnecessary. Peter expressed interest in working on
postcards. Tom volunteered to do
website work. Bob volunteered to
help Tom with the website work. We
agreed that in conjunction with the presentation to the Selectmen
concerning the recycling dumpsters, we should also present them with our
recommendations concerning communication.
Action item: Tom’s presentation to the selectmen
concerning the recycling dumpsters will include the follows communication
recommendations:
- That the town will pay for approximately 3 mailings
per year to town residents to inform them of solid waste news, such as the
start of the paper and cardboard recycling program or the date of the
universal waste drop off (October at MDIHS).
- Concerning the town web site, the SWC requests permission
for a link from the Town main webpage to a new SWC news page, to be managed
by Tom Sproule.
- Concerning the town cable TV channel, we seek approval
from the Selectmen to prepare and post information as we feel it is
appropriate (nothing specific at the moment – the dumpster news would
likely be first).
- Concerning the school, we seek approval to approach
the school principal about possibly implementing ‘waste
awareness’ educational activities and sending home waste disposal
information as part of the students’ weekly newsletters.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM.
|
