12/12/2014

Long-term look at waste, recycling options to begin with committee

The Town Council on Dec. 8, 2014 agreed to establish a five-member committee to review solid waste and recycling options for the town.

The move puts the review, recommended as part of the 2015-2024 capital improvement plan, on a fast track in the wake of a fatal accident that occurred at the Transfer Station hopper Nov. 24.

The committee will include one representative of the Town Council, one of the Recycling Committee, and three members of the public to be appointed by the Town Council chair, Kathy Ray.

The committee will review recommendations from an independent engineering firm and will look at long-term solutions for handling solid waste and recyclable materials. It will submit its recommendations to the Town Council by June 30, 2015.

The committee will also seek citizen input in its deliberations, a charge that prompted Councilor Caitlin Jordan to propose more citizen representation on the committee. "This is something I think that's going to affect everybody in town and I'd like to have a little more input from citizens at large rather than just three people," Jordan said. She moved for a seven-member committee, with five citizens at large.

Chair Ray and Councilor Jamie Wagner agreed, but councilors Jim Walsh, Patty Grennon and Jessica Sullivan sided with Councilor Molly MacAuslan when she said a smaller committee might complete the work more efficiently. "Every meeting is open to the public and always includes opportunity for public participation," MacAuslan said. Given the short turnaround time for the committee's report, she said she thought smaller was better.

Councilors Sullivan and Walsh said they would be interested in representing the council on the committee.

The study was scheduled to begin after the new fiscal year July 1, but Town Manager Michael McGovern said he was recommending it be moved up. The engineering firm Woodard & Curran is formulating recommendations for short-term improvements to current waste disposal, McGovern said, but "we need to look longer term: Where are we going with this? What major investments might we need to make to look out into the next couple of decades?"