BUCKFIELD — Residents of Buckfield and Sumner will have to show their dump stickers if they want to use the Transfer Station on Route 140 in Buckfield, according to officials.
The Buckfield-Sumner Solid Waste Committee recently asked Buckfield interim Town Manager Brad Plante to review the policy and increase enforcement of it.
“All the members agreed it is critical to ensure unauthorized use of the facility is not occurring, which affects the cost of running the operation,” Plante said in a news release.
Stickers are free at the Buckfield Town Office at 34 Turner St. and Sumner Town Office at 633 Main St. Residents must present a valid vehicle registration to obtain one.
The committee scheduled a sticker check for Saturday, Sept. 16. Random checks will be conducted in the future.
“It is kind of hard for the two guys who are up there (to check permits regularly),” Plante said. “They have all kinds of things going on. They do spot checks.”
Plante will also examine the percentages each town pays for Transfer Station operation. He believes it’s 66 percent for Buckfield and 34 percent for Sumner. For the 2010 census, Buckfield’s population was 2,009 and Sumner’s was 939.
The committee, which is made up of the towns’ selectmen, met Aug. 23 at the Buckfield Municipal Center to discuss issues at the station. Buckfield Selectman Del Dunn urged the group to review the sticker policy and procedure, according to Plante.
“What’s happening is that we have a number of people in our surrounding communities and possibly some in ours who don’t bother to get a sticker to use the dump,” Buckfield board Chairwoman Maida DeMers-Dobson said. “Essentially we’re taking a huge volume of stuff and it is putting a lot of pressure on aging equipment.”
The compactor broke twice this year and the cardboard machine went down last month.
Sumner board Chairwoman Mary Ann Haxton said nonresidents’ trash is being dumped at the station.
DeMers-Dobson said that when she asked people at the station about their stickers, “A lot of responses were extraordinarily hostile.”
“I just hope we can help people understand that misusing the Transfer Station is not a good idea,” Haxton said.
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