MINOT — Town officials are mulling what to do about local recycling since residents can no longer take their items to the Maine Waste-to-Energy bins in Auburn, a town spokeswoman said.
When Auburn halted its curbside pickup recycling program last month, residents flooded the company’s Goldthwaite Road site to dump their recycling in the bins there, creating a logjam, Town Administrator Danielle Loring said.
Minot residents had been using those bins for their recyclables with no formal agreement, she said.
Because of the increase in traffic, Maine Waste-to-Energy has asked that Auburn move its recycling bins to the Auburn Public Works facility to free up the congestion, Loring said. “And because of that, recycling bins are no longer accessible to Minot residents.”
The change has raised concerns about the status of Minot’s access to recycling options and whether the former understanding with Auburn can continue or whether an alternative must be found, Loring said.
In the meantime, town officials are asking residents not to go to Auburn Public Works to drop off their recycling, she said.
“We are in the process of negotiating with Auburn or potentially other towns to give Minot residents a place to recycle in exchange for probably monetary compensation,” Loring said.
A spokesman from the Minot Fire Department on Monday night reviewed with the Board of Selectmen its Capital Improvement Program.
That review included timing of building repairs, equipment replacement and anticipated staffing needs.
The Minot Fire Department must follow National Fire Protection Association standards for replacing trucks and other equipment, Loring said.
That means that sometimes the town is able to set aside enough money each year to buy a new truck and sometimes the town needs to buy a truck by borrowing the money, Loring said.
The timing of replacement for that equipment appears to be between 2026 and 2030, she said.
Town officials are “looking ahead to see how we’re going to fund that, whether it’s going to be with reserve accounts or bonding, because pieces of fire apparatuses are relatively on the more expensive side because they’re … specialty items,” she said.
The price range varies from $300,000 to half-a-million dollars for a piece of equipment, she said.
After purchase, a truck must be outfitted and customized before it can be put into service, Loring said.
Local officials also talked Monday about using American Rescue Plan Act money to pay for items needed at the Fire Department, such as new and updated laptops, radio equipment, vehicle exhaust piping and a so-called “extractor” or a specialized washing machine made for firefighter gear that is used to remove carcinogens and debris that can reduce the lifespan of firefighting turnout gear,” she said.
The town still has $98,400 remaining of the $260,000 it received from the federal government under ARPA, Loring said.
Most of that funding has been spent by the town extending broadband service, she said.
The ARPA money must be committed by January 2024 or else the town must declare it to be “lost revenue,” Loring said.
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