STRONG — Selectmen are preparing to face challenges to dispose of town waste and recyclables, now that Sandy River Recycling Association has lost its largest customer, the town of Farmington.
At the Tuesday night meeting, Selectman Jim Burrill explained that the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments has been working with the financially troubled SRRA, a Farmington-based nonprofit recycling business. SRRA, which has served Franklin County for 23 years, cannot afford to lose member towns and continue to operate.
The town of Farmington, he said, was meeting that night and was expected to withdraw its membership in the association and contract with Mexico-based Archie’s Inc.
Kingfield withdrew from SRRA two years ago, choosing to send its waste to a facility outside Franklin County.
The SRRA directors have continued to meet with representatives from Carrabassett Valley, Carthage, Farmington, Rangeley, Strong, Temple and Weld to find ways to make SRRA self-sustaining. SRRA’s fees have been based on the per-capita population of each town, but its costs to transport, process and sell its collected recyclable materials have increased dramatically, leaving little for operating costs.
In September, SRRA Board President Jo Josephson sent a letter to municipal officials, explaining how AVCOG’s and SRRA’s three choices could work, suggesting a target date of January 2015.
If Strong chooses to use the current sort-based system, the town would continue to pay SRRA to collect, bale and sell recyclable municipal materials. An assisted single-sort plan would require Strong to pay SRRA to transport a town’s unsorted material to the facility. SRRA would compact it and have it transported to a single-sort facility.
This option could appeal to small towns that want to encourage more residents to recycle but do not have the funds to buy a compactor.
The third option, a negotiated single-sort system, would allow SRRA to negotiate lower tipping fees and transport a municipality’s compacted materials to a single-sort facility. If Strong chose this option, voters must approve funds to buy and maintain its own compactor and place it on a site that’s available to the public.
“What we have to do is decide whether we want to stay with Sandy River or go with someone else,” Burrill said.
Strong has a recycling ordinance but does not have the means to enforce recycling. Residents must take their trash and recyclables to the Farmington transfer station or have them picked up by an independent hauler.
The Farmington transfer station charges $2 per trash bag, with other fees for bulky items like furniture and televisions.
Strong has a recycling station that is open for town offices only. The municipality has spent $14,762 this year to pay for monitoring services for its closed landfill and for disposal of waste materials.
Selectmen would have to give written notice to the Sandy River Recycling Association to terminate its agreement, Burrill said.
Farmington Town Manager Richard Davis has told Burrill that as long as Archie’s Inc. doesn’t charge Farmington to haul its recyclables, then Farmington will not charge Strong.
“The contract with Farmington gives people in Strong a way to get rid of their white goods, tires and scrap metals,” Burrill said. “They don’t charge us for recyclables.”
When Strong closed its town dump and contracted with Farmington to use its transfer station, the town did not choose to operate its own storage recycling facility. Licensed commercial haulers are supposed to accept customers’ recyclable materials, but the haulers take complete responsibility for disposal of the materials once they are transported beyond town limits.
Selectmen agreed to consider options at future meetings.
In other news, Forster Building Committee representative Joseph O’Donnell told selectmen that older gas stoves need to be replaced with two new ones, because the pilot lights for the ovens have to be lit manually. The safety hazards created when the general public tries to light the ovens will be eliminated. The new stoves are more efficient, safe and simple to use. Selectmen approved the committee’s purchase and installation of the new gas stoves.
The Highway Department is considering buying a new truck for plowing and sanding. The new truck should be purchased now, rather than waiting until the 17-year old truck breaks down completely, Highway Foreman Duane Boyd recommended.
“The new wheeler gets five miles a gallon, and the old one gets four and a half,” Selectman Mike Pond said. “So we can haul twice as much and still get better gas mileage.”
The town’s voters have approved raising $20,000 annually to apply toward future large-equipment purchases. The Highway Department potentially could spend $70,000 or more toward the purchase and negotiate a lease-purchase payment for the remainder over five years.
Voters would have to agree at the March 2014 town meeting that future appropriations will be used to pay that annual lease. If that payment is not guaranteed, the town would have to return the truck and operate with its two older vehicles for all sanding and plowing.
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