BRISTOL — Selectmen are continuing to investigate the town’s options for recycling at the newly configured transfer station, but did not have enough information to make a decision at their Sept. 5 meeting.
Much of the meeting was devoted to proposed amendments to the transfer station rates. Town Administrator Nik Coates had worked with Superintendent Mark Bucklin to amend the regulations in order to accommodate the suggestions selectmen had made to better regulate who can use the solid waste station and how much material can be dropped off.
Selectmen had been particularly interested in banning material from estate cleanouts after one resident had brought several large loads for disposal on a busy Saturday, quickly filling the bin. That prohibition had not been addressed in the revised regulations aired on the 5th, but will be incorporated into the final document.
The new fee structure limits how much businesses can bring to the transfer station in an attempt to get them to rent commercial bins for their refuse. It defines by truck and trailer size what the fees will be to dispose of material.
Coates said that, while many of the concerns were referenced in the existing regulations, they lacked specificity, so they incorporated the more specific descriptions they found in the town of Ashland’s regulations.
Highlights of the new rate structure include setting visitors’ permits at $20 for two weeks, compared to the $5 annual permit that residents obtain; charging a $20 fee for mattresses and upholstered furniture, a fee that is waived if the items are stripped when they are dropped off; charging $5 per foot for the disposal of canoes and rowboats, as long as they are fiberglass or plastic and not metal; and charging $60 for the disposal of hot tubs.
As the group looked at recycling, Coates said the town had obtained a cost of $105 per ton from ecomaine, a waste management company out of Portland, but the price does not include hauling the material to Maine.
Currently, the town is recycling only glass, with the rest of the recyclable material going into the bins with regular solid waste, which costs $65 per ton to get rid of, plus $200 per “pull” — the cost of hauling it to a landfill.
While recycling currently is more expensive than throwing it away, the selectmen as well as several residents have said that recycling is the right thing to do for the environment.
Selectman Rick Alpers, a strong advocate of recycling, said he’s willing to take a loss for that reason, “but a giant loss is hard to accept.” He added, “If they haul it away, I want to make sure it gets recycled.”
The remark was in reference to recycling experts’ revelations that between 25 and 40 percent of the material handled through single-stream recycling ends up in landfills because of contamination. The town had been using single-stream recycling until the market bottomed out, and selectmen had considered returning to single-stream because source separation requires a lot of space, something Bristol’s recycling center lacks.
Bucklin has suggested ways to reconfigure some of the disposal areas to better accommodate source separation, but he said it would take some time to set up. There also is the cost of necessary equipment, such as a baler for cardboard, that the town would incur.
Resident Boake Morrison told the selectmen, “If you believe in recycling and it won’t cost any more, go for it, but if you’re going to take money out of our pockets, I think that’s BS.” He suggested that the question of recycling should go to town meeting so the voters can decide which way to go.
Bucket truck
Selectmen tentatively authorized the purchase of a bucket truck that formerly belonged to the city of Portsmouth, to be used jointly by the fire department and the highway department.
Fire Lieutenant Rob Glassett said he and Bucklin would go to look at the 1993 International with 23,000 miles, now located in Litchfield, Maine, to make sure it was in the condition the current owner claims it to be. At $9,000, they felt it was a good buy for the town, which needs a bucket for maintaining the alarms on utility poles, and it would give the highway department a lift for trimming trees, as well as providing the Bristol Decorating Committee a way to string lights and banners.
Glassett noted that, currently, the fire department has to use its ladder truck or a standing ladder to access the alarms, putting personnel in danger of electrocution as they perch near live wires.
Selectmen also discussed a solar project at the wastewater treatment plant that potentially would generate enough excess electricity to help power the new town hall. It would be designed to accommodate battery storage, but the cost of batteries remains cost-prohibitive at this time, they found.
