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02/05/2020 TSC Minutes

 

Bethlehem Transfer Station Committee

Bethlehem, NH

 

Minutes of the Meeting

February 5, 2020

 

Committee members attending:  Barry Zitser, Dann, Nancy Strand, Julie Seely, Katherine Darges, Andrea Bryant, Chris McGrath (arriving late)

Guests: Julian Czarny, Margaret Gale

The meeting came to order at 6:35 pm.  Minutes of the last minute were approved.

Nancy Strand updated the group regarding additional information on Organization Zero Waste.  She learned that it is really more of an organization that trains individuals in making their town to make their communities zero waste.  They do not work with any towns in New Hampshire.   The closest member is in Vermont.

Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) will host a conference on May 18-19, 2020 at the Manchester Conference Center called “Think Outside the Bin, Exploring the 5 Rs (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot)”.  The purpose of the conference is to emphasize how the industry’s stakeholders can problem-solve to improve municipal resource recovery throughout the Northeast and beyond.  Their website is NRRA.net

TSC members discussed other possible resources for zero waste information.  Julie Seely suggested talking with Kirstie Pecci from the Conservation Law Foundation.   Barry Zitzer will contact the Foundation for more information.

Barry suggested contacting Gary Liss of Gary Liss & Associates in California, a leader in zero waste, for suggestions.  He gives seminars, has a podcast, and provides other support to organizations setting up programs.

The town can reduce waste by as much as 20% by keeping food waste out of the landfill.  To help residents with this, the TSC is putting together a list of ideas and products that may be helpful in reducing what goes into the landfill.   Dann mentioned a home food waste recycler that dehydrates food scraps turns them into compost in just hours.  Nancy said that residents might be able to place a bulk order for town residents of composting bins.  Julian Czarny did that for a group years ago.    NRRA might have a sale this spring on the containers.

The US Department of Agriculture Program for Rural Development has a grant program for planning and management of solid waste sites in rural areas.  Awards can be as much as
$1 million, depending upon the specific program.  Grant applications are due by December 31, 2020.  The question was raised about whether the TSC needs permission from the Select Board before writing a proposal, or if we should write a proposal and present it to the Select Board for approval Solid waste management grant program.

Dann would like to have any plan that the TSC develops for waste removal be revenue neutral.  Nancy asked Dann about his desire to have a tax neutral transfer station. As a new member she was just curious.

Barry made a motion to appoint a subcommittee for grant proposals.  Katherine Darges seconded it.  The motion was unanimously approved.  Barry Zitzer, Katherine Darges, and Nancy Strand agreed to be on the subcommittee.

New Hampshire the Beautiful has grant for as much as 50% of the cost of equipment needed in for trash/waste removal.  The town is not ready to apply for such grants at this time.

The TSC needs to present to the Select Board updated cost and suggest our best options, and we need to know a proposed operating date for this transfer station before applying for some grants.

The Committee discussed the petitioned warrant article that would direct the Select Board to spend capital reserve funds for a study on trash removal in Bethlehem that would provide the same services the town now gets from North Country Environmental Services (NCES). The committee believes that this expenditure would be a waste of the funds since the town already has done some of this work and also needs lower cost and environmentally-friendly options.

To clearly state the TSC’s position on the petitioned warrant article, Barry wrote a draft of a Letter to the Editor to be published in the Littleton Courier the Caledonian Record.  Andrea Bryant felt that the letter was too long and that most people wouldn’t read it all.  She suggested that there was a possibility that it could be a guest column instead.
Barry agreed to have Katherine and Andrea tighten up the letter without making substantive changes.  Andrea will determine the best timing for it appear in papers.
Dann said that he wanted the letter to the editor say that it was the opinion of the majority of the Committee since he is opposed to some particular points.  He was out-voted and the letter will be signed “Transfer Station Committee”.  Dann agreed to this and said that he would write a separate letter to the editor explaining why he voted against the TSC’s letter.  It will appear in the same issues of the newspapers as the Committee’s letter.

Julian told us about Seacoast Farms Compost Products off Rte101 in Fremont, NH, an open air composting facility.

Uniwaste in Pease, NH, accepts electronic waste.

Bag and bottle recycling bills come up in the New Hampshire legislature every few years, but never pass.

Barry spoke about the excellent NRRA webinar, about which he sent slides and information to committee members.  Nancy said there are slides that we can use in our presentation to the Select Board.

Littleton produces glass aggregate for roads.

At the TSC’s next meeting we should review the original charter of the committee, and review current DES rules and regulations.  We also should start working on a timeline and options for putting alternate plans for trash removal services into place.  This will be difficult until we know what will happen with the current transfer station.

The Committee spoke about the need to get more input from the townspeople, and provide them with information about what we are doing.  One way would be to summarize our activities and give Chris Jensen something for the Board of Selectmen’s newsletter.  We could also ask Chris to summarize our activities at Select Board meetings.

Katherine has done some research on Nantucket, MA, and its zero waste program.  It is considered among the best in the country.  She will send us the link to their work.

Consensus of the TSC:  people need to do better reducing the waste we produce and to stop sending stuff to the landfill.

Dann suggested that it could be helpful to have documents presented at our meetings projected on the screen in the meeting room.  Andrea is going to bring laptop and try it out.

Nancy mentioned that, as part of its cooperative recycling program, the NRRA has a “Recyclemobile”.  It is available for events to collect recycling.  Anyone who sponsors an event in Bethlehem can contact the NRRA and get the Recyclemobile.

Members spoke about emails.  As a committee we were unaware that we had to follow all the same rules as town Boards until Chris Jensen recently told us that we should not have discussions using email.  We only can send information to each other and set dates.

The next meeting was set for Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30pm in the Town Hall.

 

Motion to adjourn was made by Andrea and seconded Dann.    The meeting was adjourned.