Transfer Station committee
June 16, 2019
Attending: Barry, Andrea, dann, Julie,Chris Jensen
In audience: Cheryl Jensen
Chris gave update on his visit to Mt. Carberry Landfill. They have 100 permitted acres. At current fill rate should last 30-40 years. The manager told them it is too soon for them to make a commitment to accept trash from Bethlehem. But he got the sense it would happen. When the NCES closure date is closer then the Town should contact Carberry and fill out necessary applications.
We discussed TS committee members and the general consensus is that if people aren’t attending they should be removed from emails. The following people only attended one or two meetings when the committee first started, Mike Culver, Gerry Blanchard (though he has sent an email saying he was interested in being on comm. he still has not attended. ) Jim Martin and Brett.
General consensus was Brett should be kept in loop cause he is a town employee that can be affected and may have valuable info.
Someone said that Chris McGrath is interest in still being on committee.
We need to find out from Nicole it anyone besides Gerry responded the last time she sent an email to all original members about their interest in participation.
Chris J. will ask Select Board to put an announcement in next newsletter.for new members.
Andrea will ask Nicole to send out another calendar pole for next meeting. And on that pole it should say something like: “If you do not respond or start attending meetings we will assume that you are no longer interested in being on the committee. “
The reasoning is that as time gets closer to making recommendations it is imperative that those involved should have been part of the fact finding and discussions so that informed decisions can be made. We don’t want someone who has no knowledge of the committee work to come in at the end.
We discussed (but no decision made cause not sure if we have the authority or if it has to be determined by SB), that an active member should have attended at least half the meetings of the year.
We are still in somewhat of a holding pattern because we don’t now if TS is needed in 2021 or 2024. Timing will effect the cost estimates that we get and report for consideration.
Julie will look to see what actions is happening for the “new” application for the NCES expansion allowed by the SB as part of the abatement settlement in 2018.
NCES will still need to go to PB for site plan review. There will still be a DES hearing
Discussion about plans:
Have our own TS for waste but maybe use Littleton for recycling since they are all set up for it.
It was suggested that we look into purchasing a compactor truck and hire a driver to haul it to Carberry. Buy a bailer for recyclables. There is a bit of interest in composting.
Barry likes the idea of having TS at Town Garage, that is not the consensus of the group. Discussion that with golf course lease/sale the garage may need to be moved anyway.
Cheryl told us about ACT composting project and suggested that maybe there might be some towns interested in working together on it in a common site.
Vermont has past law that zero food waste is allowed into landfill. some one should contact a VT town and find out more….Maybe we could collect food waste and bring it to them.
Still need to: Have selectboard get estimate for 3phase power at 116 site and town garage.
Get an independent engineer to check out the 116 site for usability. do we need to have SB request for bids for this, if so ask them to do that.. We can use capital reserve money for that. Barry will work on RFB. But then it was suggested that we hold off on getting this analysis.
Possible dates for next meeting that will not be until August. Of course need to be sure meeting room is available. Wednesday August 7, Thursday August 15, Thursday August 22.
Would like have the survey out by July 15 and responses by July 31.
Motion to adjourn by dann, seconded by Barry
