FARMINGTON — Sandy River Recycling Association directors voted Wednesday to transfer a compost pad and licensing to the Town of Farmington.

They agreed to transfer the portion of land that contains the compost pad at the SRRA site located on Dump Road, off Farmington Falls Road (routes 2 and 27), Town Manager Richard Davis said Thursday.

The vote also included transfer of the Department of Environmental Protection license, he said.

The SRRA vote followed a presentation Tuesday to the Farmington’s Board of Selectmen by Thomas Eastler, professor of environmental geology at the University of Maine at Farmington.

His proposal sought a transfer of ownership to the town to retain the compost pad as an educational opportunity — one that will involve a volunteer coalition of the town, Eastler told the board.

In light of SRRA’s intention to dissolve as of June 30, Eastler proposed a “compost coalition will continue the standard set by the SRRA in being the only publicly owned and managed compost facility in the state of Maine.”

The food-compost program was started in 2006 with a concrete pad constructed on the property. It was the first licensed project of its kind in Maine, using food waste from UMF, Franklin Memorial Hospital and local schools to produce compost.

Eastler proposed an approximate two-year planning phase, during which time no composting would be done.

One SRRA director felt the transfer should require the facility be operational within a couple years, Davis said. But with no way to ensure that would happen, it was not made a condition of the transfer, Eastler said.

abryant@sunjournal.com