By: Amanda Johnson

NORWAY— After bad weather that flooded streets with inches-thick of ice, the Norway Selectboard wants to make sure that residents have safe access to the Norway/Paris solid waste facility.

Because the solid waste facility is shared between the two neighboring towns, Selectman Russell Newcomb said that it would only seem fair that each town takes turn in sanding ground to make it safe for residents to access it.

“It seems like I remembered at one point that it was shared. Paris [sanded] and Norway [sanded],” said Newcomb. “But it seems as of late that only Norway is doing it.”

Newcomb suggested with the amounts of ice that the winter has brought and amount of sanding that has been done, it seemed fair that South Paris give some form of reimbursement to Norway.

“They have a truck with a plow,” said Newcomb. “It’s really small money for them to put a four-thousand dollar sander on that truck.”

Selectman Warren P. Sessions interjected, saying that he had attended the Norway/Paris Solid Waste Committee meeting the night before, and the same topic was brought up in discussion.

“I’ve been there 15 winters now, and there’s never been a South Paris truck in there,” said Sessions.

He said that the idea of South Paris getting their own sander was brought up at the meeting, but with no success.

“They pretty much shot that down just as fast,” said Sessions.

Norway Town Manager David Holt said that he had served on the Solid Waste Committee for several years, and they had discussed agreements with sanding the solid waste facility, but no resolutions had been made.

Holt said that Sunday, Jan. 12, the facility was closed. He didn’t want residents to think that the facility was closed because workers weren’t there to serve them. He said he told individuals who sand the roads that the facility needed to be sanded so that it was safe for residents.

“Despite the conversation we’re having now, which I agree with, our main job is to serve the citizens,” said Holt. “We’ve got to make sure we serve these people and it is safe for them to walk down there.”

Holt agreed that the shared sanding needs to be more fair than it has been in the past.

“I’ll pursue that with the board and see what we can come up with,” said Holt.