JAY — Selectpersons on Monday voted 4-1 to have the Solid Waste Committee draft bid specifications for collecting trash at curbside and collecting trash and recyclables at curbside.

If only trash was collected at curbside, residents would have to bring their recyclables to the Transfer Station.

Selectperson Judy Diaz opposed the vote while Selectpersons Chairman Terry Bergeron, Vice Chairman Tim DeMillo, Tom Goding and Gary McGrane voted in favor.

The board also agreed to direct Archie’s Inc. of Mexico to throw anything in a bag left at curbside into the trash. Recyclables are supposed to be loose and not in a bag. 

Archie’s has a contract with the town to do curbside collection. 

The town is being charged a monetary penalty for recyclables that are contaminated when brought to ecomaine in Portland.  

The town’s employees are trying to sort recyclables at the Transfer Station when they are brought in by Archie’s to reduce the amount of contamination and the town’s expense.

The town budgets $15 a ton for 200 tons a year for single-sort recyclables for an annual total of $4,500. Officials have been alerted when the contract with ecomaine expires June 30, 2019, the cost will go up, Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere said.

Some towns are paying $100 or more a ton for disposal of recyclables, she said.

If the town has to pay $100 a ton, Jay’s cost would increase to $30,000 annually, she said. The town budgets for 2,000 tons of trash/solid waste at $59.74 per ton, which equals $119,480 annually, according LaFreniere.

Public Works Director John Johnson said he has talked with the crew at the Transfer Station and the condition of recyclables being collected is not getting any better.

The Solid Waste Committee was talking about charging for shingles, according to the June 18 meeting minutes, McGrane said.

“Anything that will defray our cost, I think would be a benefit to the town,” he said. 

“I agree,” Goding said.

Bergeron said they should hold a public hearing on any proposed major changes to curbside pickup when it is appropriate to do so.

Voters approved having the town contract for collecting trash and recyclable curbside collection in April for 2018-19. Voters also approved it last year.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

(Sun Journal File Photo)