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Select board hears transfer-station revenue rise and capacity concerns
Summary
Transfer-station staff told the select board the town has collected roughly $18,000 since assuming operations in April, is seeing hundreds of vehicles on peak days and is approaching capacity as dumpsters are repeatedly overfilled; staff said they will propose operational changes in the coming months.
Town staff told the Rondeau Select Board on Aug. 10 that the town-run transfer station is collecting significant fees and is nearing capacity during summer months.
Ben, the transfer-station attendant introduced by the town manager, said the town updated prices the first week of August and reported receipts for a recent Saturday of $707 and about $513 on a recent Wednesday. "So far, since we've taken over the operation of the transfer station, which was in April, the transfer station has, taken in roughly $18,000," Ben said. He told the board that on one Saturday roughly 540 vehicles used the station and about 15 vehicles were rejected for lack of proof of residency or for displaying outdated stickers.
Ben warned that mixed-waste and cardboard dumpsters are being filled faster than they can be hauled away: "We are filling the mixed waste dumpster every day. We are overfilling it. We are filling the cardboard dumpster, overfilling it every week," he said. Staff said the town pays its hauler, Casella, on a per-truck tonnage basis (about $300 per truck in the example discussed) and that hauling frequency and cost will affect the budget for the coming fiscal year.
The manager and transfer-station staff said they are testing administrative fixes — clearer sticker placement on windshields, better verification of residency and transaction-streamlining for credit-card payments — and expect to return to the board in the next couple of months with concrete proposals. The board asked staff to monitor tonnage and budget impacts and to provide a follow-up report after several months of data.
