By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — The residents of two towns can be assured that construction will not interfere with their summertime usage of the Casco-Naples Bulky Waste Facility and Transfer Station.

The much-publicized construction won’t start until after Labor Day.

While the construction will not put a halt to getting rid of trash, recycling or debris this summer, nobody can promise that chaotic traffic patterns or mud and potholes will not hinder the chore.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons that the upgrades are being done.

In 2022, the towns of Casco and Naples each floated a bonds of approximately $704,000 for a total of about $1.5 million. By the time the project went out to bid in late 2023, the estimated costs had risen beyond the budget.

Last week, the Casco-Naples Bulky Waste & Transfer Site Council approved a down-sized plan for the transfer site — which will include plenty of pavement.

The top portion of the facility will be paved. Pavement is something most citizens agree would improve the transfer station. 

Casco Town Manager Tony Ward said that the number one complaint he hears from citizens is about the poor driving surface. The number one suggestion he hears is how the area should be paved.

On June 27, the council met to review the new design put forward by Sebago Technics to better fit the budget.

In fact, the total cost of the drainage, bulky waste upgrades and revised transfer site improvements will total about $1.3 million with a contingency fund, according to Owens McCullough, senior vice president of Strategy and Client Development.

The proposed flow at the two-town transfer site will ask residents to exit through the old entrance, McCullough said. The entrance will be through the gate opening closest to the household trash bin, he said. There will arrows on the pavement marking the direction people should go. There will be a lane for driving around the facility. In addition, there will be about a half-dozen parking spaces, allowing some residents to park and walk to the desired hopper.

“The flow provides you the opportunity to have flexible space. With the parking, you can control the traffic. Right now, parking is everywhere. The goal is to move people in more orderly fashion though the site. If folks want to get to the compactor first, they can. The design doesn’t preclude people from going to recycling first,” McCullough said.

Can people learn to go with the flow?

Re-educating the public will be a big part of rolling out the completed renovations, according to Council Chair Susan Witonis.

“It is going to take education. If you don’t have the education now, once it is open and ready, whether it takes some of us to go there for a few hours or whatever, we will need to do that. If you don’t educate them, the parking won’t work,” Witonis said.

There was also some discussion on whether or not the parking spaces would work. Essentially, the bins closest to Leach Hill Road will be moved to the back of the transfer site area, opening up the space in the middle.

Council member Priscilla Kyle said she did not like the parking spaces, and that layout would cause people to be confused and walk in front of other vehicles driving around the site.

“The problem with two cue lines is the transfer station can be gossip central. If they are in car number one and you are in car number three, you have to wait until they are done to move. With the parking, whether they are further down or at the beginning, people who want to stand there and chit chat can do so,” Ward said.

Other improvements to the transfer site area include two new containers and commercial-grade tubular railing on top of the concrete walls of the household trash bin, McCullough told the council.

Some upgrades are mandatory. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has requested the drainage work be done and the retention pond revisited. Also the bulky waste area, with its crumbling concrete walls is unsafe and does not abide by OSHA standards, according to Supervisor John Kimball. 

J Pratt Construction, Inc., based in Minot, was awarded the bid by the council during its meeting in late March. The bulky waste facility will be first on the calendar for improvements. Most likely, that work will be staged after Labor Day and will happen in the September-October timeframe.

Meanwhile, one approach to the transfer site work is aiming for December and January as the time when excavation of old materials and the laying down of a gravel base takes place. Most likely paving might not happen until warmer weather in the spring of 2025, McCullough said.