By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

The loss of Sunday to dispose of trash has been a major talking point for Bridgton folks since town officials made the change in July.

While the number of hours the Transfer Station is open remains the same, some people find the change inconvenient, including Select Board member Bob McHatton.

Hours, however, isn’t the only piece of the waste disposal puzzle that received a closer look recently by the Select Board.

Public Service Director David Madsen gave officials a big picture view of how the facility is currently operated, what equipment and improvements that will need to be tackled in the near future, and whether Bridgton needs to hire an engineering firm to evaluate the site and make recommendations for how the town should proceed going forward.

A workshop was held to discuss the Transfer Station operations.

“It’s an older facility. I’d like to get the board’s feedback as to which direction they want us to head in as to updating the facility and streamlining it to make it a little more efficient and hopefully cost less money to run,” Madsen said.

Madsen gave a detailed report, which later drew praise from McHatton. Points covered included:

• Would it be feasible for the town to purchase two trucks to haul household waste and recyclables to ecomaine vs. continue to subcontract? Madsen said the current cost is about $25,000 per month (figure based on expenses in September). Metal and wood waste, which is tossed in separate open containers, is hauled off to Casella or North Country Recycling.

Madsen pointed out that trucking costs is about as third of the Transfer Station budget ($915,000) — “just shy of $300,000 that we pay to have our materials trucked to these various facilities,” he said. Current trucking prices is $595 for NCR to pick up a municipal waste container, transport it and dump it at ecomaine, and drive the can back to Bridgton. In September, there were 19 trips to ecomaine.

“They could make three trips in one day or no trips the next day...On average in the summer, we get five hours out of a municipal solid waste (MSW) can and one day out of a single-sort can (over the 10-hour day) — so that’s three trips to ecomaine,” Madsen said. “That’s not including demo and metal cans.

Hauler North Country Recycling keeps an older truck at the Transfer Station, which is used to remove a full container from the compactor and insert an empty one. The town rents that truck.

Madsen pointed out that the overall weight of canisters is regulated, and towns can be fined for surpassing those restrictions.

“We are right at the cusp of legal. We’re putting as much in as we can to be as efficient as we can. We can’t put any more (waste) in to drop the number of loads down without going over the limit,” he said.

When asked about whether the town put hauling out to bid, Madsen said “yes” and NCR gave the best price.

“Last year, I called a couple of companies and I couldn’t even get anybody to give me a number. They were as busy as they wanted to be. Because of the difficulty of hiring truck drivers, they just weren’t able to take on extra customers,” Madsen said. “I believe we have about as inexpensive a trucking company that will do this.”

One way to reduce disposal costs is to pull items out of the waste stream that can be recycled. The town plans to ask ecomaine to conduct a “blue tarp audit,” which identifies what is being tossed as waste, but could be recycled. Select Board member Carrye Castleman-Ross is Bridgton’s rep at ecomaine.

Madsen looked at what other towns are doing to reduce the municipal waste stream. Wiscasset and Freeport charge per bag and by weight. Freeport charges 90 cents for each bag of household waste up to 30 pounds. Wiscasset charges $2 per bag.

Officials were quick to point that pay-per-bag has been voted down three times here. One option would be to weigh household waste and charge, much like what is presently done with demolition materials.

“Sounds pretty labor intensive,” Select Board Chair Carmen Lone said. “That sounds like it’s expensive.”

“We’re just throwing out options,” Madsen answered. “I’m not making suggestions. I’m just letting you know how other towns are doing this.”

A weigh-in approach would require an attendant to man the booth. As far as money goes, the town has installed a device so electronic transactions can be done.

Or, the Select Board could enact a pay-per-bag policy. With the solid waste budget set to creep past $1 million, McHatton said some type of action is needed.

To take on hauling itself, the town would be looking at these expenses — purchase five open top containers ($8,000) that are currently rented from NCR at $500 monthly; two trucks to haul and move containers at the Transfer Station, $280,000, and additional staff.

Up next was a look at existing equipment and the facility.

One major expense on the horizon is replacement of the recycling compactor. It has roughly six years left (life expectancy is 40 years), and carries a replacement cost between $80,000 to $105,000. The trash compactor has about 22 years of use left.

Another big ticket item is the scale, which is rated as in “poor” condition and life expectancy at “not long without retrofit or replacement.” Madsen noted that finding replacement parts is “an issue.” Replacement will be in the $40,000 to $160,000 range.

The need-to-address list also includes a backhoe (three years left, cost $55 to $75,000) and paving, which was last done sometime close to 1980. Present conditions are considered “poor.” Cost estimated at $180,000 — a price Madsen said was given two years ago.

“It was last paved about 40 years ago, so it’s in dire need of getting a new coat of pavement,” Madsen said. When asked whether the town could tackle it in phases, Madsen felt it “wouldn’t be worth it to piecemeal it together” and could pose more problems disrupting the flow of usage. “It would be much easier to just get it done,” he added.

Madsen pointed out that a backhoe used by Public Works could be moved to the Transfer Station and a new backhoe be purchased for Public Works, which uses the machinery more frequently.

Since the town no longer uses its baler, the Select Board gave Madsen the go ahead to sell it.

Finally, Madsen tackled the most costly item — the Transfer Station building. The wooden structure was built sometime close to 1979 (officials were unable to find any documentation as to when it was built). It is considered in “poor” condition. To replace it, the price tag could be in the $2 million ball park.

Before the town dips its toe into those waters, Madsen recommended that the entire site should be evaluated and a site plan created. By hiring a professional versed in Transfer Station operations, Madsen feels the town will receive concrete recommendations to develop a highly efficient facility.

The cost for a “concept plan” would be $5,000.

The ensuing work would include field investigation, full design, permitting and bid process. The “whole process” could carry a price of $85,000.

“At $5,000, we can get a nice conceptual plan for what we want. Then, we either go through the whole process and find out how much it is going to cost or we say we can implement a couple of these things just to get us going in the right direction before we go to any of these other steps,” Madsen said. “But, we need to do that first step first.”

The Select Board supported the idea of the study.

And, what about the Transfer Station hours? That conversation took place at the Select Board meeting. Selectman Bob McHatton made no bones about wanting to return to Ts & Ss (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday), and asked Madsen what it would take personnel wise to make it happen — such as hiring either part-timers or per diem staff. Madsen will work up some numbers for the board to look at.

Meanwhile, Selectman Ken Murphy noted that the board had agreed to run with the present schedule for a year, and then revisit it. Part of the change was to give Transfer Station workers work-life balance, and Murphy felt the town should honor the agreement to let the new hours of operation stay in effect for the period agreed upon.

The board agreed.