TranscriptSolid Waste Committee Meeting ~ October 23, 2023

Some people didn't require, but they didn't require whatever it's going to be. Will it be taking minutes until we elect the secretary or whatever? Welcome, everybody, to the Solid Ways Kickoff Committee. I'm Jerry Douglas. I've never met you before. I'm the town manager. And what we're going to do today is just sort of get this thing established. not a whole lot to talk about but if we could just go around the room and just sort of introduce

yourself we'll get started so I am Milt Simon I live on the Stackpole Road and been a resident of Durham since 1982 Curtis Timick I live on the Emerson Road and been a resident since about 91 I'm Galvin Blumier, Road Commissioner. I've been here since 2015.

I'm Rachel Schofield. I live on Rennon Pond Road, and I've been here since July. I'm Juliette Kaplinger. I live on Royalsboro, and I've been here about six years. All right. Well, good. I appreciate you all joining Voluntary in your time.

I think there was one other person that's supposed to join us, and they're not here, but they, they, they show up, yeah, we'll have her come in. So one of the first orders of business that we have to do, so let's talk about what this committee is in charge of.

So, you know, we have a contract right now for solid lanes and the cost is growing. So, where does the town want to go with the solid rest of the industry? That's really a broad brush of it. Things to talk about. Do we continue the curbside service? Do we not? Do we look at transfer stations? Do we look at residents taking care of it themselves? There's all kinds of things that the community can talk about as we move forward and bring

I see this committee, you know, leading not a whole lot just as you need and there's not going to be any real definite answers in the future. I mean, I think there's a lot of homework to do. I brought some stuff for you to look at. One of the first things we need to do is we need to elect a chair and a vice chair and a secretary to take meetings or someone to take the minutes.

i've got an example bylaws for the committee they're here you can look at this you can look at these you pass those long these can be your bylaws you can you can uh take a look at this on your time if you want to amend it you can't amend it but the word first thing there has to be

chair chair to chair the rules we need to like probably vote on that tonight we can anybody that wants to work there's anybody that wants to elect a chair or a vice chair we should probably go through that process to get that person on just so that it's legit so is that something that the

folks is anybody want to volunteer does anybody want to elect somebody try to follow the robber's rules you know if somebody elects somebody have a discussion about it hold on that that sort of thing does anybody want to be a chair

Craig, you were most knowledgeable at thinking of the group. It would kind of be a natural group. I don't know if it's too late. No, I would absolutely prefer it. That would make you a natural to be the chair. I'm saying. I'll second that. So, Calvary is an old community, so it's not in this case.

It's not in this case, but in the past, we will use public work. So, I mean, the nomination should come from somebody in the group, or if somebody wants to belong in the cell, then we'll do that. It sounds like Nilt's kind of pushing on his balls.

I'll make that motion. I'll make it. Okay, I'll do it. So, there's a motion. Any other discussion? No, I'll second the motion. There's a motion. Any other discussion? All in favor? Yeah. So, then we need a vice chair. Who would like to be the vice chair? in case Kirk can't make it and there's a meeting someone has to preside or if an emergency comes

off and you know there's a meeting and he just doesn't show up because sometimes somebody has to provide well I'm not yeah which could possibly not be here because of weather or what I do work for another town like I said I'm already chair of a committee so I didn't know okay yeah yeah I'm

co-chair on another committee but I'll share this one I mean not chair I'll be another co-chair One of the best ways of learning things, Jill, that I've learned, is to be the secretary. So we need one of those. I don't know if that was good. That is just the greatest way of just understanding everything that's going on.

But no pressure. Okay. I'll be the secretary. So you have to vote too. Like you make the motion second and you all vote. Yep. All in favor? Yes. Okay, that's good. So we got that. So I would encourage you to look at the bylaws now, or I would encourage you to look on your own.

If there's any amendments on your next meeting, just adopt some sort of bylaws. i do have a question is there alternates or or opportunity for alternates or are we we didn't really we didn't really get we didn't get enough but we'd be willing to take some

on if that was one okay all right okay we just have to fill out one of those appointments okay so just i don't just read this and when you meet again whenever you decide when you're going to me talk some sort of okay all right so I have a few things here that I'm going to

give you so like I said so we have a contract we've been we've had a contract with the seller last year was going to run out so what we did was we got into one-year extension that will run out June 30th so we're going to need to have something in place

July 1st whether it's another contract we go up to bid I mean that's an option I mean I see this as a committee that's going to last for a couple of years like I said I don't think you're going to need to meet too often but when decisions are made or things are happening then you'll need to

and you get information and I plan on getting you more information as we go like for instance we that might be talking does a transfer station work well we have land up there that's just vacant I'll give you those pieces of land so

you'll at least know you're on that can be something you can talk about but I have some information here which is our last contract it's our contract extension It will show you what we're paying, how it's worth. So what we're going to decide is do we, you know, one of the decisions we're going to make is we're going to have something in place by July 1st.

Is that, my guess is we're probably going to have a lot of bid. We just don't have a lot of time. And we need numbers for the budget season, right? So we're going to stop putting together a budget here pretty quick in the next couple of months.

It would be nice to be able to, if we're going to go up to bid, do that. So we have a price to put into the budget. I mean, we can guesstimate, but we don't want to try to stay away from that if we can. But that's a discussion that this group can have and kind of, you know,

I think you'll end to the same sort of conclusion. We need to do something. This is more of what are we looking at in the future as the costs rise. Kurt works at the transfer station, so he knows a lot of this stuff, so a lot of information and experience is going to come from Kurt.

So it's good that he's the chair. should probably let him take it over now that he is the chair would you like to it's just that sort of thing you guys you guys will determine when you need to meet if you get more information and

you want to share that you can meet or however that goes calvin's here more as an advisory and he is the road commissioner public works director so he organizes the bulky waste when we do that And that might be another topic that you might do. We want to continue with both of you for another year and what that cost is.

It's just kind of getting our handle on where we go on with our action. There are definitely options out there, okay? So I don't know if you all want the contract printed, okay? So there are some things I have copies already made.

I just didn't know what you would all want. This is the extension that we're working with right now. Here's some more information regarding solid waste and recycling that I pulled out of the MMA elected officials manual.

It kind of talks about solid waste and what the law says and that sort of thing. Just so you can have that as well. That should be helpful as you move forward. Jessica's putting off some other stuff for you. So, and that's pretty, that's kind of it. I mean, if you want to know how other people are to other people out there with solid waste committees

and their agendas out there on the website, I know Richmond, which is somewhat similar to us. You know, not exactly, but they have a solid waste committee, so there's information out there on what they talk about and what they do, and you know, and quite frankly, some of it is educating us on how we reduce the solid waste cost, and Kurt knows a lot about that.

Like I said, he's going to be able to guide you pretty well on what he's doing and how he works for him. Yeah, how did you see the company that's currently serving us have a meeting with the select board and discuss some options?

They did, so... Is there a recap on that? Yeah, I can recap you on a little kind of going on with that. So, yeah, so the current contractor is looking to go to what they call automated system where right now labor puts the trash and the recycling in the

truck and because of workers comp injuries and just getting good good help these days they're actually looking to go to what they call an automated system where the truck actually has a couple bars on it pulls up to the trash can

picks it up and dumps it itself to help reduce cost labor cost that is and what What they're really looking to do with these, this new way of doing it is getting into five-year contracts. I know Powell just got into one.

And because of the cost and not knowing, they didn't even really get a price for years three, four, and five. It's all going to be based on the consumer price index when they get to those years and how much it will go up.

So they got the years for the first two, but not the last three. So that's kind of interesting. You know, they need to get new trucks to do it. And they look for municipalities that are closed to justify what they do. But that's not our problem, right? Our problem is how are we going to go moving forward. But that's kind of what you're looking at. And from what I understand in talking to other municipalities out there,

That there's not a lot of people or companies that want to get into the residential curbside pickup working with towns. So we put it up to bid. We go to the five or six major trash haulers. We get one or two to bid. We don't know. What are the others interested in? Private. They do it. But like, Toronto comes up here and does the school. So it's more private. So if the town was to stop what it's currently doing,

these other companies would start marketing themselves to attract customers to negotiate individually with them. Right. Hiding or privately. And I'm sure Casella would do the same. They're just Casella does more of the residential side for the town.

And they're trying to do things. They're trying to get better. They have apps now where they track stuff. But, you know, it's all, the industry is changing. And with tipping fees, it's really hard to nail down exactly what a municipal is going to pay because it's all based on tonnage.

So if we educate folks and we can reduce the tonnage, we pay less. So if we don't and we just throw out whatever and the tonnage is up, we pay more. And it's really, all we can do to estimate that is go on what the last couple of years' coverage was

and kind of estimate that that's probably what it's going to cost for 10. What do you think is the reason that other companies aren't interested in doing residential? Probably a couple of companies, one or two are, but two or three aren't. Kurt, I don't know. Do you know why they're going to want to make many people do it?

Labor? It's probably labor, yeah. so it's a daily they get like they get like money contracting to get there this is a lot of safety issues too yeah what is our tonnage what are we doing for it's ready the last 22 uh 22 it's right

here you have that information um in 2022 total funds collected was uh 971 20 it's on page three be in your contracts this one did you get that you see it maybe I didn't get Maybe I didn't put it out. So we can print that one out, too, if you want. Let me see how Jessica printed five years for you. Do we have any of it? Like a... Wait, is it one thing started? I'm so sorry. No, no, no, I'm sorry. It's okay. I think it ain't seen. It's okay. She's going to go print it. I had it. I didn't know if you all wanted the contract SPAC.

So was it bad? I mean, is there a sheet that will show us what it's been? over the how it's gone up or down or what the costs have been over the last say five years um well i guess i could get that to you yeah i could just pull it up i know trash is gonna go up

it's gonna go up in the next couple years but i keep going right yeah i could pull what we actually paid for the tonnage amounts and what we paid for the tonnage that you'll have just what we ended up with in 2022. So do we get a tonnage for recycling as well? Yes. You'll see it. I should

have paid it off. I should have known that you're off. It's just a contract I expect that we'll use when we go out to bed and walk to bed. But we should be willing to have that information everybody understands what the I would I'd like to go all of some time this

December I think I have that bad and I'd like to keep them I'd like to get the bit out there and keep it there three weeks I think that's ample time for contractors and I'll reach out to say hey Durham's got a bit out yeah so we want it back like in

January early June yeah once we get that numbers back it doesn't take long to put that into the budget to give a little history I remember we last time we went up to bid we had a company that did that was lower but the selection decided not to go and it was that same year that the guy

a contractor plowing snow for a town just walked up and left all the trucks on the road so they were very skeptical very concerned about just because they've been on it doesn't mean this guy said he could do it and then as they looked into things he really didn't have as many trucks as he said he had and the last thing i think the slack i'm going to get into is having a company

show up that really can't handle it and then it looks bad on everybody right and i think that's some of the discussion that this group will have and you know being in municipal service for as long as I have, I will tell you that the lowest price isn't always the best value. I mean, could you get a new person in here because they're low, they're going to learn the town, you don't know how they're going to run their business, you don't know if they're going to show up. You know, you might get a company that we've been using, they know the town, they might be a little higher. I mean, it's that risk, you know. How much is that if the cost was, you know, a few thousand or is that worth the risk of trying someone new when you've got

somebody that you've been working with that knows the town knows us it's all those kinds of questions that you'll have to ask you know which way you're gonna recommend and then take that recommendation to the board and then then you drop it off into their hands and then get the final say but if you look on

page three of eight you'll see the history from the last three years of what we collected and the pandemic really threw a lot of things in the mix because a lot there was a lot of trash generated that is a decrease from 21 to 22 right we have people were doing a lot of home renovations

and this, that, you know, thing, and they just, there was more trash, believe it or not, generated a general pandemic. So hopefully 2023 will be even less. And through this group and finding ways maybe to educate people, you know, maybe there's a, maybe there's a way to have a compost station where people can bring it, because food is hell. You throw that food out, it adds tonnage, it adds cost, but if you can put it in compost, That would help reduce the cost.

And that's those sort of things. And I think Kurt will tell you, you know, if you can get to the kids, the kids will get to the parents. And we're all kind of educated. And this is a long period type effort here. That's why I don't think the committee is going to dissolve anytime soon. But you may only have to meet maybe once a month. Maybe once you get more information and as time, you know, as time can match of where we are in a situation,

like we're coming up on budget season, so we might have to meet a little bit more. Once the budget's put together and we've got a contract in place and we're moving forward, then maybe it's just time to talk about, well, is it feasible to do a transfer station?

I will tell you that I've been talking with Connell. They love the idea of teaming up on a regional transfer station. You just don't know where that would be, but they're interested. So it's those types of conversations, bringing people in, how does it work.

I do know that if you were to go that route and the board wanted to go that route and the town wanted to go that route, the step is you do an RFQ to get qualifications for consultants to get on board because we're not going to be able to figure that. We don't have the expertise, right? So you put out an RFQ, get three or four consultant contractors in here.

They do presentations on what they've done for other towns, if they've done transfer stations. You kind of pick the best consultant, and we work with that consultant to do the feasibility study to see if it's even feasible and if it was, well, what it looked like, what we need.

There's a lot of data that gets driven behind that, right? And you don't want to plan your data just because you've got 1,000 tons today. In 15 years, you might have 2,000 tons, and that's what you want to build for, right?

So it's that sort of dialogue as we move forward. We go, well, this is the very early stages. If we do get into a five-minute contract, we've got five years to figure it out. Well, you don't know how the tags work. So, you're all, you're all wrong. Yeah. 26 for the years, more, but they run out for $3 a tag.

But if we go to automated, there would be no way to do the tags. Do the tags. Right. It might have to be a thrill-as-you-go type so they recognize the bag. Because they're not going to see what's in there. So, I've got a question. So, recycling versus... H-W.

Yeah, non-recycling. There's a different cost, right, for those? Yes. does it make sense for us to push recycling is it would it save us money yes right to do more recycling and less trash in general that's something conservation commissions you could drive well it depends on the recycling some

towns are going off in recycling because the cost of recycling is more than the cost of trash it would just depend on what our cost is for recycling as opposed to trash right I'm wondering if we can get those numbers to be able to look at the past couple of years and then going forward too and then on that same note do we have did Kinsella give us a proposal for next year like do we know their numbers if we went to automated

those cost numbers okay there's gonna be more right the truck this yeah it's it's kind of it's it's going to be one so we don't have those numbers you have to purchase all the containers yeah they have a program they can either let us

there is that program or they'll manage it yeah so yeah that's that's another discussion because this cost differences between we manage every last one they manage every time the can disappears we have to replace it right yeah would it

make sense to ask companies for bids like earlier just like general bids to get an idea of what we're looking at or right now we have no idea what we're with that, right? You have no idea what to tell us in a closet. You have no idea about recycling

versus non-recycling. I think when that time comes to go up to bed, you go up to bed with the intent that you're going to take one of those beds. Yeah. So, yeah, whether we do it in two weeks or three weeks, as long as we do it in time to be able

to put the budget together, that's fine. Is there anything holding us back from Senators? No, the only thing that would hold us back is if we did do it and we were getting close to, like we did last year, close to the end of June 30th because I think we signed that contract like in May. So we want to make sure that we do it before that. But we need to have, it would be nice to have some concrete numbers to just put a budget, at least for 2024.

Yeah, and the town, do we vote on this? Does the town vote on, well, it goes in, the town may vote on bulky waste if you decide that you want to put that in as a warrant article. Again, the town will vote on that, but the solid waste is a line item.

Okay, so we don't have to work out. It's part of that. And we need this in place. I mean, they may vote on that as an article. Is it a written article? Yeah, so they won't vote on it. Okay, so it'll be an estimate this year, or in 2020. Well, no, hopefully they're able, well, they're all estimates, really, because we don't know what the fact is.

final tally is going to be at the end of the day. We just want to make sure we've got enough money. Otherwise, we're going to go to a special town meeting. So if we're like $1,000 less, we need $1,000 more, we're going to have to go to a town meeting and ask for $1,000 to pick up the tab. So it's got to be really close. We don't want to do that. Yeah, right. We want to make sure we have enough so we don't have to have a special tally. That's why it's good to get the end so we can budget it appropriately. So based on the you get back let's say there are two viable options will be up to the select

board to pick which option goes in front of the town we're recommended and I'll recommend but the final decision will be this way and most likely the town of the building yeah you're in on a single life and to make the warrant we put the

timeline and we're close up on that together the middle of February so pretty much everything has to be settled by that which makes it easier for staff if it is it's not that we scramble I mean their mistakes get made we want to pretty much have everything all set by mid-February so if we go up

to build in December get them back then that gives us the six weeks January and the first two weeks in February to get everything from a budget standpoint solid waste management is increasing so it's like we're going to get a solid waste

committee together and I actually think it's a good idea I think the town should talk about. So I don't know if you know the history, because I don't, but I know that certainly the, you might correct, the idea of a transfer station that has been discussed in this town for quite a few years, and it's not really received very positively. I'm wondering, I can't remember why it wasn't received positively, and why people might feel differently about it now. What's changed? Do you know the background of it?

one thing trashed the cost has just gone up substantially it's like anything else you want to visit it every one of the years to make sure you things are still in apples to apples why would you remember why people so close to before

my day but that way but it's fresh for free gene to do what we're doing. I'm guessing movie came into play. Yeah. Not to lie back at that. Which is, you know, legit. That's going to be a hurdle. You referred to a piece of later panel.

Is that in someone's back at? Or is that kind of a... All the way in is in someone's back at. We must have... How many companies do we have that just... So we're in the middle, we haven't divided yet, we're just working on pulling all the property that's just sitting there, vacant, town property.

So before you guys do that, maybe Curtis can tell us what's the minimum size of land we would need to have a transfer station. three years I don't want to do and listen as one listen to you have a way about postage to have a hard transfer facility that piece of land said to five

acres oh we're using yeah I know it was like two three two makers but if they they get they only do certain things that's it all depends on what you want do that's right what's up tell tell us about what is what what does it listen do that a bigger

idea we have just about everything there's we have product stewardship programs where we do light bulbs and batteries and all kinds of stuff like that we have a composting operation we have a carcass composting operation we do brush pressure treated demolition

Yarmouth is one of the only facilities, it actually is the only facility left in the state of Maine that has a transfer station and a construction landfall. So that's pretty unique for us. We just built a new facility down on the property, but nonetheless it's a new facility.

So we went to a pay-as-you-throw, a bag system. So, we do do bags. We do, oh boy, we do a lot. We recycle just about everything. And what tells about Lisbon? They're more of a postal station. I don't know much about Lisbon. I know they do do some bulky waste. I know they do trash. I'm not sure if they do recycling. But it's a small facility. So, Lisbon, I go there every week. So, I don't know much about it. drive through you throw your trash in the harbor gets compacted in a big compactor and bales go

into the trailer truck building debris goes into a huge canister and you pay to get rid of building debris so much a ton uh roofing shingles sheet rocks separate well actually the wood is great it goes into wood but anything else drywall shingles all that stuff goes into the building

on the left that's uh they charge by the guard cubic yard on that so we take our trucks two yards charge it to 30 bucks a yard the Christmas trees and leaves and organic stuff goes off to the left that's great batteries light bulbs all that stuff

goes in the end of so they got bay one two three four five day five is light bulbs and batteries and all that stuff recycling company I think it picks up a lot of takes it off so how much ever in my second any recycling is done like

there is there is a recycling section there on the right you're going to put stuff in different bins but so all of that is that in a two-way curve yeah right behind the public works and so they can just drive through you can say I'm not crazy about the setup and that everybody has to back up and you pull in

to the left you get out you take your trash to the hopper across the road behind you and then everybody so everybody's backing up when people are walking in I would not recommend that design but I'd want to have people drive

through either side of the contact and throw their stuff in and keep going straight so what is the cost excuse me what is the cost of each bag you said pay per bag well it's a being most of the towns are going to that because they either have some form of tag system or card system we use

the the bag system and we have two different sizes a large and a small so a large is two dollars and as small as a buck and a quarter or something it's a third party agency that does those and it takes all the guesswork out of it for the town I do not know what them costs are that's the town

manager's deal. Yeah because Freeport I believe has something like that. You purchase a sticker for a certain price and then you can buy a card or hidden cash per bag. Well Freeport probably do that. Some of Freeport is curbside. Same with Yarmouth. Yarmouth does have curbside but you pay for it on your own. And Freeport you pay for it on your own as well? Yes correct. Oh wow. Because either if you don't do it that way like. If you have a transfer station. Freeport

has a transfer but if you don't get your trash that's what Lisbon does you either hire your own person to come get you a trash or you take it to the transfer station but it's good to use one from 30 bucks last year the 50 bucks

this year for it for a step in a minute you and you do pay like a lot of towns They either take cash, Topson does tokens. Either way, you buy Yarmouth, we use punch cards. You buy them yourself for bulky waste, like shingles and construction debris and all this other stuff that there's a fee for.

And everything's going up, so we're, you know, like Yarmouth right now, we're in the process of adjusting our fees and raising for certain items. So was there a price for the sticker to use the facility and then a price to drop off your...

You need to purchase a sticker just for the privilege of using the facility and then you're paying for a bag or whatever your items are? Yes, it used to be a $25 fee in Yarmouth. Now it's $2 for the tag because you buy the bags.

But to get into the facility, you have to have a sticker on your car that says down Yarmouth Threshold. Which is like $50 or $60, probably. $2. that sticker is really just right it's just 50 bucks a year for all the trash

you want to throw and that's it that's their newest is 50 bucks I think there's a fee for batteries and things like that, but pretty much just your sheetrock, roofing, shingles, and then you get paid by the time. But the rest of it, wood's free, metal's free, trash is the $50 or whatever that.

But either way we want to go, we can't do transfer station in July. No way. You couldn't do that if you had the money. right that's a long draw yeah we can talk about later definitely right but short-term yeah we need to figure out do you want to continue with curbside if you do we gotta put it up to mid if you don't

we gotta have to listen to something to take care of ourselves yeah and so that's an option where wouldn't go and you can always tie these halls up on your own as a private residents and work on something with them I would see a lot of trash

went off the window. Do private hauls typically take over? Yeah, like we'd be thinking about public works. Yeah. I'm not really sure with the laws these days. Well, private hauls pretty much take anything. Yeah, you can do dump guys. It depends. Some private haulers will haul it and you pay the tipping fees wherever they haul it, you know, but then you're opening yourself up to a lot of liability.

So these are like some of the things they all have to kind of like talk about. As the towns that are presently in the super fund for the rest of their life. So, you know, like friends with their pay as you go, like I live there, I do the small kitchen bags or a bucket bag.

Down in Five Island, so that's just, you know what that is, that's just a little small community down towards Beach State Park. They have a recycling center and it's pretty simple. I mean, there's only cardboard goes in a container, wood and metal goes up back.

Everything else goes into this box trailer. That's it. They just pay for the sticker. They just pull them in and get rid of whatever you want. So there's a lot of options to what you want. Then down at five hours, it's kind of funny. They have their own little Walmart center where people drop off TVs and bureaus and stuff that are good.

And other people that need it, they cannot even take it. I think there's so many. I mean, Facebook Marketplace, a lot of posted on there. think there's just so many other ways to get rid of that right but that's what they have you know because you get your elderly people and folks that not really

good on the whole I mean every time I go down there with my brother there's always someone eyeballing what they put off to the side they would they love it I'm not so that's what you do it's just all kinds of different ways like I said

you pull in cardboard goes in one container you go up back metal is one pile one is in another doesn't matter if it's a two by four or a Christmas tree everything else you're up a little bit high there's a box trailer down below you back right up to it you just dump

everything you're doing everything mattresses you name it goes into that into that container and that's not a very big it's really no bigger than this area right here yeah I think as you get going we can bring people in to discuss

but in the short term in the short term yeah and we have the contract it's pretty much going to be the contract that goes out just going to change the I'm going to probably try to put the 23 tonnages in there once we collect it or up to at least what we've collected and send that out and I'll call up Casella, Triano, all of them in this area.

You want to know that there's a bit out there and we'd appreciate it if they did but whether they've been or not I don't know. You just don't know if they're going to. three years or did you say Kinsella? Kinsella is only going to entertain a five year contract.

Because we're going to buy the truck and everything. We're going to lay out some cash up front. But we'll be able to compare, like apples to apples. We have five year contracted versus other three year contracted. And so the idea is to send out other companies for automated and non-automated.

curbside pickup we don't get how they do it curbside pickup because they were getting so many workers coming that's why other any other companies are still doing it non-automated yeah most of them you know but they'll they'll slowly get

into that yeah it's just that I do wonder about the cost between those new truck and all of that versus someone that's not when i called in the spring when we renewed i got two responses that they would have to buy a truck for this town yeah from i think it's triano so maybe they all have to or no i mean automated arm truck

is that what you're talking about they were just saying just to service this town at all so that's kind of that's kind of like where we're at like i said when you decide when your next meeting is that i can bring in if it's if it's a good time and maybe it's when it is a good time

we do have those properties that are out there just sitting there maybe they work maybe they won't but at least it's data and you can either you know rule it out or just say well this might work and then you kind of look into it a little bit deeper like i said don't this is this is

going to be a long i don't want to say drawn out it's kind of exciting actually i mean we've got We need to do something to get us better, or we continue just to pay for our curbside pickup. And maybe that's where we end up. But you're looking to the tone of $300,000 a year.

That's a good chunk of change. Is there a way to put it out to the community, to everybody who lives in the town of Windsor, how they would feel about having a transfer station? Yeah, there's ways we can do it. We do survey. When that time comes, we can do those types of things. We can actually use our partner, GP Card Report. They can set some of that stuff up. So if that's what you want to do, sure, we can do that. And there should be public meetings maybe when you get to that point on what they want to do.

and we can put stuff in the newsletter or the news blast there's ways to get the information out there we just need to get the pertinent information that the right information at the right time to the right people and the reason I asked I feel things that you be here and I live

I need to have been getting a couple of ducks and so on so lots of property and I feel that as I'm solely meeting new people um they really appreciate having their property and they're all the acres that they have and you know i always wonder if they would be favorable for a trans

procedure just a thought you know yeah i you know i just feel like it would be for you want me to give up a part not giving up a part of their land but you know this beautiful land in durham you know we're turning into here here's your job you know I think we would

definitely have to publicly talk about it another one thing I think about is are people to drive to this transfer station after having to pick up for so long right are they going to well most of those when you pay for the dump sticker but if you don't want to

pay for the dump sticker okay for 50 bucks you're not going to get my trash pick up it and you can hide your own personal template I think that's the big discussion is you want to pick up or do you like to handle it you know I think

I don't have a truck I can't be holding my Christmas here my couch or you know right now I can hold my couch and put it into my driveway put a free sign on it somebody will come by and pick it up I'm good with that but you know but I can't

do that or whatever I mean I'm saying is I think that I what the two options are going to initially be is to continue with what we're doing or you're you're on your own to find a contractor to come and pick it up every week find your own

and you know you still get curbside pickup but you arrange it with more you want to do it yeah I can't you have to figure out how much that three three hundred thousand dollars would reduce each individual taxpayers taxes to see

want it that's good that's where all economic development is so we can't compete with that right so we have to find ways to keep tack to keep taxes in check we gotta find more efficient ways of doing business because it's to have

to live in a bedroom community one is me it's gonna cost money we don't have businesses that offset the taxes that the residents pay for so that's why we talk about these things is there a more efficient way of doing this

the taxes down to the best we can it's difficult all the services are on the residents back so what services do you want maybe in the short term we could look at what it would cost to get composting set up the public works or something yeah I mean just to say that loosely I

mean I have to make sure that the town of the city of Bath has composting of their public works and that that has happened and that's an option yeah but it's got to come over again and we reduce a lot of weight then you're dealing with animals yes I think you might we still need a permit

we're going to figure out what the cost would be to set it up and talk to the right people but those are options those that's perfect through there is heavy right so yes it is you know use cat litter it's great let's say it's much heavier when

you throw it away than it is when you buy it right yes all of that adds to the cost of that's so finding these ways to recycle do it differently to help reduce the cost that's what this is all about this is sorry for my this cost is firm

right it doesn't matter what we produce that's the cost that's the cost of picking it up okay and then on top of that we have like if you look down below well that's the bulky waste event but yeah you pay by the time they have

thresholds that thresholds if you look at this page that's where that's where it comes in yeah that almost three hundred thousand only for picking well if you look at you look at that so based on today's market but if it gets to be a

a better market it'll be reduced because the tipping fees they fluctuate up and down and it's hard to nail that down to one because it's a volatile market just It's like gasoline, you don't know what it's going to be for one day, but the next one doesn't go across the scale.

If you last one day, you know what it's going to be next. It's difficult to nail down, so you've got to sort of estimate it. Hopefully, we'll see in the 23 days of that, maybe that's going down some. Especially because we did do a bumpy waste day, which was really well organized.

I was really the first time I saw during the bulky list and I got to hand it to Calvin in the school. They did a fabulous job with it. It was really well. It was good for anyway. People weren't going to have it, but then people weren't happy with that. What are we going to do there? Like, you know, propose that for the ballot?

Oh, yeah. Right. We can mention it to the budget committee and let's select board to see if they want to put it on the warrant. And we'll put it on the warrant and see where the vote goes with it. Yeah, we'll get the cost with this, right? It's the bid. Well, actually, so last bulky waste, because we did it before June 30th,

we got the price for the last contract. So the bulky waste price that you see in this event is this year. We already have it. Oh, we already have it. Okay. So if we do bulky waste again, if the townspeople want to do bulky waste,

well, first of all, let me back up. If a warrant article ends up for bulky waste on the warrant article and the people vote for it, we'll have to do it before June. We'll do it right around the same time and we'll get this pricing. Okay. And this is pricing good? I mean, compared to last year's about... It's roughly the same. Okay. Although last year it was, wasn't it $1,200? I did. Our final cost for $1,200. Yeah, so we estimated like... $17,000, I saw it was... $12,000. Yeah, yeah. keep it under 12 grand because that's what was the last one was so we we we we the board and

the budget committee came up with what they wanted to have for a price but here it is right here so if he's basically saying for 1700 per hour that's five trucks we just have to decide how many hours six hours last year that was what the budget article yes so we kept it under

the 12 but I was able to do that James said don't pull over that so that's what we said about five hours the something heard but they also do 125 per ton for this 150 for tires 175 for more so there's a little extra cost in this we

would what we would do is we would look at last year's data and kind of come up with a number that we think some people like it and some people don't think we should do it so that's the battle they can vote well they wanted it back when

they didn't do it that one year so it worked great too and if you don't have it we end up picking it up anyway public works ends up going down but we did this past year and if you don't do it we just ended up picking up couches and we end up picking it up all over town anyway so yeah I mean I'm

looking for that all right why was that they have a poster I don't try to join some of them depending on when they are which is fun it depends on what you're going to talk about it and then to be here if you need if you're looking for

specific information from the tarot or company I can help get that yeah I was thinking about the difference between automated and not automated so we will have to buy those bins and like can you have more than one bin like yeah so one trash one

recycling but if you want like two like you have more than what's going to go in the trash bin can you get another one or i mean i feel like they might have talked about that yeah okay okay but like so there's that cost to the residents right and the maintenance of those bins versus

not versus the tax that we get now, right? The 26, we get a year plus the additional ones that we provide. Which is three bucks a piece. Did Casella give us an option or did they say we're going to change? They're changing. Yeah, they're changing. We don't want to have that in options. Not with Casella. I was wondering, like, if we could just have bids to compare.

But like someone said, we're under... Can sell a little bid if the proposal is for what we have right now. For labor, pick up. You know, I don't know. I don't know, but I wasn't putting it out to bid. I wasn't going to classify it one way or the other. I was just going to say, and then let them do what they need to do.

And perhaps all of them are automated now. I don't know. They'll probably all end up going that way. Because, I mean, if Cassella's having a hard time getting labor, the rest of them are, too. I mean, they were literally stomping and asking panhandlers if they wanted a job.

Yeah. So HR, so trust me. So it's hard. And then on top of that, you know, the workers' comp. It's huge. It's just huge. Will your proposal ask them to, if you were saying we want a price for residential pickup, will there be a place for them to describe what that entails?

Because how are we going to be able to compare that with the apples if Casels is doing the automated, but another company is still doing manual? Well, you've got to muddy the waters if you... The way we can't. Yeah, that's up to that. We just, right, we just kind of put it up to bed, and we're all going to look at the beds, and we're going to take what we think is the best bed. How they do it, they do it in the Volkswagen Beetle for all we can. As long as, no, as long as we are happy with the cost and go with it, I don't want to.

yeah the only thing i hear is is or what i'm thinking of is the cost is one part of it and then maybe a smaller piece of it is the residence what else else we have to do as far as tags or bins or maintenance or any of that is a part of that pretty right well as far as the automated system

i think they'll take how many bags can fit in that container right and close the lid and be able to close the lid because I believe you know because if there's one bag left out on my side so if there's two bags or three bags

our thought is on royal borough road you know where i live like i can't put my bin now on the street i have to put it in the ditch or else it'll fall over so that's actually another really good well you get snow lanes too right so they're going to be in the road kind of like treeport is

sometimes so i don't know sometimes they've had to come back we asked them that question and they had to come back to get another day sometimes during the snowstorm but they do actually have cameras so the driver can see what's coming out of the can whether it's making it in the truck

one one option that I would steer you away from doing it's having the municipality pick it up don't go to the municipal trash you know anyways don't have it don't have your own Oh, our own department, you mean? Adding two guys to his shop, and then we get in that market truck.

Don't do that, because we're wearing the workers' comp mess, right? I bet they are. That's it. And so, and keep that in mind. Don't let the automated scare you away, because that should help reduce some of the workers' comp,

which should offset the people that are not doing it. Because if they're not doing the automated, they're still dealing with the workers' comp stuff. So that's at least Kasella's way of thinking, you know, we're going to automate it.

I can get away from the layup. My work has come and goes, I can still repeat. Right. We just can't factor in our decision on how they take up the drive. Right. You know, whether it's manual or not, they need to deal with that on their own.

And their bid will be delivered. I think your next plan of attack is to schedule another meeting with all of these bottom laws, Get those all set just so you're all in the standard. I mean, every committee should have a set of bylaws. These ones were drafted up. There was a New England Church Committee developed. It's basically the same set. Just changed it to say it's all, that's all. But you might want to say something different. So just kind of take a look at it and go over it. Adopt something, sign it, give it back to Jess. And you're pretty much, you know, on your way, I think. You must, you know, of course, I'm always available. to call and ask questions and Calvin's available if you have questions for him on what you might

want to talk about next but it probably is going to be do we want to go out to bid do we want to recommend to the to the board go out to bid again stop it all together and have people take care of themselves two options like I said power didn't really want to get into a

five-year contract was any other day the only ones that did think they call and once they know they're it then we're gonna pay but you're up against it you know I mean I don't that's why it's important it's important for this

committee so you're all getting understanding on the two to be able to convey that to the town relying on staff to tell them because sometimes it's easier to get their own residents to hear from their residents so this is I think this is fantastic

you got a great resource right there too he's doing it right now in another town so okay so the idea for the bid you have the so we gave you a contract right yeah so this really is I mean if you have me look at the contract go to the contract and if you want some amendments to

that you know let me know or I'll come to a meeting we can we can look at it if it makes sense and we don't have to put you have to think this is like some of the ship term limits on it you know what I mean I'm thinking you know how do we we ask what Becky did over Apollo in other words we don't

have to say that we're looking for a five-year contract we can just say we're looking for curbside curbside let's read this and amend it the way you when you think it should read and let's let's come to a consensus on what we want to put out to

there I'll put it on the MMA site I'll call Triano so I'm a Riverside Riverside Riverside I think we're right on the border when they may come yeah I will reach out to most of them email this to them email it to them so they can get on

anything and it'll be on the website it'll be on the website too yeah absolutely we'll see what we get back and we'll just go from there I think that's sure not doing anything at all maybe you get a copy of our opinion they

just went out so we look at that it's like using the same one that we've all used oh no this is a country I'm in to request for proposal it's gonna go out basically the same thing but I can do it yeah this was the first request for

proposal right on the top of the page well give a recommendation maybe there's the chair and just say this is what we recommend because I'll be here and I'll hopefully be on the same page and say I recommend the same thing and then I'll hopefully take our recommendation if not

they it's all ultimately up to them are they looking for the committee to decide whether they're going to go up to bid this year I think they were just looking for a committee to talk about how will we want to manage us all of this moving forward

okay one of the options out there one of the residents we want to do I think we're I think they're on agreement we gotta go out to bid for this year anyway And then talk about the other possibilities, transfer station, whatever, at the end, but whenever that happens.

But if Costellas provide us a five-year bid, and I wonder if other companies would provide us a more cost-effective bid the longer the term, or no? I don't know if that's how it works, but, you know, if they can guarantee, be guaranteed you've got three years or five years in this town, maybe they would provide us.

less I don't know like I know you said maybe we don't say a year term but if we ask them for the most cost effective whatever term that looks like I am almost positive that if I put a three-year term limit on it yeah because I was going to call and say we're only going to get five right right yeah so at that point do what we do

because a three-year is going to we can probably tolerate it year by year to see what it looks like but obviously the three-year contract is going to be lost in five right and then maybe by then we have another decision right if it was

shorter than five years me as per three five and ten or something couldn't they can put on the blank in each one we can see prices are changing it's just like I said in the beginning I don't didn't even get a price for years three great then maybe it does make sense

but I can't say that on the proposal because you know that the cell of all Well, because that was separate, we're going to get a pipe deal, we know that, but the others. Can you send one RFP out to one company and a different one to others?

No, I would rather have the bid be exactly the same. True, okay. Let's just get them back and see what they look like. Okay, yeah. You know, they might only be one, just like what happened to Bommel. So let's just go through that process, and then as a group we can look at them.

okay what do you like so do you need to hear from these people again before you put the RFP out there only if they want to go over the contract you're going to need it for the budget numbers anyway so similar the better yeah I mean this this

time I mean we're talking it's the first of November so as long as I have it by Christmas we're good and I'm only going to get in three weeks today so we've got time if you want to mull it over and look at this and get back to me but and this is what they've used in the last couple of years and I've got no problem with it I just have to add 23's data to it and that's just so they have an idea of what they're looking at for the age to believe it so it's a bit do you guys want a little more time to look it over he's got that much time

I would say at least we should at least look it over some of them more eyes it could be just one little thing yeah yeah sometimes you get into an RFP in there they're vendor specific right then you have to make sure that you're not steering in a direction where the only better it will be to settle because of the language it's in it with no right that's

it he's right right so exactly so if you put it only for automated we won't get other bits right if you put labor you might not get another bit so let them determine how they want to be the world exactly yeah don't box yourself into a

corner where you're kind of like oh man I wish I hadn't had that in the yeah so so many information we should look at after you know is having the tonnages for at least a five-year span yeah I need you more than that our

previous contract and what we were paying that for that five-year span like tonnages what we're paying for recycling what we're paying for MSW okay I will give you more financial so that we can compare the numbers and see how the trend

is going I know COVID was kind of a real crazy time for trash recycling now it's starting to straighten out and I'd like to see where the numbers are going to go before we I mean we have do something about a contract that's sir did they have a minimum so they did

the recycling and we cut our cut our tonnage way down would they raise their rate it all depends on the market if there's nothing selling like at one point cardboard wasn't moved zero yeah they came in here totally you still

pay by the time then you had to pay by the time you're in so you know and three weeks later it's up to $150 a ton so yeah commodities are based on what they are plastic sure so recycling is based on that and that fluctuates so much

that like I'll come maybe we should use a domain that's something you can look at you I don't know if that's where the well probably knows a little bit more about it but it's a recycle center right for the trashed energy they say oh yeah

like to have it all they burn the trash of course and recycle anything they can get out back out of the metals and stuff like that they do have a recycling portion to that where your recycling goes so basically all they are is a

trashed energy plan really invest the town get any money back for the recycling that they do I think that's really what they're looking no there's cost to your recycling is cost to your MSW and there's a cost for different commodities that they take in there

if you should send them there so when you enter in a contract with a place like eco main eco main does they have owner companies they have they call like us they call it they have owner communities then they have other communities that pay so much a year or by calling to be

part of the domain but the owner communities basically are the controllers of the domain yeah yeah so they're born runs eco main and but it does give you a lot of benefits such as lower cost in recycling lower cost in your MSW and stuff like that so

yeah but how does how would Durham even consider that you'd have you have to bring your trash recyclables to them right they don't have that cost yes actually many years ago that's Durham's trash used to go there so they still would have curbs that would come up here to do that we would

half curbs I'd pick up. So Casella said you would pay your tonnages and fees because you're not only paying for the trucking you have a place like Casella that would still pick up your trash but your tonnages and stuff it

would cost you I can tell you we pay way less but it's all based on the markets too recycling is crazy it goes up down up down what what the Cassella rep told me you know you turn I gotta haul that to eco main it's a long haul it's gonna cost

you more yes how would that look then would you include in the RFP like you know we also want to see costs for Ecomaine or how would you get that we pay Kinsella right that's who the vendor would be you that would be like doing a

transfer station you're not just going to walk in there and the town's going to pony up the money to become a member of Ecomaine okay yeah I mean you have that much money you'd be doing your transfer station that's a long-term thing and that's really what this committee is yeah

develop long as a long as you're looking at doing a contract by a few right yeah we short-term I mean camera we are pretty much yeah but to kick off the committee and I just want you to be aware of the contract and that's really

but really that's our only choice to do it's been that longer what do we want to do that's how do we want to handle this because if it's 300 000 now and it's going on imagine what's going to be in five years although we have pretty much gone through one of

the most high most input inflationary periods of our lives so i can't imagine continue to keep climbing like it has it i mean i think it's not the level off i you know i don't I don't know. We've got to kind of go through it for a while before you really can, like, see the trends.

And say, okay, we're kind of on this inflation period, but. I have a question on our years in the RFP. Is it calendar year, or is it June? July 1st, June 30th. Okay, so we have 23 numbers then. Well, we do have 23 numbers. We do have, yes. Okay, so yeah, that would be good to see. And then maybe like a year or two before that? Yeah, but we've got 20, 21, 22, all of that. So we can have 23 right up until November.

Well, sorry, you said the year was July to June, right? This year, these years? So we would just, it wouldn't be through November. No, we would have numbers from January 2023 to November. Okay, so it is calendar year. The tonnages, but the contract is from July 1st. Yes, but these numbers here are power to cover. Yes, absolutely. Yep. Do we have any figures on how many people move in and out of Durham within a year?

Well, typically, they move in and move out. I think there's like 1,600 dwellings. forty one twenty two hundred people yeah this one says seventeen hundred seventeen forty one hundred people yeah so yeah so yeah that would be the most

recent data I had asked how many dollars do we have that's typically where they're picking up the population they just look at the census data and we don't know what that new legislation that Janet mill proposed it's going to become more in December this being able to put a second dwelling

on any residential lot that's what I would like to have a significant impact over so much trash we're going to be picking up there it's all relative I mean it's things change and that's why it's good to have a committee like this

as well as far as data to sell whatever you try to buy into that you know a lot of times are grappling with the same thing you know it's just a little while ago all that I think so they were going to do any more recycling

because people had a connection fit when they weren't getting their trash picked up anymore and they realized the council had cut it out of them they wanted it back so they got it back quickly and i mean you've made a good point already along with calvin when you take some

of this stuff away they don't like it and then it ends up on the side of the road yeah oh yeah if you take a curbside pickup and everybody's going to take their own trash it's going to be all over everybody's yard you're going to have neighbors with some people have neighbors with

trash pile to the I just want to care it's just that cost other than we should put together a list and put it out for with all our names yeah news.com emails do you have a dot-com email because if we get up all the requests

and we got any other situation it's pretty easy here and send you you just send it to them right now you have to use all of them so maybe you don't use all of them that's all I've ever used I think I have it I don't want to use it do you want to schedule

when it's me so you can return it back into it if I if I put the bed out like just before that's together as you're having me in the prior to Thanksgiving because then I'll put it up just before Thanksgiving I'll get them back sometime

December of 15 maybe the third week of December and that gives me time to throw it into the budget and you know this is really you know how this community is It's really going to have to, together we'll try to educate the people on why we're doing what we're doing and the cost.

I think depending on what we get back, there must be a need to educate as far as our decision here, but if we only get one back, then we're back, right? I think I'd like to have another meeting because I'd really like to just really review this detail.

Maybe we could call some vendors and see if one of them want to come to the next meeting and answer questions about us and see if they'd be interested in bidding. We're asking some questions that only the vendors might know.

you know I didn't have a hard time to get the chain I mean they're pretty busy you'll see that that's pretty big I'm a big contractor then Chris maybe twice already oh yeah I'm talking about maybe try to get Riverside or somebody else you need all my days are open in November okay as far

as I know another conservation committee was emailing today about a date do you want them to meet again give you America for this we should discuss tomorrow before you send it out I send out absolutely so you wanted to send it up before Thanksgiving yeah I like it pretty much yeah I'm

getting into that season which is your name exactly means that's fine so you work for you guys which day five we want so well if we have it at five we're limited by dinner hour if we have it at you know like I'm thinking if you had it at six six thirty then I

probably did it before yeah I'm good anytime yeah it's six or six thirty we're coming in so yeah you gotta leave yourself time to get home yeah 5 would be pushing. It's a little tough for me, too. So, like, 6, 630 is good for me. Okay. 630 is fine. I mean, we don't have to have long drawn-out meetings. No. No, but we just take a break. We killed an hour and a half, but we went by pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah, no. This is the intro, so... Yeah. So, our next meeting should be a half an hour. We should have all our questions answered. Time is money. 6 and 6.30. 6.30. 6.30 is fine. Time to get home. 6.30 is fine. Yeah. All right. So that's the 13th at 6.30. Yep. So thank you. So do we have a motion to adjourn?

So moved. Second. Failure? Very often. This next time. I will take it.