By Patrick Anderson
Staff writer
May 13, 2008 05:33 am MANCHESTER — Selectmen are considering a recommendation by the town's public works director to start charging disposal fees for a number of items now accepted for free. Public Works Director Steven Kenney's proposed fees for items such as televisions and computer monitors, truck tires, refrigerators, propane canisters and petroleum products, aim to narrow the gap between the revenues collected at the transfer station and the actual costs of the disposal. Kenney said the town currently spends around $12,000 a year for disposal of televisions and computer monitors alone and does not track whether people from neighboring cities and towns are coming to Manchester to throw away their old sets because it is cheaper. User fees account for only about one-third of what the town spends annually to get rid of its waste, Kenney said yesterday, with the remaining cost borne in local taxes. To ease the burden on the town budget and encourage sustainable environmental practices, Kenney last week presented selectmen with a series of recommendations intended to promote recycling and decrease the amount of money spent on disposal by raising user fees. "The concept is to recycle as much as we possibly can, with both an environmental and financial impact," Kenney said. "There are free programs sponsored by the state that allow people to recycle a lot more stuff. Then there are other things that cost us and we would institute a pay-as-you-throw system." The recommended fees include bumping up the price of curbside pickup stickers, which residents must attach to each barrel for it to be collected, and raising the price of both annual and day-long passes to drop off trash at the town transfer station. Selectmen are weighing exactly how much the increases will be and plan to vote on them after a public hearing on the subject at their next meeting, scheduled for May 19. The changes would go into effect July 1. Last week, Selectmen Chairwoman Susan Thorne said in initial discussions the per barrel curbside sticker would go up from $1 to $1.50. An annual pass to use the transfer station would increase from $100 to $150 and a transfer station day pass would go from $10 to $30. Thorne said figures being discussed for the new item fees ranged from around $5 apiece for televisions, computer monitors and propane tanks, to $14 for large tires and $20 for refrigerators. Along with the increased fees, the Department of Public Works has proposed opening the transfer station on Fridays from April to November, and keeping it open longer on Saturdays. Currently, the transfer station is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. The new hours would be 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays, and 12:45 to 3 p.m. Fridays, with Saturdays' hours remaining the same. Under the new schedule, the town composting site, now open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays, would instead be open from 12:30 to 4 p.m every Sunday. Kenney said the new hours would allow people to work on their yards during the weekend and have plenty of time to dispose of clippings on Sunday afternoon. Taking advantage of new state programs, the town will now recycle ink-jet printer cartridges and fluorescent light bulbs without charge. In fiscal 2007, the town spent $390,000 on disposing waste and collected around $133,000 in stickers and transfer station fees, according to the annual town report. Kenney said in fiscal 2008, the town has budgeted $420,000 for rubbish disposal. Kenney said he did not have a target percentage for how much of those costs should be borne through user fees, and his primary goal was simply to reduce the amount of waste the town pays to send to the incinerator.
Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com.
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