Vassalboro transfer station committee looks for redesign

by Mary Grow

At their Jan. 18 meeting, members of Vassalboro’s transfer station task force finished proposing revisions to the town’s Solid Waste Ordinance, now renamed the Solid Waste and Recycling Ordinance, and planned next steps for the ordinance and for their other task, redesigning the transfer station (see the Jan. 11 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

Transfer station manager George Hamar and committee member Amy Davidoff had made more ordinance changes, based on suggestions offered at the previous meeting and emailed afterwards. The Jan. 18 discussion topics included recycling; use by commercial haulers and multi-family building owners and occupants; and enforcement. By the end of the meeting, committee members had a rough draft mostly ready for select board review.

Town Manager Aaron Miller had arranged for Jeff Senders, the engineer working with the town on the transfer station redesign, to visit the transfer station and meet with task force members Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 23.

Miller and the two select board members on the task force, chairman Chris French and member Michael Poulin, decided the group should discuss Senders’ visit at 5:45 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 25, before that evening’s select board meeting.

French would like to have the draft ordinance on the Jan. 25 select board agenda. The select board’s version will be reviewed by the town attorney, he said, and a public hearing will be scheduled for residents’ comments and questions, probably in February.

Assuming agreement on a revised ordinance, it will be presented to town voters for approval or rejection at the annual town meeting in June.

The Jan. 25 select board meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. with public hearings on five applications to renew commercial marijuana-growing licenses. Four of the growing operations are on Old Meadows Road; one is on Cushnoc Road.