Residents react to increased fees many didn’t know about

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — It has been almost three weeks since the City Council passed the newly-revised trash ordinance, and Health Department officials say they expect the transition to higher rates to be smooth. The new ordinance, which includes a $30 annual increase in the fee for curbside pickup and a lowered sticker price for the local transfer station has produced mixed reviews from residents, and Health Director Bernard F. Sullivan said despite the controversy surrounding the increase and a public forum at City Hall, some residents were still unaware of the changes. “I was very surprised that so many people were surprised that the rates had changed, I thought we had done a really good job of getting the word out,” said Mr. Sullivan. “Astonishingly enough we’ve had close to as many people lending us support to what we we’re doing as we’ve had complain.” Despite a number of unhappy residents, Mr. Sullivan said he has found support from residents who he would have expected to be upset. “I was out speaking with a resident yesterday, and this woman was over 90 years old, and any retirement fund that she had was in really old dollars which would mean that inflation has bitten into the pot,” said Mr. Sullivan. “She was very supportive; she felt it was a good system.” Mr. Sullivan said the ordinance was rewritten to include fee increases so that despite increasing gas prices, municipal trash pickup could continue as usual. The closing of the landfill has played a significant role in the rising cost of transporting trash out of town. “The volume at the transfer station did go up between last year and this year, and that is because people are getting used to the way that the system works, and I expect a rather substantial increase in the future,” said Mr. Sullivan. “In another facility, we are paying the operating cost to bury it, we are paying overhead cost for the facility and we are paying royalty rates to the communities that let us in. We went from paying $20 a ton when our landfill was open to now paying $80.70 a ton.” Although rates are not expected to increase again until 2010, Mr. Sullivan said that the city may be able to save some money through advancing a project to harness the methane that is naturally produced at the landfill, which has recently attracted several interested parties. “We looked extensively at getting someone interested in taking the methane gas from the landfill to be used for energy purposes,” said Mr. Sullivan. “It looks like something may happen up there, and I don’t know if we will ever see some revenue from it, but we will be able to avoid some costs. If you take the point of view that a penny saved is a penny earned — and from a municipal standpoint that is very true — it does look like we are going to be saving some pennies.” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 7/9/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 161)