Sharon to join with Salisbury on new transfer station

SHARON — At a well-attended town meeting on a snowy Friday evening, Jan. 30, about 55 people voted to pass an ordinance that will allow the creation of a shared transfer station authority with the town of Salisbury. The vote was unanimous.

Voters also unanimously authorized town officials to raise $700,000 to purchase the land on Route 44 in Salisbury where the new transfer station will be built.

Also on the agenda that evening: a request to move $20,000 from the town’s general fund, to purchase more road salt. After some discussion, this too was approved unanimously.

Nearly every chair in the upstairs meeting room  at Town Hall was taken at 8 p.m. when the meeting began. A few additional people wandered in, bringing the total audience to about 55 people (including Salisbury First Selectman Curtis Rand and Transfer Station Manager Brian Bartram, also a Salisbury resident).

Ed Kirby was selected as the meeting’s moderator. After stepping to the podium in the front of the meeting room, he introduced First Selectman Malcolm Brown, who then explained the purpose of the meeting and the vote.

Brown noted that interest in plans for the new transfer station has been fairly subdued. A recent informational meeting about the proceedings was poorly attended, for example, he said.

“We are talking about continuing a relationship that has worked very very well for 34 years,†he said. Salisbury and Sharon agreed in 1975 to share a transfer station. At that time, towns were no longer allowed to have “dumps†where garbage was simply left on the ground. Transfer stations sort refuse into categories, such as “solid waste†and “glassâ€; the material is then “transferred†to another site where it can be disposed of or recycled.

The shared transfer station is on Route 44 in Lakeville, on property owned by The Hotchkiss School, an independent boarding school. The school leases the land to the towns for $1 per year. Several years ago, the school told the towns they want the land back when the lease ends in 2020.

Robert “Skip†Mattoon, a Sharon resident, was headmaster at that time; he attended Friday’s meeting. After Mattoon retired, new Headmaster Malcolm McKenzie offered to let the towns remain at the site but told them they would have to pay a market-based fee that would increase over the course of the lease. The schools also said if the station remains on the campus, the towns would have to build a new “state of the art†station, that could be used by students as a laboratory.

Hotchkiss site not viable

Many Salisbury and Sharon residents have said in meetings and privately that they would like the station to remain at Hotchkiss. At Friday’s meeting, Brown reiterated that a private engineering firm had been hired to survey the site. WMC Consulting Engineers of Newington declared it unfit for future use as a transfer station.

Brown advised anyone seeking more details to go to the town’s Web site, sharonct.org, click on “Download documents and forms†and then click on the folder marked “Selectmen.â€

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has also warned that it is unlikely it would renew the permit allowing the Hotchkiss site to be used as a transfer station, Brown said.

“The Hotchkiss property is too small and is encroached upon by wetlands,†he explained. “The DEP said it would be very difficult to renew the permit in that location. And the permit is ready to expire.â€

A 50-50 partnership

Some Sharon and Salisbury residents have also, in recent years, questioned whether the two towns should remain in partnership. Brown said the shared transfer station has created economies of scale, allowing the towns to “hire good staff and get good equipment.â€

“This past year, we received an award and a check for recycling at the rate of 32 percent, the highest rate of all the 71 towns in our group,†Brown said in an interview after the meeting. It is worthwhile, in other words, to invest in the station. Also the state is preparing to push towns to recycle at a rate of 58 percent.

At the existing transfer station, ownership and management decisions are based on a 60-40 split. The station is in Salisbury, which also has a larger population, and it is managed by Salisbury.

Friday night’s vote is the first step in the creation of a new transfer station authority that gives each town an equal share in the costs of creating the station and all decision making. The cost of disposing of refuse will remain split at 60-40.

A six-member board will be created. The selectmen in each town will appoint three members, plus one alternate member, to three-year terms. Each member will have an equal vote.

The transfer station authority will have the power to hire and fire people and manage station personnel; buy and sell equipment; buy and sell land; and borrow and bond money.

The town of Salisbury has not yet approved an ordinance allowing the transfer station authority to be created. Town officials there did not want to  move ahead with a vote until they knew whether Sharon would join them in the authority, Brown said.

Questions, then a vote

After the details of the plan were explained, the floor was opened to discussion. Three people had questions. A woman who identified herself as Carol Asher asked how the creation of the new transfer station will impact property taxes; and she asked why Sharon residents can’t use the Cornwall transfer station if it’s closer to their home.

“It’s a question of our carbon footprint,†she said.

Brown said that the transfer station costs are likely to raise property taxes by a half mill. This year, the mill rate is 14.9 but the grand list is expected to increase by as much as 50 percent, once results of the recent revaluation of taxable property is completed. This will bring down the mill rate.

As for her other query, Brown said that he and Cornwall First Selectman Gordon Ridgway had explored the possibility of some Sharon residents using that transfer station instead.

“We’re both sensitive to the carbon footprint,†Brown said. “But the problem is this. Transfer stations are ‘permitted’ [that is, given permits] by the DEP and are limited to use by residents of a particular municipality. Cornwall has a very small transfer station and would have to enlarge it and get a DEP permit to do so. The town would then have to apply for a regional transfer station permit. And anytime you talk about the DEP and permitting, you’re talking about three years. So the Cornwall Board of Selectmen decided it didn’t want to go that route.â€

Bob Pittenger asked what will happen if the bond issue fails. Brown had explained that the towns are planning to get a bond anticipation note that charges 1.5 percent interest. He told Pittenger that the banks the town is working with (Webster Bank and Millbrook Bank)  have expressed confidence that the bond issue will succeed. However, if the bond fails the towns can borrow the money; the loan would most likely have a 4.25 percent interest rate.

Tom Grunevald asked for clarification on the wording of the vote, and then a woman who said her name is Ann Saunders asked why Salisbury hadn’t voted on the ordinance yet. Brown said that town officials there are waiting to be sure if Sharon will participate.

The vote was then taken and was unanimously in favor of passing the ordinance creating the transfer station authority.

Another vote was then taken, authorizing the selectmen to raise $700,000 to purchase the land on Route 44 (known as the Luke-Fitting property) near the Millerton border; and to raise whatever funds are needed for incidental costs such as legal fees and bonding costs. Again, the vote passed unanimously.

That money will only pay for the cost of buying the land. Construction of the new station is expected to cost between $750,000 and $1.5 million (the higher figure is considered a worst-case scenario).

Voters ended the meeting at a little after 8:30 p.m. with a vote authorizing the selectmen to transfer $20,000 from the town’s “reserve,†sometimes called the general fund, into the road salt line item of the budget.

Brown said he went to the town garage that morning; the garage, when full, holds about 1,000 tons of salt and is about 60 percent full now. The proposed $20,000 would buy 200 additional tons of salt, enough for “four runs around the town,†the first selectman said. “One storm could easily require two runs. Our roads can be very dangerous.â€

If it turns out that the town does not need to buy more salt before the end of winter, the money will automatically be returned to the general fund at the end of the fiscal year.