Sharon to vote on bonding for transfer station Friday

SHARON — The long process leading toward approval of a new transfer station for Sharon and Salisbury may finally reach its conclusion at a special town meeting at Town Hall on Friday, April 17, at 7 p.m.

At the meeting, voters will be asked to approve bonding the sum of $700,000 for the purchase of the transfer station property.

“The Finance Committee has not yet decided how to finance the land purchase itself,� First Selectman Malcolm Brown said. “They had considered borrowing through a bank or bonding. However, they have decided to go through with a bond anticipation note instead. The bond anticipation note will be good for one year and has a low interest rate. The town would bond the cost of the entire construction project as well.�

Brown said, down the road, a second bond might also have to be taken out to cover construction costs for the transfer station, which at the moment are estimated at under $1.5 million.

“But we don’t know how much the construction costs are going to be yet,� Brown said. “During the next year, the building committee will be handling the designs for the facility, so we will not know until the committee gets to work on designs for the station.�

The current transfer station, in use since the 1970s, is on land owned by The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville. The towns have a 60-40 agreement. Salisbury manages the station and pays the larger percentage.

Hotchkiss asked the towns to vacate the site at the end of their lease in 2020. Subsequently, the school offered to lease the land to the towns. However, that arrangement was considered expensive. Also, the site is too small to offer significant recycling opportunities and the state has said it will not renew the permit for a transfer station on the site, which is near environmentally sensitive land.