Changes coming for trash disposal

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Starting May 1, it will cost residents more money to toss their garbage if they use the vehicle scales at Pine Tree Waste Services’ transfer station on Alice Avenue.
    Houlton town councilors learned of the change in disposal practices during Monday night’s meeting when Brian Hovey, market area manager for the northern Maine hauling division of Casella Waste Systems, addressed the board.
    Under the new system, customers who use the vehicle scales to weigh how much garbage they have, will be charged a flat fee of at least 200 pounds, or about $20, per visit. Those with trash in excess of 200 pounds will be weighed and charged an appropriate weight.
    Hovey said the Department of Agriculture approached his company about six years ago regarding its use of truck scales in weighing smaller vehicles, because of how inaccurate they were at deciphering weights under 200 pounds. Hovey said his company resisted the request initially because so many individuals in the greater Houlton area prefer to bring their garbage in pick-up trucks as opposed to the other options of paying per bag, using curbside pickup or renting dumpsters.
    “We requested if they (Department of Agriculture) were to go down that avenue, don’t just single us out in our business,” he said. “We asked if it was going to be done to similar businesses statewide.”
    After a couple of weeks, Hovey said, his company received a response stating it was OK to proceed with business as usual.
    “We were allowed to continue doing business the way we were,” he said.
    That plan changed, however, when the Department received a residential complaint from a customer about inaccuracies on the scales.
    “Our scales are state-certified and calibrated on a regular basis,” Hovey said. “This time we were given the directive that we had to follow (the recommendation).”
    Hovey explained the truck scales were intended to be used for heavy weights, and not pinpointing weights less than 200 pounds.
    “Anything under 200 pounds can fluctuate a few pounds in either direction,” he explained. “The sense was always that it would balance out over time.”
    Residents may choose to purchase purple bags from Pine Tree Waste Services to dispose of their garbage without weighing them. Each bag is reported to hold 25 pounds and costs $2.65 for Houlton residents. Those from other towns who use the transfer station may be charged a different rate for the bags, depending on the contract agreement their town has with Pine Tree Waste.
    Additionally curbside and dumpster services will remain unchanged.
    Councilor Rob Hannigan said he personally prefers to use the scale system for disposing of his trash as it affords him the freedom of disposing with a little or a lot of trash at once, without having to fit it into a bag.
    Councilor Nancy Ketch agreed saying there were a large number of people in Houlton that prefer to bring their garbage to the transfer station in pickups.
    “Houlton’s setup is very different from a lot across the state,” Hovey said. “The truck scales are typically used for larger trucks. There are very few transfer stations that use truck scales.”
    Hannigan also asked what happened to the small scales that were previously located inside the transfer station. Those scales were used to weigh individual bags, but the problem, according to Hovey, was that it created a logjam of people waiting to get inside the building to dispose of their trash.
    “We were trying to funnel more people away from the drive-thru area, which contains our recycling area,” Hovey said. “It was getting very congested, especially on Saturdays.”
    Councilor Sue Tortello chastised Hovey for the communication between his company and the town on the subject.
    “The inspection was done in January,” Tortello said. “We didn’t hear anything until April 9. It was kind of similar to when you went to the purple bag program. We had a problem with communications then. We found out about it by reading it in the Pioneer Times. That’s a difficult way to find out about it.”
    Tortello added the purple bag system is already benefiting the company more than the resident.
    “Most people find it very difficult to stuff 25 pounds into those bags,” Tortello said. “You really have to have compacted garbage to fit that much into the purple bags. So I think you are doing quite well with your garbage collection that way.”
    Tortello asked Hovey to seriously consider bringing the smaller scales back for people to use.
    “I understand your suggestion, but we were dealing with on a regular basis, especially on Saturdays, a lot of impatient and upset residents for how long they would have to wait,” Hovey said. “What we were finding to be even more frequent were a lot of drive-offs. We have tried to look at every way to make it an easy streamlined process.”