Contributed photo/Fred GrantThe Houlton Rotary Club met on Sept. 12, for its luncheon meeting. During the part of the program when Rotarians give “happy dollars” Mac Randolph reported on the success of the E-Waste event on Saturday, Sept. 10.
The goal was to offer the Houlton area a place to dispose of unwanted electronics free of charge and to keep these potentially environmentally dangerous items out of landfill, dumps and the woods and streams of the area.
As Randolph said, they “sought sponsors and got partners” in this project. Sponsors provided all but fifty dollars of expenses, a fork lift for the day, copying of handouts, a perfect venue, food and beverage to keep the volunteers going in the heat, advertisements, radio time, posters, flyers and newspaper ads.
The workforce seemed tireless all day, according to Randolph. The volunteers unloaded incoming vehicles, usually three at a time, since there were enough Rotarian volunteers and some family members to do so. Large old television and some newer models were wrestled out of vehicles, often full pick up beds of various e-waste. Many carloads were also unloaded. Boxes four feet square were filled according to labels such as monitors, printers, TVs, etc.
Imagine a line of 10 or more such boxes continually being filled and fork lifted away on pallets into a tractor trailer. There was a full truck almost within an hour. A second truck had to be called in. The goal was to be done by 1 p.m., but the end did not come until around 4:15 p.m.
The hope was to serve 100 people yet almost 300 vehicles were unloaded. Last year a trailer left the event about one third full. This year the first 52-foot trailer was on the road to the Brewer e-waste recycling plant by 10:30 a.m. A second box trailer at 48-feet in length, a box truck, two fifth wheel trailers were also filled by the end of the day with 20 remaining pallets to be retrieved by Electronics End. The generosity of donations was overwhelming as thirty-five hundred and ninety-three dollars were raised during the day. The money will go to Aid For Kids and other Rotary special projects.
The Rotary luncheon program for the day was hosted by Rotarian Katie Hill and featured guest speaker Rich Campbell of the Campbell Environmental Group. Campbell spoke about his involvement with a Brownfield’s Project Grant.
Sheri Veno of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians secured a Tribal Response Grant to help the town of Houlton and the tribe cleanup hazardous material from public and private sites. Businesses and individual property owners to benefit from the grant money will be chosen according to need. This is an Economic Development program to promote the use of land that without the cleanup might not be able to pass an environmental test that is necessary for the owner to build or expand.
The site might have a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant. There are four elements to the requirement for grant approval. The ability to survey and create an inventory of the chosen site, the ability to provide oversight of the project and the impact on the area, the clean up of the area and a reuse plan for the project site.
Some potential areas of interest in the Houlton area are the Salvation Army, the former site of the Irving Bulk Plant, some ground of the S.W. Collins Building Supply Company, Gary’s Auto Body site, MPG, United Cleaning Center Building and more.
Presently Maine is number one in the country for Brownfield Site funding.
