If you’re a resident from one of the towns belonging to the Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District (CMWRRDD) – or any other town for that matter – and you have been sneaking into any one of the District’s three transfer stations without a sticker or with prohibited materials, prepare to change your ways. The District is about to crack the whip on the abuse of CMW transfer stations, and the District’s board is considering a number of measures of making transfer station users pay their fair share.

            During the April 24 meeting, CMWRRDD Executive Director Jeffrey Osuch said new signs would soon be posted at each of the transfer stations – Marion on Benson Brook Road, Wareham on Route 28, and the Rochester convenience site – advising residents that unless they have a sticker on their vehicle they will not be allowed to enter the facility. Period.

            District staff began with the Benson Brook transfer station by more closely observing and documenting who enters and enforcing the restrictions on allowable materials.

            Still, the tonnage that SEMASS receives from the District is up.

            “The irony is that Benson Brook (tonnage) is down, and I’ve been told somewhat because everyone is coming in and being checked and that may be a contributing factor as to why,” said Osuch.

            The District has been collecting data on the number of vehicles at each site and how many cars enter on days when the sites are open, and Osuch recommended that the board approve purchasing security technology that would read license plate numbers and match them to those entered into the system of users who have paid for their stickers.

            For weeks Osuch has been visiting transfer stations all along eastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod assessing which systems are effective and which ones the District should consider implementing.

            A camera system is especially needed at the Wareham Route 28 site, Osuch said.

            “It’s never been enforced,” said Osuch. “People have gone in there on the honor system.”

            As the December 31, 2020 expiration of the District’s SEMASS contract approaches, Osuch emphasized that the bulk of the District’s revenue will eventually rely on sticker sales, as SEMASS will no longer be reimbursing the District for essentially all of its operating costs come the contract’s expiration.

            “If you’re going to run the District and you’re not getting money from SEMASS, then you’re going to need an income,” said Osuch. “Some [residents] have been abiding by the rules, and some people have gotten along by bending the rules.”

            Sticker fees at this time have been minimal – $50 in Carver and $25 for residents 65 and over; $55 in Wareham for a transfer station/beach combo sticker, $40 and $20 age 65+ for transfer station only; and just $10 in Marion for a resident privilege sticker for the transfer stations and beach parking – which is why, come the end of the year, residents might be in for a sticker shock of sorts.

            A sticker in Barnstable costs $250, Osuch said. It’s $180 in Dennis, $160 in Yarmouth, $125 in Orleans, and $120 in Chatham.

            The District transfer station sticker fees, Osuch said, have also always been collected by each individual town, which keeps that revenue and only pays a yearly bill to the District, regardless of additional revenue towns collect in sticker fees.

            “Sticker fees are needed to offset operating expenses,” said Osuch. “The bulk of the money is going to be in the stickers. … Once SEMASS is gone, you have to make a decision [on] how you want to generate revenue.”

            Osuch also wants to investigate an expansion of the Wareham station because the District will not be able to afford keeping more than one transfer station in operation. The board approved allowing Osuch to hire a wetlands specialist to delineate wetlands at the site.

            “To me, you have to look at all the options,” said Osuch, including technology that some board members seemed hesitant to embrace. “People are clever,” he continued. “Every other day at Benson Brook you’ll see a guy with a pick-up [truck] drive in. He drives up; he backs up; he’s got black bags … a tire, or something else….”

            Not only would cameras be effective, Osuch said, it could also reduce the number of staff needed at the transfer stations.

            “We’ve got to start thinking very seriously about where we’re going and what we’re going to do,” said Osuch. “But realistically over the next two, three months, we’re going to have to do some inroads.”

            In other business, the board picked June 1 to hold a Hazardous Waste Day between the hours of 9:00 am – 12:00 pm at the Route 28 Wareham transfer station, and tentatively at a second location as well. Residents will receive specific information from their respective towns.

            The District has begun trading in scrap metal for a profit, collecting roughly $1,000 just this last month.

            “We’ve gone from collecting zero money,” said Cushing, “… to just about $2,000 already,” Osuch finished the sentence.

            Questions pertaining to the CMWRRDD can be directed to the executive director, Jeffrey Osuch, via email at CMWRRDD@gmail.com.

            The next meeting of the Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District is tentatively scheduled for May 29 at 5:00 pm at the Wareham Town Hall.

Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District

By Jean Perry

            On April 24 during the Marion Finance Committee’s first television performance, the committee continued its Town Meeting Warrant article recommendations, beginning where they left off: Article 23 to appropriate $30,000 to replace the tank on the Fire Department’s brush breaker, which it voted to recommend.

            Article 26 would appropriate $582,090 to buy a new front-loading rubbish packer and rollout trash and recycling carts, should voters prefer keeping their trash collection provided by the Town as opposed to outsourcing to a trash collector. The committee took no action, still, because the amount for outsourcing curbside trash collection was not yet known, so no recommendation was made on Article 25, either. But the committee discussed the matter with soon-to-be Town Administrator Jay McGrail and Selectman John Waterman.

            The Town will put the amount $470,000 on Article 25 as a placeholder, only because, with the bids not due until that following Friday, that dollar amount on the warrant better be big enough to cover the cost, since sums can be reduced, but never increased, on the Town Meeting floor.

            The Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee hope to know by May 9 which article they will recommend ahead of Town Meeting on May 13.

            Also during the meeting, the committee couldn’t make any recommendation on Article 34, either, since no figure was yet available. The article would transfer an as yet unknown sum of free cash to the Capital Improvement Stabilization Fund.

            “It’s gonna have to be on the fly,” said FinCom member Alan Minard.

            After an explanation from the engineering firm Tata & Howard about Article 11, the Mill Street water main project to replace a six-inch water main with a 12-inch water main, the FinCom voted to recommend the $2.8 million appropriation.

            The committee did also recommend Article 17 to appropriate $105,000 for the engineering for the Point Road water main project to replace 6,300 linear feet of 12-inch pipe.

            The Annual Town Meeting is on Monday, May 13, at 6:45 pm at Sippican School.

            The next meeting of the Marion Finance Committee is tentatively scheduled for May 7 at 6:00 pm at the Atlantis Drive facility.

Marion Finance Committee

By Jean Perry