Brattleboro Pay-As-You-Throw Advisory Committee/Working Group Meeting Agenda

by Not Signed In | Town News | 1824 Views

The Brattleboro Pay-As-You-Throw Advisory Committee/Working Group will meet on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at 5:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

…

PAY-AS-YOU-THROW ADVISORY COMMITTEE/WORKING GROUP
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2014 – 5:00PM
HANNA COSMAN MEETING ROOM
MUNICIPAL CENTER, 230 MAIN STREET
AGENDA

Committee’s Charge: The Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) advisory committee/working group will develop a plan for implementation of a unit based pricing for solid waste that conforms to the requirements of Act 148, and will report to the Selectboard at least every 60 days.

1. Approve Minutes – November 5
2. Ordinance progress
3. Moss’s meeting with Sadie Fischesser ( Vt Dept of Human Services) on “reaching” disengaged residents
4. Set date to meet with SB
5. Review of timeline / start date of PAYT
6. Ordering additional Curbside Compost carts (ORBIS) — how many and when?
7. Other Business
8. Public Participation
9. Schedule Next Meeting

Comments | 10

  • Submitted by cgrotke on November 14, 2014 at 8:50 am

    Use stickers, please

    I know the current plan is to provide bags, but the more I think about it, the more I want to use stickers.

    I want to be able to choose which type of garbage bag I use, and not be limited by town determined bags. I think others in town would appreciate this option as well.

    Some people really like the thin, white, scented bags with plastic draw strings. I prefer the thicker, black bags with no drawstrings. I don’t see a way for the town to provide a bag that pleases both of us.

    For that reason, a sticker approach would be much easier to adopt. We can continue to use the bags we prefer, but would be required to put the proper “postage” on our package.

    Stickers, too, would be cheaper for the town to print, smaller and easier for the town to store, and would allow store owners to keep up the same relations with their garbage bag distributors without disruption.

    • Submitted by KAlden on November 14, 2014 at 10:00 am

      How would the stickers work?

      How would the stickers work? Is it by weight? And, if so, how would we be able to accurately figure that out? Or is it by the ‘gallon’ size of the bags?
      This seems like it would be less of a financial burden on residents.

      • Submitted by cgrotke on November 14, 2014 at 10:22 am

        Stickers/Tags

        Pretty sure the law says it could be by weight or by volume.

        Volume might be easiest – in 5 or 10 gallon increments, so I could use my favorite 30 gallon bags and my neighbor could use their favorite 15 gallon, etc. They could make it easy and let people pay online for a tag and print it out at home to tie on, reducing inventory to have to keep on hand.

        The burden would be about the same – the committee plans to set rates at top dollar – but it would allow us all to use the bags we prefer. I bet it would go over with the general public much more easily than telling them they suddenly must buy new bags not of their own choosing. That touch of respect for personal choice would go a long way, I bet.

        • Submitted by annikee on November 14, 2014 at 1:10 pm

          Stickers Please!

          It would make it all much easier to have stickers, including the initial layout for the town. And, residents could buy them by mail, which would be impossible with bags.

  • Submitted by Dfk-b on November 14, 2014 at 5:14 pm

    Uh...

    Was not “payt” voted down once or twice?

    • Submitted by annikee on November 14, 2014 at 6:33 pm

      Statewide

      It was passed in Montpeculiar last session.

      • Submitted by cgrotke on November 15, 2014 at 8:06 am

        You pay from your wallet, not your checkbook!

        Right. And now the Selectboard sees it as a great opportunity to shift costs out of the town budget, and into all of our personal budgets.

        It moves costs around, but doesn’t address the underlying issue of rising costs and people’s inability to pay them.

        Maus often points out that the full costs of the trash system do not have to be covered under the law. A town can choose to fully subsidize PAYT or collect a nominal fee and be in compliance. It isn’t mandatory to pass all costs on, though that seems to be where Brattleboro is heading, to continue the illusion of keeping taxes down.

        • Submitted by KAlden on November 15, 2014 at 9:04 am

          I think it's pretty obvious

          I think it’s pretty obvious by now that this SelectBoard is not looking to help the taxpayers if it means they would be able to chisel a little more out of the town budget. There are better and more compassionate ways – to handle the cost of PAYT. The board simply doesn’t want to consider them. I’ve heard estimates of a potential cost of $200 -$300 annually for residents for the bags/stickers. I don’t know how accurate that is and, obviously it wouldn’t be that much for everyone. But, in plain terms -on my own income- $300 a year pays for 7 months of my electric bill or most of my prescription co-pays for the year or 2 weeks of groceries or 6 months of my phone bill. It’s not some imaginary amount that won’t really affect people -which seems to be what the Selectboard thinks. This is real money that will take away from real necessities in someone’s life. It’s unconscionable that this board seems hell bent on pushing this through without having an actual discussion about how this will impact people’s lives.

      • Submitted by Fisherman on November 15, 2014 at 10:43 am

        PAYT

        It seems that our select board is rushing to force this through when the State law gives several years for it to be put into effect. Why are we rushing to do this? Often laws get changed before the final gavel falls.

Leave a Reply