NORWAY – For the second year in a row, Norway and Paris are getting a break from Oxford County Recycling.

The towns will receive a 15 percent discount in their assessments, based on population, for 2004. Oxford County Regional Solid Waste Corp. directors OK’d the discount at their Nov. 12 meeting.

A year earlier, directors gave a 10 percent discount to the towns, said Wayne Sessions, Oxford County Recycling’s manager.

Of the 19 member towns, only Norway and Paris, the two largest, don’t have any trucking costs associated with having recyclables handled at the corporation’s Brown Street plant. The residents of the towns drive their recyclables directly to the plant, adjacent to the Norway-Paris Transfer Station.

Residents of other towns drop off recyclables at local transfer stations, and the corporation hauls them to Norway for processing.

Norway and Paris board members sought a way to offset the trucking costs in their assessment, and the board agreed to trim back on the population figures on which the assessments are based.

Each of the member towns pays $3.49 per resident as its assessment. When the 10 percent discount went into effect in 2003, Norway had a population of 4,611, but paid $14,583, representing a decrease in population of 461.

Paris in 2003 had a population of 4,793, but paid $15,159, representing a decrease in population of 479.

Next year’s assessment for the two towns will be even lower with the 15 percent discount, Sessions said. Figures were not readily available.

Oxford County Recycling serves a population of 23,186, with a five-year average total assessment of $90,722, Sessions said. Sales of recyclables in 2003 totalled $81,477, for a total budget of $178,000.

The following is a breakdown of the other 17 member towns, their population, and their assessments for 2003:

Bethel, pop. 2,411, $8,472; Brownfield, pop. 1,251, $4396; Canton, pop. 1,121, $3,939; Denmark, pop. 1,004, $3,528; Gilead, pop. 156, $548; Greenwood, pop. 802, $2,818; Hanover, pop. 251, $882; Hebron, pop. 1,053, $3,700; Lincoln Plantation, pop. 46, $161; Newry, pop. (with seasonal influx) 1,410, $4,954; Otisfield, pop. 1,560, $5,482; Oxford County unorganized towns, pop. 578, $2,031; Stoneham, pop. 255, $896; Upton, pop. 62, $217; Waterford, pop. 1,455, $5,113; and Woodstock, pop. 1,307, $4,593.

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