SABATTUS – Tracey Rancourt was looking for something she and her husband Jim could do together, but they found something their daughter was passionate about, too.

All three sit on the newly created Sabattus Solid Waste and Recycling Committee – Tracey and husband Jim as voting members and 16-year-old Hannah as a nonvoting associate member.

“I know that there are people in town who don’t recycle at all,” she said. “They have a private trash hauler. But if they could just sort things out, it’s not that bad. Doing it, going to the transfer station to drop off your recycling, it’s kind of nice. It’s a way, maybe, to connect with other members of the community.”

Selectmen formed the committee last month, after voters at this summer’s town meeting cut $15,000 out of the budget for the transfer station, Town Manager Gregory Gill said.

“That left us in quite a predicament,” Gill said. The committee’s job is to find ways to save money, finding more efficient ways to collect trash or dispose of it.

The committee has met twice, and already has successfully lobbied to have more kinds of plastics recycled. The group is asking the Board of Selectmen to approve recycling old porcelain, as well.

“That just has to go to the landfill now, and we pay to get rid of it,” Gill said. “But a recycler will pay us for it and take it off our hands. We save on both sides.”

Neither Jim nor Tracey was able to attend the first regular meeting, but Hannah was – and she impressed the committee.

“She really looks and acts well beyond her 16 years,” Gill said. “It seems more like she’s 25, and she handles herself real well.”

Hannah is a big advocate of recycling. She made global warming the topic of her sophomore speech at Oak Hill High School last year.

“I showed just how much really recycling can really help that situation,” Hannah said. She’s hoping to spread the word at school.

“She has full vocal rights,” Gill said. “She can sit in on any discussion and speak her mind. She just can’t vote.”

The Rancourts complement each other well. Hannah has the passion for the topic and Tracey enjoys public service, while Jim shuns the spotlight.

“We don’t think alike,” Tracey said. “I’m very extroverted. I could talk to you all day long, but he’s quieter. He absorbs things and kind of thinks about them, but I kind of work them out while I’m talking.”

Then there’s the household recycling. Jim and Hannah have always taken the lead there.

“I’m not very good,” Tracey said. “He kind of has to get after me, and remind me, ‘That can be recycled.'”

When she saw the sign in front of the Town Hall looking for volunteers for the new committee, it seemed like perfect match. Plus, it’s helping Hannah complete some school requirements.

“It is something she’s very passionate about, and I think there’s a lot she can do,” Tracey said. “And maybe they’re thinking it might make me recycle a little bit more, too.”

Copy the Story Link