NORWAY — The Board of Selectmen agreed Thursday evening to schedule a public hearing on the November ballot question on whether to dissolve the Oxford County Regional Recycling Corp.

The hearing will be held during the board’s Oct. 20 meeting.

On July 13, a dozen of the 15 municipalities involved with the corporation voted to dissolve the corporation. The 15 are Norway, Paris, Otisfield, Bethel, Hanover, Denmark, Greenwood, Woodstock, Milton Township, Hebron, Newry, Livermore, Gilead, Lincoln Plantation and Upton.

Discussions about dissolution began in 2014 after the corporation lost two towns to single-stream recycling, and others began to consider following suit.

Selectman Warren Sessions Jr., who serves as the corporation manager, said July 13 that before the corporation can dissolve, “each town has to hold a referendum vote, the way the local agreement is written out, to make sure that’s what the people want. No matter what happens in Norway and Paris, Norway-Paris Solid Waste will continue.”

Sessions also serves as manager of Norway-Paris Solid Waste, which offers multisort recycling.

At Thursday’s meeting, Sessions said he thought is would “be a good idea” to hold a public hearing for residents.

“Any information that we can get out there will help,” he said.

Town Manager David Holt told the board that when people have been coming into the Town Office to vote, they have been asking what the corporation question on the Nov. 8 ballot is about.

“People have been stopping me out front, or calling me,” he said. “I’m surprised at the number of questions that they have. I think that getting information out there will help.”

Sessions said that the transfer station on Brown Street has been receiving a lot of questions, too.

“I want people in town to realize that they’ll continue to recycle the way they are now,” Sessions said. “Norway-Paris Solid Waste plans on taking the place over, because we have a lot of money in the coffers right now. If it breaks up, it’ll break up the same as we started. Norway is more than 50 percent of the corporation now, so we would be able to end up with all of the equipment in the recycling center and still have some money coming back, if (the corporation) breaks up.”

In other business, selectmen voted unanimously to accept a $2,526 bid from resident Justin Twitchell for a 2002 GMC Sierra pickup truck.

Holt said the truck was used for work at parks and cemeteries.

Selectmen also voted to accept a $605 bid from Steve Stubbs for a 2002 GMC Sonoma pickup truck that was damaged in an accident.

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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