OXFORD — Residents voted Thursday evening to buy a waste compactor for $40,400 and a stainless steel transfer trailer for $99,500.
Atlantic Recycling Equipment of Rollinsford, New Hampshire, will provide the compactor and Hale Trailer Brake and Wheel of Portland will provide the commercial stainless steel trailer.
Oxford will be the first community in the state to purchase this type of trailer, which is expected to last several years longer than the unit it replaces.
After the meeting, selectmen held their regular session and heard from two residents about the transfer station taking demolition materials from other towns, a practice which has now stopped.
“This is black and white,” Selectman Sharon Jackson. “Oxford Transfer Station is for Oxford residents only and for no others. Period. Waste from other towns needs to go to their town. It’s not a gray issue.”
A discussion on transfer station fees was tabled, and Selectman Ed Knightly was instructed to gather more data from neighboring communities on all accepted materials. Once the fee schedules are analyzed the board will hold a workshop so residents can participate in the process of setting fees.
Oxford wastesater treatment plant Superintendent Zhenya Schevchenko addresses selectmen at their meeting Thursday night. Advertiser Democrat photo by Nicole Carter
In another waste issue, the board unanimously approved a request by Zhenya Shevchenko, wastewater treatment facility superintendent, for a study on treated sludge.
Recent tests showed that two substances exceed current allowances and can no longer be used for agricultural practices, he said.
Schevchenko proposed hiring Woodard & Curran, an environmental consulting firm in Portland, to do the study.
The cost is $15,000 and through a grant the state will cover 25% of it. Once the study is complete, the town will issue requests for proposals from environmental engineers to build an alternative treatment program and equipment.
State funds will be available to help pay for a new program, but with the condition that the study be conducted and completed by Jan. 1, 2020.
“Grants will be available for the construction of a new process,” Schevchenko told the board. “But to qualify for the grants we have to have the research study done.”
Funds to cover the town’s share of the study are available in the department budget.
The facility has the capacity to hold treated sludge for up to a year while changes are made.
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