A study is to be conducted before the current contract runs out.

WEST PARIS – On the recommendation of Selectman Jim Johnston, the full board decided Thursday to study ways to cut costs at the town’s transfer station.

Johnston said he has been approached by several residents who have expressed concerns about the current $110,000 budget and have requested such a study.

“Some people have come to me about the costs at the transfer station and what we are paying,” he said, “and we are paying high costs and perhaps we can find ways that they can be reduced. If you look in the bins, you can see old rotten boards, leaves, Christmas trees and other things that shouldn’t be in them. At $80 a ton, that costs us a lot of money we don’t need to be spending. So we should at least take a look at it and see what we can do.”

Johnston said that the town’s current contract with D&E Sanitation of Bethel runs out in December, “so we have time to see what we can do.”

Chairman Wade Rainey and fellow board member Bill Birney agreed, and the study is to be done before the D&E contract runs out.

In other action, the board authorized Road Commissioner Bill Keach to make arrangements for grinding, grading and re-paving a 2,700-foot section of Pioneer Street in West Paris village.

Keach explained that the project would include the section from Kingsbury Street to a point near the Allen Road intersection for a cost of $41,000.

The project was awarded to Commercial Paving of Scarborough and will be done sometime in midsummer.