LISBON – An informal town policy of subsidizing the cost of commercial solid waste disposal is going to be scaled back over the next three years in an effort to save taxes.
Town Manager Curtis Lunt said the new policy will affect three firms, Celotex, Dingley Press and Miller Industries. Selectmen approved a draft of a letter of notification of the new policy that will be sent out. It currently costs the town $44 per ton to dispose of commercial solid waste.
Under the new policy, this will be scaled back in $15 increments over the next three years, Lunt said.
The change is being made to “save costs,” he said. “We now charge fees for disposal at the transfer station; we’re pursuing every area we can” to keep the cost down, Lunt said.
After bids for installing new equipment for the removal of grit and rags from the waste stream came in higher than anticipated, selectmen increased the amount they will ask voters to approve for bonding to $500,000. This is in addition to the $350,000 that was approved in 2003 but not used.
The improvements will allow the wastewaster treatment plant to accept “revenue generating” waste, such as cheese waste from a planned new cheese factory at Pineland Farms, Lunt said.
Lunt reported that the town has received a letter from Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline that the company intends to build a parallel gas pipeline through town in 2007.
The town is now in the process of excavating and replacing sewer lines around Vining and Pleasant streets and Woodland Avenue.
Lunt also reported that a drop of about 2 feet in the level of the river at Mill Street is due to a break in a dam on Miller Industries property,
In other business, selectmen completed a review of the May town meeting draft warrant, which is now up to 93 articles. The board will meet in special session next Tuesday to complete the warrant and sign it.
A new victualer’s license was granted to Richard Michaud, doing business as Sam’s Italian Foods, in the new Food City Plaza.
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