There’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, the area in which you live is planning a vote in the coming weeks that will impact a significant financial piece of your community’s municipal budget for years to come.

The topic is trash and the issue is trust. I’m writing to ask for your consideration and support in a proposal that that been well-researched, well-vetted and offers our collective communities the opportunity to maintain local control of both process and cost for decades to come. That proposal is one put forth by the Municipal Review Committee that includes the Fiberight technology.

For the last 25 years, the Municipal Review Committee has been the community advocate and watchdog over the operations and financial decisions made at the PERC facility in Orrington. While it started out representing 86 municipal entities, it has grown through the years to now serve 187 communities.

Through this period, the MRC has done all it could to work with the various private partners of PERC to make the facility succeed. Because of that advocacy, the MRC has earned and returned more than $60 million to its member communities. The partnership has served our communities well.

However, because of aging technology, changing market forces and with 2018 being the year in which state-mandated revenue subsides from the sale of electricity generated ends, the PERC facility in Orrington does not provide a financially feasible option for our future municipal solid waste needs.

Understanding this, the MRC has spent the last four years requesting proposals, selecting a vendor and technology, finding a site, negotiating a backup disposal agreement, investigating markets for solid waste-derived products, filing permit applications and developing a full set of project agreements for operations after 2018.

In other words, embracing the responsibility entrusted to the MRC by its member communities and acting to ensure a plan was developed for its members’ post-2018 municipal solid waste needs. That plan is now in place and it’s before communities now for a joining vote.

The MRC’s plan, which includes Fiberight, will divert more from landfill disposal, cost less and be more environmentally sound than any other alternative examined, researched or visited by the MRC. It will provide more recycling and waste conversion at less cost than any other option we explored.

But perhaps most importantly in terms of trust and accountability, the Fiberight option is the only proposal that will include the industry experience, community advocacy and financial oversight of the MRC.

The deadline for member communities to vote and join the Fiberight plan is quickly approaching. Communities that commit prior to May 1 gain the opportunity to benefit from revenue-sharing agreements, much like MRC communities have for the past 25 years.

The discussions and decisions many communities will have in the coming month rely on a significant amount of information, facts and figures. This represents years of research and work on behalf of the MRC. We did not and do not take our responsibility on behalf of our member communities lightly. We know those being asked to vote on behalf of taxpayers in their communities have the fiscal responsibility to make an informed decision.

In other words, we know you have questions. And we want to provide you with the answers.

So to do that, we continue to set up public discussions and presentations throughout central, coastal and northern Maine in as many of the 187 member communities as we can. Among other meetings posted on our website at www.MRCMaine.org is one scheduled for the Winslow Town Hall on Monday, March 14, at 7 p.m.

On our website, you’ll also find a comprehensive list of the most frequently asked questions and answers along with videos from previous public meetings and presentations. The website also houses supporting documents, contracts and joinder agreements for communities to review and analyze.

MRC’s mission is unwavering: to find a long-term affordable, economical and environmentally sound option for its members’ municipal solid waste disposal. We have faced the need for a 2018 solution and have found what the best option for our member communities.

The more communities that join, the better the greater the financial and environmental benefits can be for all. We invite those with questions to contact the MRC, attend a public presentation or utilize the online resources we’ve posted.

Communities working together for collective long-term financial benefit and environmental stewardship. It’s served us well for the last 25 years and we trust it will continue to be our guiding mission for decades to come.

Jim Guerra, of Hope, is the vice president of the Municipal Review Committee.

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