FARMINGTON — Selectmen voted Tuesday night to accept around $30,000 in dissolved assets from the former Sandy River Recycling Association, which disbanded earlier this year in the face of falling income, rising costs and shrinking membership.

The nonprofit association brought recycling to the county 23 years ago but announced it was dissolving in January after its biggest member, Farmington, signed a contract instead with Archie’s Inc. to take over recycling at no cost to the town.

Member towns at the time Sandy River announced its dissolution were Carrabassett Valley, Carthage, Chesterville, Coplin Plantation, Dallas Plantation, Eustis, Farmington, Industry, Mercer, New Vineyard, Rangeley, Rangeley Plantation, Sandy River Plantation, Sidney, Strong, Temple and Weld.

Those municipalities are dividing the association’s assets among themselves. Their share will be proportionate to the payments they made for recycling over the past five years, with those who paid more into the association getting a greater portion of the money.

The association is still dissolving its assets. Town Manager Richard Davis told selectmen Tuesday night that of the initial $150,000 in assets, $30,000 would go to Farmington.

The three selectmen in attendance voted unanimously to put the money in Farmington’s undesignated fund balance.

Advertisement

In other business, the selectmen postponed a public hearing on whether to declare a structure at 130 Wilton Road owned by Ted Gay, of Westwood, Mass., a nuisance property.

The town has received numerous complaints about the uninhabited home across from the former Rite Aid building, according to paperwork served to Gay.

Selectmen agreed, at the recommendation of Code Enforcement Officer Steve Kaiser, to give Gay an additional 60 days to come up with a mitigation plan for the property after learning that he and his attorney were not served with the proper paperwork in time to prepare for Tuesday’s hearing.

At the board meeting, selectmen also unanimously approved naming the town’s new park at the corner of Farmington Falls Road and High Street “Bjorn Park” after donor Richard Bjorn. Bjorn, president of Kyes Insurance, has a history of funding town and community projects and donated $74,000 to the town to have the empty lot at the entrance to downtown decoratively landscaped.

Selectmen asked residents for naming submissions and out of 69 submissions, 33 were for Bjorn. After 11 were determined to be from nonresidents, Bjorn still received the majority of submissions.

The next-closest suggestion came in the form of seven submissions asking for some name variation of Norton Flat School House Park after the schoolhouse that once stood for many years on the lot.

Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252

kschroeder@centralmaine.com


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.