CHINA — The future direction of solid waste removal in town is expected to be discussed Saturday at Town Meeting, along with votes on a proposed municipal budget.
The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at China Middle School on Lakeview Drive, also called U.S. Route 202. A quorum of 120 registered voters is required in order to hold the meeting.
Voters will consider a 36-article Town Meeting warrant. Most of the items are related to the town’s proposed $2.2 million municipal budget. According to Town Manager Dan L’Heureux, the budget reflects an increase of $14,692 from last year’s spending plan. The town budget does not include funding for Regional School Unit 18 or Kennebec County.
In an email Wednesday, L’Heureux said that with revenue expected to increase, the town budget should realize a net decrease compared to last year.
Major nonbudget warrant articles are focused on what direction the town’s trash and recycling program will take, as well as an expected discussion on a pay-as-you-throw waste disposal system for the town.
One of the articles asks voters to authorize selectmen to sign on to a new biofuel plant proposed in Hampden by Fiberight, a Maryland-based company. China sends its solid waste to the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. — PERC — a waste-to-energy incinerator in Orrington.
The Municipal Review Committee, which represents more than 180 communities that send waste to PERC and owns roughly 25 percent of the power plant, believes the plant will not be economically viable after 2018, when an 30-year agreement to sell electricity to Emera Maine at above-market rates expires and so do contracts the plant has with communities that send waste to the plant.
The article asks residents if they will authorize selectmen to continue China’s membership on the Municipal Review Committee and sign a 15-year agreement to send its waste to the new Hampden plant. Towns and cities have until May to decide whether to contract with the Hampden plant or choose a different option to dispose of waste.
“The article just gives us the authority to do a contract with them if the Select Board feels it is in the best interest of the taxpayers,” board Chairman Robert MacFarland said Wednesday.
The board still is collecting information about the Fiberight proposal and weighing it against other options, MacFarland added. Board members are waiting for an overdue study on the topic commissioned by the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments before making a decision, he said.
Another proposal in front of voters is whether to authorize the Select Board to negotiate an agreement with neighboring Palermo that would allow residents of that town to deposit trash, recycling and debris at the China transfer station.
MacFarland said Palermo officials have expressed interest in bringing waste to China when the town’s contract with Tri-County Solid Waste Services expires in October, but the Select Board hasn’t discussed any details about a possible agreement, and a relationship could depend on how China decides to dispose of its trash in the future.
“Officials of both towns feel there are some good options,” L’Heureux said. “The landscape is changing significantly, and collaboration might produce some positive results,” he added.
With so much discussion about solid waste issues, it is likely residents also will bring up the proposed pay-as-you-throw trash initiative approved, then canceled, by the Select Board this year.
The proposal would have required residents to buy special colored trash bags to use at the town’s transfer station. Select Board members who supported the plan said it would help reduce trash and increase recycling rates, as well as make the cost of solid waste disposal more equitable. The board considered a rebate system that would return payments for bags back to qualified taxpayers.
The board last summer said it would put a referendum on the program to voters in March, but in December it voted to start a trial period in July, before a referendum in November. In February, the board reversed course, canceled the program, and asked the transfer station committee to weigh options for solid waste disposal in advance of a referendum on pay-as-you-throw in 2017.
The lengthy and turbulent discussion about the pay-as-you-throw proposal inspired the town to subtitle the official 2016 town report “The year of the great PAYT debate.”
L’Heureux said there is a good possibility voters will bring up the program during the Saturday meeting.
“Though it is not an item on the warrant agenda, voters may feel passionate about the topic and bring it up during the transfer station deliberations,” L’Heureux said.
Peter McGuire — 861-9239
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