Staying the course on UT trash disposal

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — The long-term plans for municipal solid waste disposal across the Unorganized Territories (UT) in Piscataquis County are now in place after the county commissioners came to an agreement on where tonnage from the Lily Bay and Orneville transfer stations will go during a June 21 meeting.

“I think we have gotten into a good place,” Interim County Manager Manager Tom Lizotte said, explaining at the previous meeting the commissioners leaned toward having solid waste continue to go from Lily Bay and Orneville to the Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (PERC) in Orrington. Lizotte said UT residents who use the the county’s community partner transfer stations in Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and Millinocket will continue to do so, as these towns have opted to remain with the Municipal Review Community (MRC) and will be using a future facility in Hampden — operated by the Maryland-based Fiberight — after the MRC contract with PERC expires in 2018.

Lizotte said the annual UT tonnage is about 375, as 158 tons goes through Lily Bay and Orneville, 145 is between Dover-Foxcroft, Monson and Millinocket and the other 73 is with Greenville. The Moosehead Lake community recently opted to enter into a five-year, renewable agreement with Waste Management of Norridgewock.

The county’s current contract with PERC runs for two more years, and Lizotte said he would have the company send the documents pertaining to post-2018 waste disposal. “There’s no deadline with that,” he said.

“We will follow the lead of our municipal partners on our other transfer stations,” Lizotte said. He said that morning the commissioners needed to sign the municipal joinder agreement with MRC/Fiberight for Barnard Township so these residents and their 34 annual tons of trash can go through the Dover-Foxcroft transfer station. The deadline for signing a contract is June 30, in order to receive the best incentives.

“The upshot is no one’s habits will change,” Lizotte said about the various MRC/Fiberight and PERC decisions made across the region.

In other business, Lizotte said ballots have been mailed to UT residents for an advisory referendum on Atkinson’s move to deorganize and the commissioners made a needed formal motion to carry out the voting process.

“The referendum is going to be by absentee ballot just because of the difficulty of people spread out in the UTs,” Lizotte said, with mailings sent to the 656 registered voters. He said the results of the advisory referendum are scheduled to be presented at the Aug. 2 commissioners meeting.

“This will help the Legislature understand the sentiment of the other people in the unorganized territories in Piscataquis County,” Lizotte said as the assembly in Augusta would ultimately approve or deny the town’s request to dissolve. He said the UT population would rise from 770 to 1,100 should Atkinson no longer be a municipality. Lizotte said the annual UT budget is about $1.5 million and Atkinson has a municipal budget of about $300,000.

“The tax rate for most UT taxpayers will go up because Atkinson has more needs,” Lizotte said.

Public meetings with Marcia McInnis, the state’s UT fiscal administrator, are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the town offices in Greenville and Milo on July 12 and 13 respectively for UT citizens. “There will be a hearing in Atkinson itself for residents,” Lizotte said about the to-be-scheduled session.

“The earliest Atkinson could deorganize is July 1, 2019 and there’s still a lot of hoops to jump through,” Lizotte said.

He said the county’s position does not favor deorganization unless the town cleans up the contamination from a salt/sand pile as well as fixes a McCorrison Road bridge over the Alder Stream. Lizotte said SAD 41 officials do not want to lose Atkinson as a member community and this would be another issue to be addressed if the town’s plan is to move forward.

The Legislature would look at deorganization in 2017, Lizotte said and should the go-ahead come from Augusta then the town would take a vote. A decision to deorganize would need to pass by a two-thirds majority of residents. Lizotte said decisions on how to take care of the salt/sand pile and the bridge fix would need to be done by the fall of 2018, so the county could start budgeting for a larger UT population in the 2019-20 fiscal year budget.

The commissioners formally approved the hiring of Joshua York as head of maintenance. York had worked with previous department head David Ronco for five years, and earlier in the month Ronco and Lizotte had both recommended that York succeed Ronco after his June 24 retirement.