Marion Selectmen get update on outsourcing trash

MARION — At Town Meeting and the Annual Town Election voters decided to outsource trash collection. On June 4 Selectmen gave a tentative timeline for when and how the public would learn more about that process.

The town currently handles waste pickup, but is one of the few towns on the South Coast to still do so, and experienced problems with both of its trash trucks this spring. As a result, Selectmen offered town voters two opposing options: purchase a new truck for the town, or outsource collection. If voters had failed to chose and option, the town would have ceased all trash collection, leaving the issue to residents to handle on their own. 

Town Administrator Jay McGrail provided an update on the project as part of a long list of updates that he now intends to give on Town Meeting capital projects, to make sure that they do not fall off the radar. 

Although he does not have an exact date to start outsourcing, McGrail anticipates a late summer rollout for the town’s chosen company, Waste Management, to start collecting Marion trash.

He said that the public outreach to explain how the process will work will begin next week with a series of press releases.

There will also likely be several public meetings to help smooth the transition.

McGrail said that he talked to the new Director of Public Works, David Willett about the transition, and given that it is one of the biggest projects they have in both of their new positions, “the two of us are very concerned about how this rollout is happening.”