Marion sets sticker fees, talks transfer station future

Nov 19, 2019

MARION — Transfer Station Sticker prices for 2020 will be $40 per car, or $30 per car if the purchaser is a senior 70 or older or a veteran. There will be no discounts if a family wants stickers for multiple cars.

The Carver Marion Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District spent months going back and forth on sticker prices, with the District proposing a price as high as $125 in August. But ultimately it discovered that it did not have the authority to set the price for stickers or to bill the towns for a certain amount of money.

The District was set up to allow the towns to negotiate trash disposal with Covanta SEMASS, and only has the authority to bill towns based on tonnage, which it does not collect.

This left the decision on sticker price up to Selectmen, who decided on the price at a Nov. 19 meeting. At their last meeting, Randy Parker asked for more information, which provided a look into how much it would cost to run the town’s transfer station.

Currently, the District plans to run the Benson Brook Transfer Station through 2020. There is a chance that things could change July 1 if Marion is able to negotiate to leave the District.

Benson Brook is now open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Town Administrator Jay McGrail said that the transfer station would primarily be for overage, or additional trash that residents may have. As a result, he says it wouldn’t need to run five days, and would more likely run two.

He envisions the town would collect a limited tonnage of 2 to 5 tons a week based on numbers from other towns that also offer curbside collection.

McGrail anticipates the town would pay $3,000 to $5,000 for disposal of tonnage at the $77 per ton rate that the town negotiated with Covanta.

The town would also pay $4,000 for hauling transfer station trash  to Covanta through Waste Management. The Town currently uses waste district trucks which have many problems to haul. The town would also pay $10,000 to $14,000 for single-stream recycling

“One thing I’ve heard from a lot of people that they would like is to be able to bring yard waste to the transfer station on a weekly basis,” McGrail said. He said the town could use Marion labor to turn materials into compost and mulch.

McGrail is still working to figure out how weekend overtime rates would work into the budget, but also included a $10,000 contingency fee for things he didn’t anticipate would come up. The likely cost with everything he mentioned would be $50,000 to $85,000 a year.

Selectmen have not yet set a rate for beach stickers, but intend to do so at their next meeting.