The Carver Marion Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District Committee met Aug. 22 to discuss, among other things, the possibility of closing Marion's Benson Brook Road transfer station by the end of this year and transferring all functions to the district's Rochester facility.

The meeting started with Carver Selectman Dave Robertson presenting four motions, which were largely written by Carver Town Administrator Michael Milanoski, meant to set a plan in motion to handle the myriad of troubles facing the regional waste disposal district.

Those motions include curtailing Marion's Benson Brook Road transfer station operation hours, effective Sept. 4, getting a private waste hauler to lease and operate the Benson Brook facility, and to ultimately close the Benson Brook facility by Dec. 31, 2018, and transfering all operations to the district's Rochester facility upon completion of an expansion to the Rochester facility and the lease of the Benson Brook facility.

A fourth motion sought to authorize town administrators from the three towns in the waste disposal district to negotiate a grant from Covanta Energy Corp, which runs the SEMASS waste-to-energy plant in Rochester, to pay for some or all of the costs that would be incurred moving operations from Marion to Rochester.

But the motions seemed to come as a surprise to some of the waste disposal district board members.

"None of us has discussed this, so I don't think its a good idea to get into motions. I think we need to discuss this first," Carver Marion Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District Committee Chairman Steve Cushing said. "There's four motions here. Where did they come from?"

"Michael (Milanoski) typed this up and asked that I would bring it," Robertson said.

Marion Town Administrator Paul Dawson said he had seen the motions but had not discussed them with Milanoski, who did not attend the Aug. 22, meeting, or Wareham Town Administrator Derek Sullivan, who did attend that meeting.

All of the proposals are meant to cut costs and gain financial stability of the shared waste disposal district, which has been in disarray since its former executive director was fired and charged with embezzling more than $800,000 from the district.

The proposal that drew the most discussion was the proposed closure of the Benson Brook Road transfer station, located off Route 6 in Marion.

"I know we've been discussing some of this stuff here but we were also looking for some numbers to go on," Cushing said. "If we close down this disposal facility here in Marion, and it appears you're looking to moving everything to the Rochester facility, are we cutting off our noses to spite our face?," Cushing said.

"I suspect that would be the discussion, but I think the purpose of doing that is to see what impact it was actually going to have," Robertson said. "If it wasn't going to have an impact then we know what direction we should probably proceed with. But we gotta do something."

"I agree, but this discussion is looking at something that could become effective in weeks," Cushing said.

One of Milanoski's proposals made the comment that the waste disposal district cannot afford to run two facilities. But Marion Selectmen Chairman Norm Hills, a member of the waste disposal district committee, doubted that money was an immediate problem for the district.

"We've been involved actively since January (2018). What's that seven, eight months now, and we've been able to afford it," Hills said.

Cushing noted that the waste disposal district doesn't have to pay for the Rochester facility. "That's 100 percent paid by Covanta," he said. "At this point here, we're only running the Benson Brook facility, not two."

"I think that's the first step; to find out what impact (the proposals will have on the waste disposal district). We've got two years, and really and truly if we don't have something in play by next year, it's not looking real good for the future," Robertson said. "I think what he's (Milanoski) doing here is throwing out some ideas for discussion."

Robertson said cutting hours of operations at the Marion facility by a day and half would save the district money by cutting down on personnel. But Cushing and Hills refuted that assumption.

"(Hours) could be cut, but I don't know that Rochester could handle (the addition of Marion's waste)," Cushing said.

"They haven't presented anything, any financial statement that supports this or doesn't support this," Hills said. "To my way of thinking, this is out of the blue and an  unsupported position at this point in time."

Hills said went over the Carver town administrator's numbers, and "couldn't make heads or tails over these numbers. I was hoping he was going to be here today to explain it."

Dawson agreed that there are too many unknowns involved with making such drastic changes in the operation of shared the waste disposal district.

"This sheet of paper expresses the points of view that Michael has been trying to lead us into for some time," the Marion Town Administrator said. "The problem I continue to have, and I've said it to Michael, I've said it to this board and anybody who would listen to me, if we were to adopt these motions it would lead us to eventually closing the Benson Brook facility and transferring everything to the Rochester site. And at some point in time in 2020, we own the Rochester site. We have no idea, none what-so-ever, of what the cost of the Rochester facility is.

The Rochester town administrator said more analyzing of both facilities is needed before any decision should be made. The Marion facility has already scaled back or halted some services, including not accepting leaves or stumps.

"We don't know it and we're just assuming, but we're assuming that it's gonna be cheaper and easier to run the Rochester site. I don't know where that concept comes from," Dawson said.

"The other town administrators may not agree, I've been kind of standing out alone in this area, but the fact of the matter is that we just don't know what the cost is to run the Rochester facility," Dawson said. "We don't know, if at the end of the day, it would be more cost effective to maintain the Marion facility than it would be for the Rochester facility. This needs to be thoroughly vetted."

But Wareham Town Administrator Derek Sullivan seems to lean toward the Carver town administrator's plan of privatizing the Marion facility and moving all operations to the Rochester facility.

"I've been here since November (of 2017), I'm not 100 percent clear  that we know where we're going. But these are four clear, distinct steps they may not be exactly what we want, but they are clear steps in a strategic direction for the district," Sullivan said. "If we don't do something by the end of this year, it's over."

Dawson said it is his understanding that when the the committee hires a new executive that that person would do the vetting and report back to the board with a plan to move forward.

"I'm just concerned with putting the cart before the horse," Dawson said. "And in doing so, place a pretty serious and inconvenient burden on the residents of both Marion and Wareham, who almost exclusively use the Benson Brook facility."

Dawson reminded the committee that the Benson Brook facility was conveyed to the Town of  Marion for $1 and it's written into the deed that if the district stops using it as a transfer station, it reverts back to the town.

"So, this idea of privatizing it is not necessarily gonna fly,"  Dawson said. "It might, but the devil's in the details."

The waste disposal district committee meets next on Sept. 26, to further discuss the proposals before them.

Moving on, the board discussed the interviewing of candidates for the waste disposal district's executive director position. Dawson has narrowed the field to three candidates. Those candidates will be interviewed during a public meeting at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 29, at Marion Police Station conference room, 550 Mill St.