North County Hazardous Waste Collection Set For Spring
 The board reviewed the fiscal 2016 budget and approved a hazardous waste collection in May. |
ADAMS, Mass. — The Northern Berkshire Solid Waste Management District will hold a hazardous waste collection in the spring.
Program Coordinator Sandy Totter told the district's board on Thursday that there were enough funds to hold the collection May 30.
During December's meeting, Totter said she was not sure if there would be enough money in the budget to cover the $6,000 fee for the state-contracted collection service.
"We have enough money," Totter said. "It's going to cost us everything we've got though."
Totter said the collection will be at Adams' Department of Public Works garage on Summer Street. It will be open to residents of the 12 towns that make up the district.
"It really is an ideal location for us," she said. "It goes really smoothly, and we can handle quite a few cars there."
Totter said normally people should call and register ahead during the collection to better manage what comes in
"By having them call and register I am able to have a conversation with them and see what they are bringing to the party," Totter said. "There is no judgment, and it weeds out anything they don't need to bring for hazardous waste."
The district has not had a collection since October 2012.
Lanesborough representative Joseph Szczepaniak Jr. said he felt the collections should be more frequent and should be free.
"It should be a wash out," Szczepaniak said. "You are doing the entire county a very good deed it, and shouldn't cost us anything."
Board members also went over a draft of the fiscal 2016 budget, which they will officially vote on in March.
Totter said there is a 3 percent overall increase from $75,709.51 to $77,170 and between the 12 towns in the district, there will be a $2,400 increase.
Some of the reasons for the increase include equipment repairs, paint recycling, outreach and education, transfer station inspections, and household hazardous waste collection.
"I think these are modest increases that will allow us to increase our programs because we manage to squeeze every last bit out of every dime," Totter said.
Based on population, Adams would pay the highest amount of $21,551.90 which is a $678 increase from this fiscal year, and New Ashford would pay the lowest amount of $579, which is an $18.24 increase.
Adams representative Edward Driscoll said the towns would have to pay far more if they were not in the district.
"Without getting the pencil sharp or anything, if a town drops out of the district, they still have to dispose of everything," Driscoll said. "It would almost double. That was clear without even getting into the minutia of it."
Totter also recommended purchasing two glass crushers for $200 apiece. She said the glass can be crushed and sold to landscapers.
"We looked into it a few years ago and there were landscape places that were interested and town departments that were interested," she said. "It's landscape glass and they use it instead of bark chips where they don't want weeds… it would be really nice to pull the glass out, crush it, and be able to use it."
She said they would move around between the towns.
The district thought it would be a good idea for her to look more into the glass crushers.
"Anything we can take out of the waste stream and use, we should," Windsor representative Robert Bradley said.
Tags: hazardous waste, waste collections, waste district,
