Selectmen chair DePinto places trash fee on Nov. 25 agenda
Published on November 5th, 2008
STONEHAM, MA -The town’s Board of Selectmen will tackle the issue of reinstating a trash fee early this budget season in order to give the townspeople advanced notice to prepare for the possible refuse charge.
During a recent meeting, Selectman Chair John DePinto argued that town officials needed to determine whether to re-establish the fee for curbside garbage pick-up earlier then last budget season, when the issue was still being thrown around after the May Annual Town Meeting.
The Selectman suggested that initial discussions on a rubbish fee be placed on the Nov. 25 agenda.
According to DePinto, the Selectmen owed it to the townspeople to decide on the issue as soon as possible, in order to allow residents the option to opt into or out of the municipal service.
Referring to a vote last February, DePinto also maintained that the Selectmen have failed to meet their promise to take a stance on a trash fee if Stoneham’s municipal unions agreed to join the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC) program for health benefits.
The unions agreed last month to join the GIC, which will save Stoneham between $600,000 to $700,000, depending upon varying savings estimates.
“We did vote that we would eventually take it to a vote if the GIC was passed. I think we owe it [to the townspeople],” said DePinto.
Selectman Paul Rotondi disagreed with the chairman’s recollection of events, claiming that the board only agreed to join the GIC if the unions made the switch to the state program by July 1, 2008.
However, according to DePinto, that argument was somewhat moot, because the savings from the GIC, regardless of whether the unions joined before or after July 1, wouldn’t be realized until next fiscal year.
“That’s not what we promised. We voted for a trash fee in [this fiscal year], if they signed the GIC in time,” Rotondi insisted.
During the trash fee debate, DePinto also called for the creation of a committee that will craft a formal policy in regards to condominiums and townhouses that opt-out of the rubbish charge and then attempt to rejoin the municipal service.
Earlier this month, a handful of condominium owners unsuccessfully appealed to Town Meeting members to insert an extra $100,000 into the FY’09 budget to foot the bill for curbside pickup at their residences.
Many of the condo associations opted out of the municipal offering when town officials first instituted a garbage charge in 2005, as they were able to obtain private deals with companies that cost less than the $150 to $170 per unit trash fee implemented by the Selectmen.
When the Selectmen declined to restore the refuse cost this year, many condo owners tried to rejoin the municipal service, but were rebuked by Town Administrator David Ragucci, who claimed that the residents had missed a March 1 deadline for rejoining.
“I’d like to...put together some criteria for condominiums and townhouses in town,” the Selectmen Chair said.
“It’s my understanding that we have no formal policy [in writing] in town,” revealed DePinto, who validated the condo association’s assertion that they were never notified in writing about the March 1 timetable last year.
Rotondi later pointed out that notification about the March 1 deadline had been previously been issued in writing to condominium owners under a previous town administrator.
While he agreed that the policy needed to be tweaked, the Selectman argued that the town’s policy had been in place when local residents were told that could not rejoin the curbside pick-up program.
“The town administrator has found letters that were sent to all the condominium owners by a previous town administrator,” said Rotondi. “I would suggest that the TA send a copy of that letter to each condominium manager and then explain that he’s going to tighten his policy up.”
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