Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD)
Brattleboro, Vermont
Board of Supervisors Meeting
Via ZOOM And In-person
Draft Minutes of September 9, 2021
Members Present: In-person/Zoom Michelle Cherrier, Chair, Dummerston; Patrick Moreland, Vice Chair, Brattleboro; Dan Toomey, Putney; Lewis Sumner, Halifax; Doris Knechtel, Newfane; Irvin Stowell, Townshend; Sandra Rulewich, Vernon; Stephan Chait, Halifax Alternate; Dan Towler, Brookline; Michael Becker, Guilford; Stillman Vonderhorst, Marlboro; Kevin Stine, Dover; Greg Meulemans, Jamaica; Russell Hodgkins, Westminster; Nancy Meinhard, Wardsboro.
Members Absent: Rickey Harrington, Somerset; Kent Young, Stratton; Jim Damato, Readsboro; Merrill Mundell, Wilmington.
WSWMD Staff Present: Robert Spencer, Executive Director; John Fay, Programs and Operations Manager.
As a quorum was present Michelle called the meeting to order at 7:06 P.M.
- Changes and/or Additions to the Agenda: None
- Approval of Minutes from June 10th, 2021, and August 12, 2021: Motion by Lewis, seconded by Doris, to approve the minutes of June 10th, 2021 and the motion was carried. Motion by Irv, seconded by Doris, to approve the minutes of August 12, 2021 and the motion carried.
- Approval of Check Register- August 2021: Motion by Doris, seconded by Dan, to approve the Check Register of August 2021 and the motion carried.
- Approval of Financial Statement-August 2021: Motion by Dan, seconded by Stretch, to approve the Financial Statement of August 2021 and the motion carried.
- Potential Funding for Compost Facility Expansion
At the invitation of representative Sara Coffey Bob participated in a Zoom meeting on Tuesday morning September 7 with the Windham County legislative delegation to explain the need for funding to expand the District’s food scrap composting facility, and to invite legislators to tour the facility. Sara forwarded Bob’s PowerPoint Presentation about the compost capacity issue to the delegation, and Bob encouraged District Supervisors to contact their representative to reinforce the need for funding if the facility is to serve additional generators of food waste. Bob said that his $500,000 request for federal earmark funding through Senator Leahy’s and Senator Sander’s offices had been denied. He also submitted a proposal to the Vermont Climate Solutions Caucus but has not heard from them. The state regulations for a larger capacity composting facility require management of leachate, the run-off from a compost pad. Stretch said his niece and her husband operate a mushroom farm in Pennsylvania and they were required to collect leachate from their compost area, but it turned out that the leachate can be used in the composting process to accelerate the process and increase mushroom production, so maybe we could do something similar. Bob said he had a design that could collect and use leachate at our facility, but it was costly.
- Project Manager Report
John reported that the household hazardous waste collection program on Thursday mornings— known as the HHW Depot—has served 207 vehicles since opening on Saturday May 1. Based on serving an average of 250 vehicles other years that attended the one day events, we are on track to meet that total by the time we close for the winter. The last day the Depot will be open is October 30, which is a Saturday, providing two Saturdays in the 6 months of operation. Total costs charged to our SWIP grant in prior years have been about $40,000, or $160 per vehicle, but it appears we are on track to have significantly lower costs: about $20,000 from our collection contractor, plus staff time which should not be more than $5,000, and will be reimbursed by the SWIP grant.
As for remaining work on our current, $33,000 USDA technical assistance grant that ends September 30:
- assist Stratton with recertification of their transfer station
- conduct transfer station staff training workshops (Townshend, Wilmington last week, and our staff this week
- site visits to all 8 transfer stations
- standardized documents of town waste/recycling services have been prepared and will be distributed for towns to post on their websites
A new USDA grant for $68,000 starts October 1 and will focus on providing technical assistance to towns for increasing food scrap recycling. We are applying for an ECO Americorps member for 6 months to assist in the outreach program. Athena and Bob wrote both USDA grant applications and the work has been very useful for our member towns, except Brattleboro which is not eligible since its population is over 10,000.
- Executive Director Report
Bob announced that John Fay has been given a new position as Programs and Operations Manager and will be providing daily oversight of the transfer station staff in an effort to make the operation even more efficient. Bob said that two persons who were offered the position of Transfer Station and Compost Facility Operator to replace Dale on October 15 had gotten better offers. Still looking for a replacement but the labor market is very tight. Bob reported that he had done performance reviews of employees and all had received “straight As.” Bob reported that our attorney Dan Richardson of Tarrant, Gillies & Richardson has taken the position of attorney for the City of Burlington, VT, and that Ron Shems from the firm will be taking his place. Bob said a new food scrap dumpster would be delivered this week to replace two old dumpsters, with 40% of the cost covered by a state grant. Bob said that “Skip’s Sticker Sting” had resulted in about 200 $40 access stickers being sold to customers who had not yet purchased a new sticker as required July 1. Bob said his efforts to assist the solar array owner, Greenbacker, in evaluating the use of sheep to control vegetation on the closed landfill had been appreciated by Greenbacker, but it was not more cost-effective than mowing and trimming.
- Executive Session (if needed): None
- Next Meeting: October 14, 7 PM.
- Other Business: None
- Adjournment: 8:12 PM.
Minutes prepared by Bob Spencer