Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD)
Brattleboro, Vermont
Board of Supervisors Meeting
Via Zoom and In-person
Minutes of November 11, 2021
Members Present: In-person/Zoom Michelle Cherrier, Chair, Dummerston; Patrick Moreland, Vice Chair, Brattleboro; Dan Toomey, Putney; Lewis Sumner, Halifax; Doris Knechtel, Newfane; Sandra Rulewich, Vernon; Stephan Chait, Halifax Alternate; Russell Hodgkins, Westminster; Jim Damato, Readsboro; Merrill Mundell, Wilmington; Irv Stowell, Townshend.
Members Absent: Rickey Harrington, Somerset; Kent Young, Stratton; Michael Becker, Guilford; Stillman Vonderhorst, Marlboro; Kevin Stine, Dover; Greg Meulemans, Jamaica; Nancy Meinhard, Wardsboro; Dan Towler, Brookline
WSWMD Staff Present: Robert Spencer, Executive Director; John Fay, Programs and Operations Manager; Vicki Hayes, Office Manager/District Clerk; Alexandra Lacy, Programs Assistant.
As a quorum was present Patrick called the meeting to order at 7:01 P.M.
- Changes and/or Additions to the Agenda: None
- Approval of Minutes from October 14, 2021
Motion to accept the minutes of October 14th as written; made by Merrill, seconded by Doris. Motion carried.
- Approval of Check Register- October 2021
Motion to approve the Check register for October 2021; made by Jim, seconded by Irv. Motion carried.
- Approval of Financial Statement- October 2021: Vicki reviewed the highlights for the month. Patrick commented on the stability of revenue and expenses for the past few years.
Motion to approve the Financial Statement of October 2021; made by Jim, seconded by Doris. Motion carried.
- Approval of FY 23 Budget: It was explained that the only changes to the budget since the board review last month was to add $9,000.00 for a one day HHW collection in a western District town such as Wilmington. Vicki noted that while the assessment is flat over last year’s, we used the new 2020 census for allocation and therefore towns may have an increase or decrease due to a change in population. She also explained the next steps for three weeks of public notices, and a public hearing.
Jim made a motion to approve the FY 23 Budget. After some discussion Merrill amended the motion as:
Motion to approve the FY 23 Budget with $992,194 in revenue, $1,179,546 in expenses, and an assessment to the towns totaling $232,352; made by Merrill, seconded by Lewis. Vicki did a rollcall vote, and the motion was carried unanimously.
- Project Manager Report: John invited board members to tour Casella’s materials recovery facility (MRF) in Rutland tomorrow, November 12th. He will set up a second tour in the near future.
John introduced Alex Lacy, a new part-time temporary Programs Assistant. John discussed her background and skills. Her work will be on the USDA technical assistance grant to increase food scrap diversion, and asked if there were any towns with projects we can help with using grant funds this year. Merrill mentioned that he thought specific lists of things that can be recycled and composted would be helpful.
John reported that the USDA technical assistance grant was completed on September 30th and the final report has been submitted. We are expecting the last of the funds ($16k) from that grant to be deposited shortly.
Bob mentioned that he and John are working on next year’s grant application to develop municipal and state procurement policies for purchasing compost for road and culvert projects. The application is in partnership with Composting Association of Vermont (CAV). The goal is to increase markets for compost.
Bob and John are also preparing grant applications to expand the capacity of the compost facility. Merrill had some concerns regarding expansion since we have been selling all of our compost. Patrick said we should explore the opportunity, and Bob said that we don’t have to accept the grant money if approved.
John handed out recycling and composting flyers to use at schools.
The HHW depot closed for the season October 30th. We had 326 households use the facility since it opened in May and took appointments every week. That is more households in one year than we have had since 2014. Michelle asked if we had any unusual items come through. John said he was surprised at the amount of liquid elemental mercury that people have brought in. He will be doing a cost analysis of the facility early in 2022 when the invoices have come in.
HAZWOPER certification refresher was attended by Bob, John, Dick and Anita.
The Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA), our broker for recycling tires, contacted us regarding increasing costs of tire collection at town facilities. Current contractors, such as Bob’s Tire, are having difficulty hiring truck drivers and have other increased costs that make it less cost-effective to recycle tires, especially at small locations such as rural towns. Bob and John are exploring the possibility of towns hauling tires to WSWMD in order to accumulate 500+ tires for a cost-effective collection by NRRA’s contractor. John will get back to us on this analysis.
Michelle said she had seen the ad regarding the closing of the WSWMD transfer station on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Bob explained that with the staff working all through the pandemic and the current shortage of staff due to Covid and family illness he felt it was appropriate to award the staff with the additional day off this year. This will not be a paid holiday.
- Executive Director Report: Bob reported that Putney Road Redemption’s collection site at WSWMD provides a site to recycle redeemable bottles and cans. Putney Road Redemption shares the proceeds with various charities, and we are paid $.01 per bottle or can. They just dropped off a check for $2,500.00 for two years of revenue.
We will be selling 4 of our less than perfect condition roll offs to Goodenough for $2,000.00
Our compost sales for October were strong with more than $6,000 of sales.
We will screen compost this fall in order to have product available this spring.
The downtown Brattleboro multi-use building project to implement food scrap composting for restaurants, businesses, and residents, in conjunction with CAV, is going well.
Cardboard (OCC) sales have been strong. We are getting close to $200 per ton. Access stickers and day pass sales have been strong. We have sold more than 2,500 access stickers since May, a record amount.
The District has upgraded the phone system, for the same costs as we were previously paying.
The new town administrator for Vernon, Shelly Walker, met with Bob and John to discuss our services, and tour our facility.
Glavel has opened a glass processing center in Williston. Bob will contact them to discuss feasibility of transporting our glass to them.
- Executive Session (if needed): None
- Next Meeting: Thursday, December 9th @ 7 PM. This will be preceded by a public hearing on the FY 23 Budget at 6:30 PM.
- Other Business: Vicki mentioned that the audit of FY21 is completed, and she will be sending out a PDF version to everyone next week.
- Adjournment: 8:07 PM.
Minutes prepared by
Vicki Hayes
Office Manager/District Clerk