Guilford to build solid waste facility Residents weighed option of hauling trash to site in nearby Dexter

GUILFORD – Residents opted for convenience Monday by voting to construct a solid waste facility on Blaine Avenue, rejecting an option to haul their trash to a facility just over the Dexter town line.

Along with that vote at the annual town meeting came a gift of land donated by residents Richard and Roberta Thomas to be used for the solid waste facility. The land is adjacent to Richard’s Garage on Blaine Avenue, which residents also voted to purchase Monday to house the municipal garage.

In an associated vote, residents approved the sale of the present municipal garage on Elm Street and an adjacent house owned by the town. The proceeds from the sale will be applied to the $130,000 Blaine Avenue purchase.

Town officials had given residents three options for solid waste disposal after it became known that the current unlicensed and unpermitted transfer station on Elm Street could no longer be used after May 1. Of the options, only curbside pickup was not recommended by selectmen. That option was defeated by residents, as was a move to become a user of the Mid-Maine Solid Waste Facility in Dexter. The latter option, at a cost of $126,000 the first year, was defeated 128-34.

In addition to the purchase cost of the Blaine Avenue garage property, town officials estimate that it will cost $200,000 to $300,000 over several years to build a transfer site with recycling in mind. And the town must continue to pay the transportation and tipping fee for the disposal of rubbish at the Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. in Orrington.

Once the Department of Environmental Protection has approved the Blaine Avenue location, residents will deposit their trash at the new site in the same manner now carried out at the Elm Street site, Town Manager Tom Goulette said.

Before the vote, former town manager Robert Littlefield said he thought it “was absolutely wrong” to accept the mid-Maine option and said he supported curbside pickup by the town. He noted there were many senior citizens on fixed incomes in the community who would be hard pressed to pay a trucking firm to haul their rubbish to the Penobscot County town.

In other business Monday, residents defeated 78-56 a moratorium of 180 days on herbicidal spraying of commercial forestlands in the town. Residents had submitted a petition with 100 signatures asking for the vote. A representative of International Paper Co. noted Monday that his company had no plans to spray this year.

Elected to office were the following: Mike Dexter and Peter Martell to the Board of Selectmen; Michelle Nichols as town clerk; Skip Davis, Guilford-Sangerville Sanitary District trustee; Melissa Douglass and Pam Goulette to the SAD 4 board, and Delores Curtis and Alvin McDonald Jr. to the HAD 4 board.