Mattawamkeag considers improvements for transfer station

MATTAWAMKEAG – Town officials are looking to spend $14,000 to improve the waste transfer station on Wilderness Park Road as part of a plan to consolidate garbage and recycling efforts.

The Board of Selectmen were reviewing the station site Wednesday with Ted Ocana of

Foresight Engineering of Lincoln to see whether consolidating town trash and recycling collection and processing at that site is feasible, board Chairman John Whitehouse said.

“We want to make it one-stop shopping so we can take care of everything,” Whitehouse said Wednesday.

Board members are concerned that the building area lacks space enough for

all those operations, so they plan to discuss options with several engineers before doing anything, he said.

Since Jan. 18, a new state law requires mercury to be removed from the universal waste stream. As of July 20, landfills will no longer be allowed to accept mercury-laced devices. These include televisions, computer monitors and mercury electrical switches.

Town officials want to build a shed at the transfer site on or before June 30 to comply with the new law, Whitehouse said. Another facet of the plan

could involve moving the recycled goods facility drop-off downtown and halting recycling pickup every third Thursday of the month to consolidate it all at the transfer site.

Regionally, towns are discussing consolidation efforts to defray costs that might be incurred when mercury recycling starts up. East Millinocket, Medway and Millinocket officials are studying ways to combine efforts or services.

Enfield, Howland, Maxfield and Edinburg have tentatively agreed to begin the recycling effort together, with Howland acting as the recycling center because it has a recycling building.

So far, Mattawamkeag and Molunkus are the only towns that might combine efforts at Mattawamkeag’s site, Whitehouse said.

“We have a solid waste contract to take care of Molunkus. We might explore doing it for other towns,” he said.