HOULTON – Members of the Town Council and representatives of Boyd Sanitation met for more than an hour Monday night to discuss an average 19 percent rate increase request from Boyd.

“We want to be fair to you, but we have a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of Houlton,” council Chairman Paul Romanelli told Boyd officials. “I don’t want to be insensitive, [but] my heart is with the ratepayer.”

Depending on the type of service a customer has, rate increases would vary.

Under the Boyd request, curbside collection could go up about 24 percent from $4.44 per week to $5.50. Back-in service, where trash is collected on the customer’s property, could go up almost 21 percent from $5.55 to $6.69.

Drop-off service by individual customers at the transfer station would increase from $1.38 per 25-pound bag to $1.57 per bag, or just under 14 percent.

According to Gordon Reed, controller for the company, Boyd has 384 curbside and back-in customers in Houlton.

Reed said about 4,404 tons of trash are disposed of a year by customers directly at the transfer station in Houlton. It costs the company $125.56 per ton to handle and dispose of that trash, at a cost of about 6.3 cents per pound.

“Volume is the name of the game,” said Wayne Boyd, operations manager for the company. “When you get volume, your price goes down.”

He added that when the company bought out and consolidated several smaller companies in the area a few years ago, operations for recycling were not efficient.

As such, over the last two years, the company has spent $350,000 to upgrade and modernize its handling and processing of recycled goods at the former HAPCO building and the transfer station.

The company also has had to make changes to the buildings to comply with requests from the Department of Environmental Protection for such things as floor drains and waste-oil storage. Fuel costs also have gone up.

Last year, Boyd’s requested an 11 percent increase to offset increased expenses, but the Town Council saw fit to grant only a 5 percent increase, with instructions to the company to tighten its belt.

As a result, the company left vacant a staff position and cut back customer hours. The latter action subsequently angered some members of the council.

That was not lost on Romanelli, who on Monday said, “I don’t want to pick up the conversation where we left off last year. I want to wipe the slate clean.”

With that, he urged the company to reconsider its hours, if it gets a rate increase.

“Think about your hours,” he said. “The convenience of hours can be just as important as cost.”

Boyd noted that the projected operating costs and the resultant rate increase request for this year were based on the current operating hours, but he said that with regard to changes in the hours, “we’ve given that some thought.”

Boyd Sanitation is owned by Casella Waste Systems of Rutland, Vt. Its contract with the town expires in October 2002.

Monday’s session was a workshop and as such, no action was taken.

Romanelli said the council would meet in executive session with its attorney to discuss Boyd’s rate request. Any proposal will then be aired at a public hearing before action is taken.