George Russell discussed subcommittee meeting with Bob Palmer regarding the direction of the committee.   Please see the hand out from the meeting.

• Discussion continues regarding moving from a PAYT to an enterprise system. Need to come up with the 1.5 million being raised by the $175/year fee for this year.
• This comes to $3.50/bag
• Given goal, a flat fee potentially could be cheaper then a PAYT system
• May need to consider part flat fee, part PAYT
• Force budget issues for 2004…Taxes…new growth.

Town meeting approval is suggested; are Selectmen going to present to town meeting or Fin. Com.?  Usually Fin Com but Selectmen can speak to it.

Needham’s program: Sticker fee ($20/car), drop-off and PAYT

A few towns are two tier towns

• Flat fee to cover pick-up
• PAYT to cover disposal-tipping fee  < $1 million for 2002
• Could look like $1.00 per bag 1 free bag.
• Or 20 free bags, this could vary with flat fee. Don’t  change bag price at least for two years.

• Need to reduce fixed cost 
• Give back excess revenue
• Cost of recycling will go up---need to offset cost of recycle 

PAYT is more controllable; Discussed different programs and enforceability of both.

May need definitive money goal to move forward.

• $1.5 million Target -----$1.2 million budget and ideal PAYT system 

Problem with administration. How do you handle those who opt out? How do you handle people who do not pay? Town administrator would need to collect. Policing issues.

Discussed transfer station in Natick with drop off area. Cost of implementing. Could be more flexible around what we take.  Not too early to look into this.  Could take 3 years.
 

Bag v. Barrel sub-committee presented.
Please review hand outs.
No two towns they looked at were the same.

5 sticker towns found the program was not equal. People used different size containers per sticker.
Bags were easier to monitor verse barrels
Bags can control volume easier.
After reviewing the pro and cons of bags and barrels the conclusion was made that the bags would be better for the collectors

• More equitable
• Bags may be more expensive then a barrel
• Bags from state are 20% recycled content

• Some towns the stores charged 5cents more per bag. Others were free.
• Some towns delivered the bags once a week and invoiced monthly

Sub committee recommended Bags

Motion: PAYT task force recommends that we propose adopting the use of bags for the  Natick PAYT system. Motion was seconded and approved unanimously by committee.

Sub committee needs to still address operational issues.

Question was raised regarding combing resources with Framingham. Discussions have begun with them and they may be willing to work together.

DEP grant for this year.
We need a letter from selectmen saying that we will be implementing a PAYT system this year to receive a 125K grant.

Next steps:

Bags – operation issues to be addressed by sub committee.

Financial Scenarios need to be presented at next meeting.

Next meeting June 5th 7:30

POE to meet June 29th