Wiscasset to eye transfer station funding

Baston to recommend Alna board sign contract
Wed, 07/10/2019 - 8:15am

Wiscasset is asking Alna to sign the 2019-20 transfer station contract and has agreed to review how towns pay to use the station. Wiscasset selectmen’s unanimous vote Tuesday night came after Alna Second Selectman Doug Baston reiterated the Alna board’s concerns over fairness with the funding formula.

Wiscasset selectmen said they will review it over the next year, including seeing what Alna, Westport Island and station superintendent Ron Lear have to say. "It may change, it may not. But at least we can look at it after so many years," Chair Judy Colby said.

Outside the meeting after the vote, Baston said he will recommend his fellow members sign the contract. Asked about Wiscasset's decision, Baston said it was good, depending on the review’s outcome.

For lack of a quorum July 10, the Alna board meets next on July 24, according to a town email this week. Baston said he would ask First Selectman Melissa Spinney if members could each come into the town office to sign the contract “so these people don’t have to wait weeks for (it). They deserve certainty.”

Westport Island signed the contract Monday night, Wiscasset Town Manager John O’Connell said. Telling the board about Alna’s concerns over the Census-based system, O’Connell said:  “There’s no easy way to do this, short of ... weighing (vehicles). There’s certainly no perfect solution.”