Before the Alna Selectmen sign their next contract with the Wiscasset Transfer Station, they want to know the rules won't change midstream. Their concern stems from the start of mandatory recycling in 2011.

The $2 per bag, non-recycling fee upset some Alna residents, in part because it wasn't in the 2011-2012 contract. Wiscasset officials announced the plan prior to the contract but after Alna's 2011 annual town meeting. Selectmen then called a hearing where other solid waste options were discussed, but attendees favored staying with Wiscasset.

Selectmen had the 2012-2013 deal in front of them August 9, but decided to seek some new language and information on any savings the mandatory recycling yielded.

At the suggestion of First Selectman David Abbott, the board agreed to write Wiscasset a letter making those requests. “Then they'll know why we're hesitant” to sign the contract, Abbott said.

The letter will ask that the contract include a schedule of fees and penalties, and a statement that neither those, nor the station's “protocols,” can change during the contract year, selectmen said. The language should prevent any more policy changes like the mandatory recycling, former selectman Chris Cooper said.

Alna's annual cost to take its waste to Wiscasset is increasing by $1,597, to $70,262. Town Clerk Amy Warner reminded selectmen that Wiscasset officials warned them last year of an anticipated expense to buy a truck.

“That truck was supposed to save on fuel,” Alna Fire Chief Mike Trask said. He questioned whether the mandatory recycling has saved the station any money.

Reached August 10, the transfer station's superintendent declined to comment on any of the points discussed in Alna. Ron Lear said he will wait until he has seen the board's letter.

Wiscasset Town Manager Laurie Smith could not be reached for comment.

Recent reports show decreases in the amount of garbage the station has to pay to get rid of. “We are seeing less solid waste... and more recycled material...,” Lear wrote in a June 2012, monthly report to Smith. As a result of the shift, Lear has asked the Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (PERC) to lower Wiscasset's guaranteed annual tonnage by 200 tons. He expects to know the outcome of the request in late August, the report states.

From January through May of this year, 658.93 tons of waste went to PERC, down 104.27 tons from the same period last year, according to Lear's May 2012 report. Single-stream recycling yielded 125.81 tons from January through May of this year, compared to just 87.45 tons in the same period for 2011.

Board awards tax-acquired properties

Selectmen opened and awarded bids on five landlocked properties the town got through foreclosure for unpaid taxes. With $127, Mary Bowers of Alna was the lone bidder on a 14-acre parcel between Route 218 and West Alna Road;  a $5,600 bid by Mike Jewett & Son of Whitefield was chosen over Trask's $1,279 bid on 56 acres on the Dresden line near Bailey Road.

The other three lots are each on the Wiscasset line near West Alna Road and Central Maine Power's transmission line. Wiscasset resident Frank Boudin's $1,626 bid was chosen over a $950 bid by Larry and Carolann Rines of Wiscasset for 9.5 acres; the Rines' $2,000 bid beat out Boudin's $1,556 bid on six acres; and a $9,800 bid from Mike Jewett & Son was the only one received for a 28-acre lot in that area.