Sometimes, less truck can be better, for more than one reason, according to one of the discussions Feb. 24 in Wiscasset selectmen's latest budget workshop.

It is hard to get and keep people who have the commercial driver's licenses (CDL) the heavy trucks require, explained Town Manager Dennis Simmons and Public Works Director Ted Snowdon. And they said a slightly smaller truck costs considerably less than the $200,000 a CDL truck costs.

Simmons recommended replacing two of the fleet's aging, CDL plow trucks with two that don't require CDL's. He has projected the two to cost a combined $315,000, partly offset by selling those two CDL trucks; this would leave the department's other two, newer, CDL trucks "to handle high-accumulation events, snow bank pushback, and routes requiring greater material capacity," Simmons wrote in his capital request notes. 

He told selectmen in the workshop, "We don't need something quite as big (for the new trucks). And by not having the CDL, we certainly increase the pool of possible candidates for employees." No hirings are sought now, but at least one employee will probably retire next year, he said. 

The 2014 International and 2012 Mack had not been planned to be replaced in 2026-27, but the costs to keep those two CDL-needing trucks going, including the $20,000 repair one needed, have pushed up the timeline, Simmons said in the workshop and the capital request notes. 

Will the smaller trucks be able to do the work, Vice Chair Pamela Dunning asked. They will, Snowdon said. 

"And you can bump right up against that CDL weight limit," Simmons added.

"It sounds like you've thought it out pretty well," Dunning said.

Simmons recommended tapping capital reserve for those two truck buys and a compact loader projected at $125,000, for a total of $440,000. The board has not decided what capital or other funding requests to take to voters this spring. 

Also Feb. 24, Simmons told the board to expect recommendations on some fee updates for the transfer station soon. He recently asked an industry long-timer, Michael Carroll, executive director of Municipal WasteHub, to spend a day at Wiscasset's station and recommend how to save and make more money. "He has offered some ways to increase our revenue to help take the burden off the taxpayer for this."

Simmons predicted people "are going to be upset when we start passing on higher fees, but I think it's going to be necessary ... And you know, left pocket, right pocket, you pay for it here (or) you pay for it here, you're going to pay for it one way or another." A pay per bag proposal several years ago did not fly with townspeople, he recalled.

On questions from Dunning, Snowdon said Wiscasset charges the same as other towns on demolition debris and is "about in the middle" on other fees he said "deviate a lot" from town to town.

Talking Parks and Recreation, Simmons said he wants a "support committee" that would help "raise outside funds to help offset some of the property taxes" the department gets, "and to help support additional programs and things for the community center to keep it vibrant and something that people look at when they want to come to Wiscasset ..."

At the March 3 selectboard meeting, he would propose the committee's creation, Simmons said.