Nora Grace-Flood photo
Scott Papoosha, whom the town contracts to grind down Hamden's organic waste, with one of the site's massive wood chip piles.
Should Hamden quit requiring proof of residency for the right to drop junk at the town’s transfer station — and instead start charging all dumpers a fee?
The town’s Legislative Council debated that question at a meeting Tuesday evening — then tabled it to a late September vote following more than an hour of back and forth brainstorming regarding how to limit persistent financial strain weighing on taxpayers.
The catalyst of that conversation was a proposed ordinance from the mayor’s office suggesting that the transfer station establish the following fee schedule:
$0.10 per pound for 201 pounds or more of solid and bulky waste.
$0.06 per pound for 200 pounds or less of solid and bulky waste.
$0.06 per pound for 201 pounds or more of organic waste.
No charge for 200 pounds or less of organic waste.
Mayoral Chief of Staff Sean Grace said the town looked at transfer station policies across the state and found six cents to be on the low end and 10 cents at the high end of the tipping fee spectrum. The town does not need to charge for organic waste, he said, because Hamden can compost those materials and is planning to soon sell topsoil and wood chips to take in some additional cash.
He explained the logic behind the newly proposed resolution (read it in full here): “It costs us money to process the waste and ship it out, so this is a way of recouping some of those costs.” He also noted that the town is looking to deter “some of the abuse that takes place regularly at our transfer station.”
That “abuse,” Grace elaborated, refers to businesses dropping off inordinate amounts of waste at the Hamden transfer station because the town is one of few municipalities that don’t charge for such service — and because residency regulations are “not practically enforceable,” as Grace put it.
For example, Joe Colello, who runs the transfer station, told the Independent that public works deals regularly with individuals bringing fake or expired licenses, stealing car permits that demonstrate local residency, or riding with a friend who lives in Hamden as ways to circumvent the residency requirement.
When that happens, Colello said, “Hamden taxpayers are footing the bill.”
Officials said the aim of the proposal is to keep the costs of dropping off small amounts of waste low while making sure that bigger businesses either stop bringing large amounts of garbage to the site or start paying to do so.
Colello said that a 2016 study by the transfer station found that using the scale could bring in $250,000 a year to the town. Grace added that the hope is that any money brought in through a fee system will specifically offset the costs currently tied to processing municipal waste.
Many council members expressed concern that the resolution would impose another undue burden on Hamdenites.
Councilman Bob Anthony argued that it seemed unfair to “cut a service” for residents since they have long paid through their taxes to support the composting and waste maintenance that takes place at the transfer station … all while facing a continuously rising mill rate.
Others said that if the town were to implement fees, it should ensure that Hamden also guarantee at-home bulk trash pick-up twice this year, a service that was cut from the town’s budget in 2021 and later reinstated.
Council members also pointed out that bulk trash pick-up is available to only homeowners, not condo owners (though they were granted a tax rebate in response to that reality in this past year’s budget) or apartment renters.
Ideas tossed around over the course of the conversation included moving towards a monthly bulk trash pick-up to accompany transfer station fees; printing irreplicable transfer station passes to send out to Hamden residents; offering residents a certain number of free drop-off passes; or waiving fees for the transfer station in the circumstance that the town does not find the money to host bulk pick-up this spring. (The town has so far budgeted properly for only an October trash pick-up).
“We’re not the U.S. Mint,” Grace said in response to the prospect of printing passes. “Not to be sarcastic — but I don’t think anyone in the state has the ability to make something that would be impervious to replication.” He also warned against introducing new systems that would create more complications and labor for public works, such as upping the number of bulk pick-up rounds or attempting to collect additional data about transfer station visitors.
The resolution does state that the mayor has the right to suspend any fees at the station pending an emergency or special declaration by her office.
Councilman Cory O’Brien said that he believes “simple is better for this [initial] implementation,” adding that the council should receive regular reports concerning how much debris and waste individuals drop at the center on average to determine how best to adjust the fee structure moving forward.
O’Brien recalled when the town first purchased a $300,000 scale back in 2013 with the intention of altering waste disposal processes in town. “The purpose of the scale,” he said, was to reap payment from “businesses and some individuals that are dropping off large amounts.”
But, he said, if the data finds that the town is no longer being dumped on, “I don’t think we should be charging residents for small amounts. I am concerned that we will get stuck with a fee system that is over-burdensome to our residents.”
Whatever decision the town chooses, Grace said it will take eight to 12 weeks following a council vote to install a new software system and card reader that are key to initiating the payment and tracking process.
Grace shared that it would likely cost the town more to perform data retrieval efforts through the software, though he said he is currently unaware how much that additional cost would be.
In the meantime, he said, councils from years back already expended hundreds of thousands on a scale — and any software expenses would pale in comparison, remaining in the thousands rather than “tens or twenties” of thousands.
The more likely alternative, he said, that the town could consider over the next month before the anticipated council vote, is allowing any dumping under forty pounds to remain free.
In the meantime, he said, “If we get the scale up and running, at least we’ll have some new revenue that’ll offset the changes we need to make.”
Nora Grace-Flood’s reporting is supported in part by a grant from Report for America.
The politicians and bureaucrats will take away every town service and your taxes will not go down but UP. How is this possible???