CONWAY — The Selectboard hosted the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District’s executive director this week to provide an overview of how much trash the town handles and the costs associated with it, as well as to suggest ways to cut costs.
Jan Ameen visited Town Hall to recommend ways to cut down on trash volumes and prevent people from surrounding towns from dropping off their trash at Conway residences. She explained her job is to help the transfer stations within the district’s 21 member towns and track volume.
“Some volume comes from neighboring communities,” she said about Conway.
The town is the only one in the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District with no system of mandatory trash bags or stickers. This, Ameen said, results in residents’ friends and family dumping garbage for pickup, making Conway’s trash volume disproportionate to its population. She noted Deerfield — a town of roughly 1,300 people — produces 780 pounds of trash per resident annually, whereas Conway — with a population of 1,100 — produces 832 pounds per resident.
Ameen told the Greenfield Recorder this was a problem Erving faced until recently, when it instituted bag stickers to cut down on out-of-towners transporting their garbage to Erving curbsides. She said each resident was given 104 stickers (two for each week) and the town experienced a 34% drop in trash volume.
Ameen said trash hauling has cost Conway about $50,000 at former rates, but the closure of an Agawam waste disposal facility has forced a move to a Springfield site, and Ameen predicts the cost will increase to $55,000 to $58,000 this fiscal year. She suggested Conway switch to a sticker system to cut down on out-of-town trash and to serve taxpayers’ needs.
“The majority of people are going to do the right thing,” she said. “It’s really a way of holding people accountable.”
To quell concerns, Ameen said mechanisms can be put in place to ensure transfer station attendants are not forced to be regulation enforcers. She also mentioned the Conway Transfer Station consists of a bulky waste container and charges fees for mattresses only. She recommends a fee for other bulky items, such as furniture and tires.
Selectboard Chair Phil Kantor called this week’s meeting “the first annual trash-a-palooza at the Selectboard,” making reference to the session being just the first step in a lengthy process.
Ameen told the Recorder she hopes the Selectboard digests the information she presented and she looks forward to attending another meeting in the near future.
“I think it was highly educational for the Selectboard,” Town Administrator Veronique Blanchard told the Recorder.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.