Update On Waste Hauler Reform: Town Will Request Information From Providers

Report On The Meeting Of The Town Services And Outreach Committee June 1,2023 

This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded. The recording can be viewed here.

Present
Anika Lopes (Chair, District 4), Shalini Bahl-Milne and Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5), and Andy Steinberg (at large). Dorothy Pam (District 3) joined at 8:30 p.m.

Staff: Paul Bockelman (Town Manager)

Some Progress On Waste Hauler Reform
Darcy DuMont of Zero Waste Amherst, the official community sponsor of the proposed Waste Hauler bylaw, decried the slow pace of progress on the reform. She said that the measure was endorsed by the Board of Health 18 months ago, and was referred to the Town Services and Outreach Committee (TSO) 10 months ago. The town received a grant for technical support six months ago, and Susan Waite, the Regional Coordinator for Solid Waste, has completed her work. DuMont urged the town to enact the bylaw this summer, saying it will be “a win for residents and the environment—reducing costs, encouraging reduction in waste, and providing curbside composting”. She added that the measure has received widespread support from committees in town.

Town Manager Paul Bockelman said that the town plans to issue an RFI (request for information) to area haulers by the end of June. The purpose of the RFI is to gauge the interest of companies that might be interested in submitting bids for a contract and learning what conditions they may require to provide the service. He said DPW Superintendent Guilford Mooring is in charge of writing the RFI with Waite’s assistance. The grant that Waite is working under ends June 30. The town typically requests responses to the RFI within 30 days, and will use this information to craft an RFP (request for proposals)

Andy Steinberg (at large) noted that at a recent Finance Committee meeting, Mooring mentioned briefly that if the bylaw passes, he does not expect residents to be permitted to bring their trash to the transfer station. Bockelman said that no decision has been made on this, and that the contract might require  all households to participate in at-home pick up. The transfer station would continue to provide trash collection for the town and schools.

Steinberg, who is a councilor sponsor of the Waste Hauler bylaw, also pointed out that claims of saving residents money by comparing current costs with USA trash pick-up to that of South Hadley’s  pay-by-the-bag system may be erroneous because South Hadley only has trash collection every other week, as opposed to weekly service in Amherst.

Shalini Bahl-Milne (District 5), who is also a councilor co-sponsor along with Jennifer Taub (District 3 ),  asked about the delay in progress on the measure and was told by Bockelman that Mooring is very busy at this time of year. She suggested that much of the needed paperwork should be done by Waite in her final month of her grant with Amherst. 

Bockelman pointed out that the proposed bylaw has yet to be approved by the Town Council, but  “if we can achieve everything Darcy says, it would be a great win for the town.”

Solution Proposed For Intersection Of Henry And Pine Streets Near Cushman School
Parents and teachers at the Cushman Scott Children’s Center have voiced concerns about the safety of children and staff crossing Henry Street to get to the school. The DPW studied the situation and proposed a stop sign to slow traffic, but this would be counter to state traffic laws. Current suggestion is to move parking for the school to the west side of Henry Street, so that children will not have to cross the street.

Minor Concerns Remain About Proposed Streetlight Policy
Changes proposed by Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5) and Mandi Jo Hanneke (at large) to the town’s streetlight policy were discussed at the May 4 TSO meeting. Concerns were voiced, as they have been voiced in the past, about the dimming of lights to 70 percent at night. Bahl-Milne and Dorothy Pam (District 3) were concerned about the cost of dimmable lights and the safety of less lighting. Bahl-Milne also objected to the section of the policy that says, “[However] streetlights will not be provided by the town as security lighting for private property or for pedestrians in residential neighborhoods unless at least one of the above criteria is met or the Town Council otherwise deems the situation to require a streetlight, because such lighting could be requested virtually everywhere in the town.” Bahl-Milne said that the end of the statement seems “hostile” to residents. Hanneke and Devlin Gauthier disagreed that the wording needs to be changed, noting that the same wording is  in the 2001 streetlight policy currently in effect. The TSO did not come to a decision.

Concerns about dimmable lights were allayed by the sponsors pointing out that the policy requires cost to be taken into account when purchasing the lights. The sponsors stressed that the lights that would be used are programmable, so that if there is a problem with too little lighting in a particular area, those lights could be programmed to remain at 100 percent. They pointed out that, since lights last ten or more years, delaying the change to dimmable lights for those that need replacing would preclude the possibility of dimming lighting for many years in the future. In response to worries about some crosswalks not being illuminated, Hanneke said that most crosswalks are at intersections which have streetlights, and that crosswalks elsewhere may require different safety measures, such as pedestrian-activated flashing lights. Bahl-Milne suggested surveying business owners and the public about the policy, but the rest of the committee did not agree.

Under the new policy, all PVTA bus stops will have lights, but no other changes in locations of streetlights are proposed in the policy itself. TSO hoped that they would be able to pass the lighting policy at their next meeting and then send it on to the Town Council.