Council Agenda Includes Double Dose of Trash Talk
Two city councilors plan to bring up issues regarding the Attleboro Landfill at the meeting tonight.
9:15 a.m. UPDATE: Councilor Walter Thibodeau's proposed resolution has been released. It is attached to this article. The proposal states:
The Municipal Council of the City of Attleboro strongly urges MassDEP and EndCap to develop an alternative plan which reduces the amount of fill required to cap the site, thereby minimizing the impact on the residents of Attleboro, Taunton, and Norton, while simultaneously reducing the expense involved in this process.
If a majority of the council approves Thibodeau's motion, the proposed resolution would go to a council committee for further review and later go before the full council for a vote.
__________
The Attleboro Landfill capping project was the subject of a war of words between Mayor Kevin Dumas and City Councilor Jonathan Weydt last week, and this week two more city officials plan to get involved in the discussion.
There are two "new business" items on the agenda for tonight's City Council meeting, one from Councilor Richard Conti and the other from Councilor Walter Thibodeau.
Conti is calling for the creation of a city ordinance requiring a fee of $2.52 per ton of material delivered "for access by truck on public ways to an established, reopened or new landfill." A 2009 agreement signed between the president of EndCap Technology and Mayor Dumas states the company would pay the city 25 cents per ton while it sends an estimated 650,000 tons of "slightly contaminated material" via truck to the Attleboro Landfill during a three- to four-year period as part of the capping project.
Conti told Attleboro Patch that his proposed fee is based on the Massachusetts general law that states the operator of a private landfill "shall" pay the municipality $1 per ton of solid waste processed. The law went into effect in 1981 and states the fee should go up each year based on the Boston Consumer Price Index.
"The $2.52 is an average US CPI and the actual figure will be based on the Boston Consumer Price Index, but it should not be much different," Conti wrote in an email to Patch. "The municipality can charge up to and no more than that amount is my understanding. The whole point is that we have no ordinance for a tipping fee in the books as of now even though it is state law."
Conti's agenda item currently states 25 cents per ton, but he told Patch the figure would change to $2.52 when he introduces the item during the meeting.
Thibodeau's agenda item calls for a "resolution relative to the proposed Attleboro Landfill capping project." He wrote in an email to Patch on Monday that he was working on revising the original draft of his proposed resolution, and would provide a copy of the document to this website prior to the meeting. He did not specify what would be included in the resolution.
Sarah
5:44 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Now the grandstanding begins. I think Rick Conti is a great guy and and an excellenct City Councilor who provides a bit of checks and balance for the lopsided council. That being said sometimes he just goes just "this side of reasonable". A word of advice: scale it back a little Rick so that the answer isn't "no" right out of the gate.
Dolly
3:30 pm on Wednesday, September 5, 2012
What would you like too see scaled back? What I read is that Mass General Law was the basis of his proposed ordinance including the fee schedule. Are you saying the state is wrong?
Desiderata
9:18 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
What the Council should do is invite the Mayor and Barry LaCasse to the Council meeting tonight and ask them about this 2009 agreement since they were the ones that signed it. I see more legal fees in the horizon for our City Solicitor if this agreement is legally binding.
Jonathan Friedman
9:25 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
For the record, Barry LaCasse did not sign the agreement. It is signed by the mayor and the president of EndCap.
Jerry Chase
5:32 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
Attleboro needs a new mayor.
Daniel F. Devine
6:14 pm on Thursday, September 13, 2012
I agree Jerry, but good luck getting one. Kevins' Mayor for life you know. You CAN fool some of the people all of the time! How many more Million Dollar Lawsuits are down the road? I guess he'll have to raise the water & sewer rates again.
Dolly
12:15 pm on Wednesday, October 3, 2012
The rate payers of Attleboro are being overcharged for water. The new budget was approved as of July 1, 2012. Check your water bill. If you had usage in fiscal year 2012 and 2013 you were charged the 2013 water rate for the entire bill. And it's been happening for at least the past 3 years. Yes, the city is aware of this and has taken no obvious action to correct it. Perhaps we need a class action suit against the city.