Years ago, in the 90′s Hollis and Waterboro used to share a vote on the RWS, now Echo Maine Board. Back then Hollis paid Waterboro approx $30,000 a year for using the recycling side of our Transfer Station, to include the woody debry the stumps, the white goods, the recyclable stuff too. The only thing they couldn’t use was our ‘hopper’ for household trash.
Well, over the years. Hollis sorta got out of the habit of paying for this service, for using our facility. They have gone to door to door pickup and HAVE NO FACILITY of their own. They instead stopped paying their bill in Waterboro, and Waterboro continued on letting the Hollis folks come in, simply paying the same sticker fee the Waterboro residents paid.
Yep, times are tough, and Waterboro Selectmen thought Hollis should pay their fair share. Hollis couldn’t even remember paying their fair share in the past. Shows you how long its’ been ! The Hollis Selectmen were having their residents pay the total bill to Waterboor through their stickers. The Town of Hollis Selectmen thought they should pay NOTHING to use our Transfer Station. Read the letter. Now they suggest their residents drive into Portland to use the facility. Not bad, longer drive, they still pay a dumping fee.
But they put out a memo sorta forgetting the history and the facts. What a cheap bunch. Course, if our Waterboro Selectmen were more like Hollis, then maybe we’d have the lower taxes. You think?

http://www.hollismaine.org/Publicnoticetransferstation.pdf

The York County Sheriff’s Department says one or more burglars broke into the East Building of Massabesic (mass-uh-BEE’-sic) High School in Waterboro Monday night and took the laptops and a projector. The burglars pried open a rear window to the building.

The laptop Apple Intel Mac Book computers were used in the freshman academy at Massabesic. The laptops are all white and had identifying stickers showing they are the property of RSU 57. When the laptops are turned on the background screen identifies the computers as the property of RSU 57.

The school says the replacement cost for each computer is $1,200.

Do a petition to have the town take back the park from the Land Trust. That land agreement was written to allow either side to bow out easily. Take the park back, it becomes a town matter once again, we can spend taxpayer money to maintain it and repair the drainage problems.

But, I guess if those residents can’t get together enough to form a Road Association, they probably can’t get together to start a petition and follow it through.

We don’t support the Red Cross and FEMA is out of money. Hope it’s a mild Winter, eh !

But in the last week I’ve had elected officials in three towns make mention about
how gullible Waterboro Selectmen are lately. And they were all three talking about
Waterboro setting their own rates because a committee member said ” Oh,the State doesn’t set rates anymore.”

And then this morning I got sent this along with a loud chuckle:

http://www.maine.gov/mdot/community-programs/documents/slrper11.pdf

We are a piece of work.

Answer? Who knows.

Remember the original bids, from $100,000 to $150,000? And the two year circus trying to get it
done cheaper? Looks like this will be similar to other projects in town. It will sorta get done, and
no one will really know the bottom line amount.

I don’t think they hit the high number, but I’ll lay odds they didn’t save any money. Would have been
cheaper to have the firm we bought the compactor from put it in. And the money we paid the
engineering firm to get it done right was wasted.

I doubt we will ever know the actual amount paid for the compactor.

I usually manage to make the Gorham meetings on Thursday Night. Small group, but pretty enthusiastic. Anyone wants a ride, I usually have a seat open if I can get the dog off it.

Twice I’ve found good conversation with hams traveling through, once at Merrill’s and once at Dunkin.

Don’t think there is a common local simplex, but 50.4 is pretty well listened to, and I think almost anyone can hit the
444.600 W1CKD repeater. They also have a 2 meter repreater, but can’t remember the freq.
Just got reminded , it’s 147.27 with a 103.5 tone.

The Gorham Group just had a class. Always enough people to give classes and test in the area.

Think about it, each week both The Reporter and the Smart Shopper bring a couple of tons of paper to the Town of Waterboro. SOme goes in the mailboxes, some just distributed around town. And they are free! Oh , think so? Both make money selling advertisement, the majority of which is not about Waterboro, both push their papers as free. And yet, Waterboro residents get to pick up the tab for hauling all that paper to Eco Maine. Sure is a win-win for them. And a losing one for the taxpayers. Costs us about $400 a month to take care of their ‘free’ papers.

The answer is no. It’s close, but finishing up a project seems to be beyond our current townhall. They have a hard time putting projects to bed, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s is not in their limited bag of tricks.

What is happening is NOTHING. Notice the subject is NOT on the agenda anymore, nor is it being talked about ! So therefore, everyone thinks it must be done, eh !

There are still two problems, two issues, that are unfinished. Neither issue stops it from being used, but both issues are just disasters, bound to cost us more money. One, when they install a new empty contained, something that happens weekly, the bottom of the whole compactor us just a little, just a touch to low. Right now they have the bolts on the NEW COMPACTOR BASE loosened, allowing the container to be connected. Must be ok, eh ? Nope, it won;t be long before the bolts get sheared off as the container bang into them when it’s taken on and off. Then you have a costly problem, which will cost the town more money. Solution? Oh, add a couple of shims to raise the base enough to allow the container to install WITH THE BOLTS TIGHT. Is this in the works? No one seems to know.
Problem two: the motor controller, part of the electronics, has a heater to make sure the water based cooling does not freeze. It has gone bad twice, apparently from mis-wiring, or improper installation. When it gets cold, and that water freezes in the controller, things will not work, and it will cost another $300-$500 to get it replaced. Solution? Either get one that works correctly, repair the wiring, or correct the installation. This part is included in the original installation bid. It needs to work correctly.

This is dragging on, getting into the Winter, and the Selectmen don’t even have it on the agenda. My question was: Is the contractor already paid for this work. The answer, apparently is no, not yet. Let’s hope he isn’t until the work is finally completed and done correctly. Wanna bet?