With open minds, Alna residents can get creative on how the town handles trash, bulky items and recyclables, Third Selectman Coreysha Stone said Sept. 12 as she reviewed potential ways she has researched besides Wiscasset Transfer Station, and then suggested another idea she learned about: Having a hauler park on town property and everyone takes their trash to the truck. And maybe a hauler could come a different day for recyclables, and once a month for bulky waste, Stone said.

“There’s so many creative ways to do this … We could come up with the Alna formula, that is completely a different system than anyone else has even done before … Or if people don’t want to change, that’s fine, too,” Stone said in the meeting. She thinks Wiscasset should change the formula so Alna is not helping pay for an asset it doesn’t own.

Sept. 16, Wiscasset Town Manager Dennis Simmons said Alna has been told budget time is when to ask Wiscasset to consider a change, and the selectboard could decide then whether to entertain it. 

In the Sept. 12 Alna selectmen’s meeting, Stone said if Wiscasset would change how it figures the annual bill, maybe Alna would be happy with that, or maybe residents are OK with sticking with Wiscasset either way, she said. 

Resident Ed Pentaleri said Wiscasset is convenient but if people care about the amount of money the town is paying, they should be looking for “a better value.” Alna pays Wiscasset about $120,000 a year to use the transfer station, Alna selectmen have said.   Fellow resident Beth Whitney spoke to other costs if Alna switched from Wiscasset Transfer Station. “(We’d be) driving to Dresden … driving to Nobleboro, individually. We’re all going to be driving our cars there. Carbon footprint. Cost of gasoline. Cost of my time. My time’s worth something. I go through Wiscasset. It’s very easy to drop stuff off …” The other places would be a special trip, she explained.   Stone asked if Whitney would be more interested in door to door pickup. “No,” Whitney said. “Because then you’d have wintertime. You have to put (trash) out there at 7 o’clock in the morning and God knows what happens to it when the snowplow comes through. No. I’m interested in paying the extra money so that I don’t have to do any of that.”   “OK, great,” Stone said. “Make sure you answer the questions,” she said about a form the board planned to put out and see if people were interested in any change in disposal of trash and other items.    “Oh I will. You don’t want me to be shy, right,” Whitney said as laughter began in the room.   “Oh, absolutely not, that’s what we love about you, Beth,” Stone said.
As for recycling, there is no point unless the whole country is behind it, resident Mike Trask said. “You all don’t want to get rid of plastic. So, until you do that, don’t waste my time.”   Stone told him she completely agreed. She said glass, tin and cardboard should replace plastic. She called plastic a worldwide crisis and “a complete disgusting travesty and it shouldn’t be on the consumer to fix the problem. It should be a regulation, because that’s the only way we’re going to get it to be any better.”   On request, Stone after the meeting shared a draft of the form of questions for residents. It asked residents if they take their trash and recycling to Wiscasset Transfer Station, how often, if they have access issues and if they are “interested in learning about other options that could save the town approximately $50,000-$60,000 or more per year.” Residents could check boxes if interested in learning more about door to door trash pickup and taking their recycling to Lincoln County Recycling in Wiscasset and their bulky waste elsewhere, possibly Nobleboro, for a combined estimated cost of about $60,000 a year; the same option except taking the trash to Dresden instead of door to door pickup, all for about $56,000 a year; the Dresden for trash, elsewhere for bulky waste option but with Alna making its own recycling site, all for about a $70,000 a year cost to the town; having a trash and recycling site in town,and still taking bulky waste elsewhere, all for about $47,000 a year; or staying with Wiscasset Transfer Station for about $120,000 a year.   The town already pays into Lincoln County Recycling via county taxes, the draft stated.   Also Sept. 12, selectmen discussed plans for a 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24 special town meeting in the fire station’s meeting room, on how to spend remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds. The questions were not yet set.