The Wiscasset Regional Transfer Station, which also serves Alna and Westport Island, will begin a mandatory recycling program with Lincoln County July 1.

Wiscasset had used a single-stream recycling service, but the program’s cost rose from $50 per ton to $250 per ton in the last year. Now residents will sort recycling as follows: #2 plastics (milk jugs, detergent bottles, bleach bottles, and so forth, separated by color and translucent); mixed paper, which consists of hard cover and soft cover books, catalogs, cereal boxes, mail, paper tubes, paper bags, food and beverage cartons, and telephone books; cardboard; brown glass; clear glass; green and blue glass; newspapers and magazines; metal cans; and rigid plastics such as lawn chairs, children’s toys, buckets, and totes.

All other plastics must be disposed of in the trash. Plastics that cannot be accepted by the recycling program include plastic bags, stretch wrap, styrofoam and other foam packaging, and semi-rigid food containers such as strawberry and baked goods clamshells, juice bottles (except for milk bottle types), plastic food cartons, and other plastic waste.

County Administrator Carrie Kipfer said it is possible for the three towns to save about $60,000 per year in tipping fees if residents recycle. The transfer station  will have bins set up  for the various types of acceptable recycling on July 1, and attendants will be on hand to answer questions and help residents determine whether or not something can be recycled.

Light bulbs and batteries have special rules; see the attendant.

Mary Ellen Barnes presented contract renewals for grants totaling about $17,000 from the Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry. She also  introduced planning office summer intern Colleen Hendricks, a senior at University of Maine at Machias.

Sheriff Todd Brackett introduced Elizabeth Simoni, director of Maine Pretrial Services. The commissioners approved its budget, up $2,900, to $61,200. Simoni said her office has a good track record; while nationwide, generally, about 30 percent of people released on bail commit new crimes before trial, Maine Pretrial Services’ numbers are between 4 and 7 percent. She said that by having inmates out of jail, the jail saves about 9,000 days out of jail. At a rate of $140 per night, that saves an estimated $1,260,000 per year.

Kipfer said there would be an employee recognition day June 20 at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, coinciding with a court shutdown day. People who cannot make it to the event because they are needed at the office will be offered passes to go another day.

She said energy contracts are being finalized. The county renewed its contract with Constellation Energy and is looking to lock in rates for fuel oil and diesel. The diesel rate has dropped from $2.75 to $2.27 per gallon, and will be locked in at that rate. Kipfer hopes to go a little lower on the fuel oil rate.

At the next meeting, there will be a public hearing for a Community Development Block grant application  for Maine Dental, which the county has agreed to act as a fiscal agent for.