The Woolwich Select Board plans to ask voters this Monday, July 17 to put off an item on Ecomaine until September due to new information from the non-profit contractor for solid waste and recycling.

David King Sr., select board chair, said the decision was made Wednesday morning, July 12. “We’ll open the town meeting as planned, elect a moderator and then entertain a motion to postpone further consideration of the Ecomaine contract until September.” There’s no requirement for a public hearing, added King.

In a July 12 email to the Wiscasset Newspaper, Selectman Allison Hepler wrote, “Ecomaine has agreed to extend the town’s current contract, which expired on July 1, for 60 days.” The extension requested by the select board grants the town more time to consider entering into a long-term contract with Ecomaine.

“The Select Board feels the extra time is a good opportunity to have the Solid Waste Committee hold informational meetings over the next two months,” Hepler wrote.

She noted the 10-year contract Ecomaine is proposing holds the tipping fees for solid waste at the current price of $57.85 per ton (last year’s tipping fee price), plus the Consumer Price Index increase of July 1, 2017, which brings the rate to $58.72 for this fiscal year (not $57.80 per ton as was previously announced, according to Lisa Wolff of Ecomaine), then an increase to $70.50 plus three years’ worth of CPI-U increases.

Hepler said the tipping fee for the remaining years of the contract would continue to rise based on the annual CPI-U. Ecomaine wouldn’t guarantee Woolwich these prices for a contract of less than 10 years.

These prices, Hepler added, were “substantially lower than what the town was paying ...” Ecomaine, based in Portland, is currently charging new membership customers $70.50 a ton, she said.

Ecomaine also agrees to credit the town’s account with revenue from the recycling materials it sells.

“The amount of that credit varies from month to month, last month it was $278,” Hepler stated. “Based on preliminary figures over the fiscal year that just ended, those credits amounted to a savings of $18,000 compared to what was budgeted.”

In June, Ecomaine recommended the select board consider entering into a long-term contract rather than a year-to-year one. Ecomaine predicts that in the not-so-distant future, solid waste disposal options in Maine will become more limited as landfills close.

Lissa Bittermann, Ecomaine business development manager, told the select board July 10 a number of towns have recently contracted for 10 to 20 years. Ecomaine typically signs three-year contracts, she said.