Municipal Solid Waste Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Okay. So, the first um order of business was to review the current contract. Um why don't we just take out of order you can go ahead and and approve or discuss the meeting minutes from October 8th. Sure. I don't have anything. Anybody have anything on them? I didn't have any comments. Okay. No, you seem fine to me. I'll move that we accept the uh minutes from October 8th as written. Second. Motion made second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Yep. Okay. So, that's something we're remotes just so for the sake of properness, we got to do it by roll call. Yes. So, Jim, yes. Evan, yes.

And Marie, yes. Thanks, Evan. Thank you. Right. and then we'll just we'll go ahead and start. Oh, here comes Larry. Perfect. With the the current contract.

Yeah. Um so I can put it up on the screen if if you'd like or um you we could just kind of speak to it real quick. So um you see we we entered into it in October, so about a year ago uh today. Um it has an an escalation in it where we start um our our 24 to 25 um so our fiscal 25 what we started about 750,000 and we will end the contract uh 2028 uh so fiscal year 29 um will be 844 uh 131 um then I guess if I just maybe it's a matter of if anyone has any questions or um I don't have any questions on that but I I can just tell you from my experience the town got a got a very good deal from Eel Harvey because a lot of other communities saw 10 and 20% increases in sanitation fiveyear sanitation contracts in the last several years and so seeing 3% increases that's great. Yeah, I was I was personally pretty pleased with with that one. Um, yeah, otherwise it's honestly it's pretty standard uh municipal solid waste contract.

There's not a lot um of of particular areas to call out that would make this unique. Um, and uh, you know, we have our our general um, our general ways that we can get out of that contract if we if we were to try to get out early. Um, I also think that we'd probably have some opportunity um, to work with EL Harvey in that capacity if we were going to try to change our our program. Um, yeah. Isn't Wasn't there a provision maybe I saw that we can exit the contract with 90 days written notice?

Correct. Yeah. I think I think that when we get if if we if we find ourselves in that position, you know, we might be able to to leverage E Harvey a little bit um to to make that change. I also when we were negotiating the contract and um it's not reflected in the document but they were very much aware that we were going to be looking at the current program. So I I still went forward and negotiated the the five-year because that's how we got our good rate um with the understanding that you know we're going to we're going to look at how we're we're executing this this program. So yeah. All right. Any specific questions for the contract?

No, I just kind of opened us up, Larry. We we um accepted the minutes because that was just kind of an easy thing and then we just went to number one. So, you really didn't miss anything. Thank you. And I'm sorry all for for running late. I got a sick sick baby and sick wife at home. So, it's uh it's a bit of a tornado. No worries. Absolutely. Um so if you want to go ahead and take over moving on to the next item. Sure. Let me just grab the agenda. I was it um necessary research for the upcoming meeting? Actually just before that it was discussed potential areas of concern.

Okay. Yeah. I sorry I thought that that's I thought that that was areas of concern with the with the contract. Is there is there is there another No. So, I think um yeah, I mean I I think that that was supposed to be a little bit more broad. Um okay. And that we should be looking at areas of concern with our own program and also anything that um you know stands out in the data that we pulled from D to to kind of try to lump all of that together.

Yeah. Um so I have a couple of thoughts. one is and Evan and I just when we were just the two of us on at the very beginning started talking about this a little bit that um both of us started playing with the big spreadsheet there and um like I was saying at the last meeting I think it would be great if we could take a look at you know how communities under different kinds of programs how they do recycling wise versus um what ends up going into landfills so that we don't choose an avenue or start going down an avenue that might take a good program that we have and make it so that we're our recycling rates go down because we certainly don't want to see that. Right.

And um and I don't know if does Grafton typically have when you do any kind of um community comparisons. Do you have a basic group of communities that you use as uh comps? Um yes. And so when I was we we have basically a list of 14 that I use when I do the community comparison. um like data for the budget and such.

Um but I actually started playing with the data in this a little bit differently and trying to match us with communities that have the same household size that are enrolled in the program and then I was sorting that to kind of figure out what programs they're using and then kind of extrapolating more data from there. So, we can certainly do it with the with the 14 benchmark communities that we use. Um, but I think we should also drill down a little bit on maybe communities that we don't normally consider are comparisons but might have a similar usage of a program.

Yeah, I I think that's a great idea. I think we can look at a lot of different aspects of it. And just something that came up that just when um Ann asked about the um about Hopkin and you said that their annual they just have like an annual fee that's 696.

Um they also have a I think a pretty low recycling rate. But um if looking at that data that data had um how many households we have here in Grafton that actually participate in the pay throw program and then you know how much revenue we um take in and so it's some I think if we could do some analysis where we looked at well what is the cost per household in Grafton um because I doubt it's $696 that they're paying in Hington if you do the math. And so it would be interesting to see, you know, how how do we compare financially on what the impact is financial impact is to every household that participates in the program. I I think that would be good information to have because if we I mean it's not if we're going to come up with a program that is going to cost more than what people are paying now. And I think when we get down to the end and we're making a recommendation, a really good thing would be if we could say, "We went into this knowing we're going to be paying more to make it an enterprise fund that works, but here's how we compare to other similar communities and what their annual cost is per household." I think that would be something that would help us really defend what our final recommendation is,

right? um just in the quick math category because I was doing that before we jumped on but um there is you know if you take the say let's say we use the a round number of $1.25 million with our our base fee and then our tipping fees and everything else put together and you divide that by the number of households that participate in the program which is roughly 5200. um you come up with a number that's just south of $250. Yeah. A household, which is $21 a month or something. Yeah. Yeah. It's a pretty good It's a pretty good rate,

you know. Um I know that's not the general consensus and and uh you know, trash fees are always contentious, but um that is actually not a a bad um bad annual fee. No. So, and and I think if we can show, you know, that look in Hopkin and in this community and that community, this is what their cost structure is. Um, I think that that will help us make that case when we have to make that case.

Yeah. So just to clarify there, so on or around $250 per household that's participating currently would would cover the entire nut at 1.25 million. We have to factor in some administrative costs and then some some tipping fee wiggle room, right? Because you don't want to be right at whatever you Yeah. So, a little bit of that, but that's also um you know what I had found when I had done the quick math was it's actually about 237 if you took it just on the the numbers. So, I think if you're figuring 250

um you know that that already has a little bit of of uh of uh wiggle room for lack of a better term. Yep. In it. Yeah. So, I agree with Jim. I think, you know, for the ultimate sale of this is uh that'll be compelling to see, you know, where we are, where we are now, where other communities, as you said, those ones that you typically bears to so on and so forth. And um I bet that people think that they currently pay more than $21 a month. Yeah. In their bag.

I think what's interesting and and this is kind of the we've talked about this. This is kind of the beauty of page you throw is that there are households that are probably paying considerably more than $21 a month and then there are households that are paying probably considerably less. Um and and you know that's that's kind of the beauty of the the pay as you throw is that you you only pay for what you you actually utilize for the service. Um I can't imagine I pay $100 a year. Yeah. Between my wife and I and our house. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm one of the low low ballers, too. I have a question. This might be off of the actual agenda topic, but with the the totes, the 35gallon or whatever, and again, some of these communities are doing and the notion of the tote program with overflow would be bags that you would just purchase. Um, I guess where would the incentive be for like say myself or Jim like uh that's every week and we don't fill it up. It doesn't matter. Right.

Right. Yeah. So there's a there's there's I think there's a little there there's a there probably is some disadvantage for the extremely low users because you're going to be paying a minimum, you know, there's a there's a barrier or there's a minimum entry right into the program. So whatever, let's, you know, say that's a $15 a month, what it works out to as your base rate, and then everybody pays, you know, for their whatever they produce over that. Um, if you're producing far less than that, then yeah, it's probably not the greatest deal for you. Uh

so Evan on that type of a program, two questions I would have is one is um have you had any discussions with Eel Harvey about whether their fee would increase or decrease if they had totally automated services where they didn't have a guy go pick up the bags. Um and

and the other one is whether or not the town is set up software-wise to do billings for all of the um participants in the program. I I know there are some people have water and sewer in town. Where I live, I don't. Um and so I don't know if you would have to expand. I I assume you probably use Munis. Um but no. No, no, it's a it's a sore point because we we wanted Munis, but it was too it was too expensive for Okay. Munis is beautiful. But um our software is great, too. So, we use Vadar. Okay.

And and those those folks at at Vader are wonderful, just in case they're watching this, but they really have a good program, but I also don't want them to know my secret pinings for Munis. Yeah. Um but we we do we have the ability to just add the module. Okay. in Vadar to go to um that type of billing. Um there's obviously some upfront cost to that and there's some upfront work to that to get all of you know the the addresses built and the everything else that goes into creating a an enterprise fund. Um yeah, and that kind of setup. Um what was the first question, Jim? I'm sorry. About the uh El Harvey contract and whether or not you'd had any

Yeah. So just preliminarily I think that if you know I wanted to get we'll get a couple of these under our belts and if that's you know one of the questions we we have of EL Harvey I'll certainly you know kind of see if we can hone in on on a little bit more decisive a number. Um when when we were negotiating this last contract we talked about a tot system and automation and they they had um you know stated that that would be a a savings to us to do that. Um, you know, I think that part of the issue is is if we go to a totter system and we like to retain the pay as you throw. I don't know that that is as advantageous if you just went to a everybody gets a 96 gallon container and they come and dump it once a once a week and it comes out of that bucket and that's it. Um, so there's probably a a little little room for discussion there, but I can certainly um, you know, try to hone in on that.

As far as I can see, we already are automated. It's just a driver and the thing goes out and takes your bag. There's we don't have additional people on the truck anymore. Okay. Yeah. No, but there's there's so I think I think that is a level of automation. I think that when I was speaking to Eel Harvey, you know, uh that works probably, you know, whatever it is 70% of the time, 80% of the time that is,

but you know, the bag rips are they're too far from the curb or there's whatever the other issues are. I think the drivers are getting out more than if we were just on a strict tower program. Um, but you know, I don't I don't know how much that that would actually change the dollar amount. We'd have to talk to those folks um a little bit more. My other thought was like then why would we not just go with making the bags cost what the program cost? I guess I guess it would be hard for you for us to figure out what that is or not really.

In in my opinion, not really. Um, so the reason I think the reason why we exist as a group and and we are discussing kind of how to do this and maybe we do come to that conclusion in the end but um if if you remember when we were doing the budgeting program I think you were um more on board with making the program cover itself with the pay as you throw and I think our other select board members needed some some further dialogue and review and discussion. And I think there was some there was some blocking uh at just, you know, ripping off that band-aid. And I think I think that's going to be, you know, that I think that's the core mission of what we're trying to do is figure out what's the best solution here and advise the board on how to execute.

Yeah. I bet but I guess like my question is sorry and this will be up for me for a minute. Um is like would there be too much variability with that somehow? So we need to fund this enterprise fund and such that at the end of the year it covers itself, right? So you need some sort of guarantee with the income and and so if it were that we just went fully bags y all of a sudden people aren't using the bags at all or you know or less bags or something I get I I guess I'm just trying to wrap my head around that.

No. So I think and and I don't know Jim if you have any experience with this but the way to my mind how we do that is you have to build in some kind of a a factor into your into your budgeting that shows that well we may see a fluctuation of 20% or 10% or whatever that number you you wind up doesn't matter. Um, it's it's actually probably a very similar exercise to what we do every time we change the bag fees because we know that when we announce a change of bag fees, people run out and buy, you know, a year supply of of bags in one shot. And that obviously skews the amount of revenue that we thought we would we would get in. So, we actually, you know, build in a little bit of that into the the program. And I think we would we would do again a similar calculation. Um, we'd have to be always trying to be, you know, a little bit over what the program needs because we we need to be able to make sure we don't come in as a deficit, but um not so much that you're obviously generating huge surpluses because that's not that's not what we're trying to do either. Um

yeah, I I think um there's a discussion that we could have about because I I think there's only the the good thing there's only a few different models. It's not like we have 500 different models to look at. There's just the less than a handful. and um changing how people are expected to manage their trash and recycling uh is going to be disruption. And so if as we have these conversations, if staying with the current program um is one way that we're leaning, one of the benefits of doing that is that there is no disruption among residents on how they have to manage their trash. And it doesn't seem like it's a hard thing to deal with, but a lot of people get upset with change and disruption. So, I think that that's a a a real value in not changing how we do things. But,

yeah, I think that's a good point, Jim. Um, you know, when we change any municipal program, we we obviously get a segment of the populace that's un unhappy with that change kind of regardless. But, um, I I don't know if you had this experience, but my experience, trash was one of the worst. Uh it it people people feel very strongly about trash. It's one of the one of the few instances I've ever had protesters out in front of a um town hall was over um I I was the one in that community who set the fee and I set the first fee for that they had ever had and yes there were protesters with signs out in front of the

because we cut it from twice a week trash pickup to once a week trash once a week recycling and instead of being picked up in their garage it curbside and they had to pay for it. So, they really went nuts. Um,

but sometimes, you know, you've got other regulatory things pushing on you. The other thing that I think we need to look at, too, is if we stay with the same program and we simply increase the fees, the disincentive to throw things away and to recycle them is going to grow and more people will be recycling more and we have to do some sort of a calc or you're going to have to do some sort of calculation on the revenue side because I think there'll be more people like Ann and myself who are recycling everything or composting everything and only putting tra I I we put our trash out this week and it was 3 weeks since the last time we put anything out and it wasn't even full when we put it out. We only put it out because we're going away next week. Um, and so, um, I think you'll see more people as that disincentive to throw things away grows,

people will be better about recycling. And then you're going to have to do some sort of a calculation. I think the first year is going to be really hard to come up with a good number. And I I I would certainly encourage the select board not to be too upset with the town administrator if it's off a little bit because there's going to be some variability there that is going to be outside of everybody's control.

There's the quote of the meeting just to be just to be clear. Well, and that's what as I'm just trying to think of, you know, I've looked in like you said, there's just a small number of programs, right? Or or v various ways we could do this. Um, given that we already do pay as you throw. So, at least we've already we already fought that fight a while ago. Um, and that's what I was trying to sort out is like in terms of how did we come up with the number and to your point, okay, now we have a number of it's around this number right now for, you know, at the rate that we're at. Um but you know to Jim's point and then who know you know who knows what other things change um when we implement this and how do you factor that into like the the fees and then I thought does that is that when the tote idea

is easier because it's fixed right versus the the bag is a little bit more variable. Um

so anyways that's just where I was trying to sort out. No, I think that's a very valid point is that when you go to the totar program, you have that base number to work from, right? So your your margin of error, it shrinks considerably because you know that your base revenue is going to be X. Um and then you can look at what your tipping fees are and your you know your tonnage and blah blah blah. Put all that together and then that's that's where your your you know some of your uh estimates come in or your forecasting. Um whereas with just the pay as you throw program, it's all forecasting. Um I I still think I think it's doable. Um but yeah, the first the the first year would be a we'd have to really refine our our data and see what we what we can come up with.

So are the I've got one other question. Are the totes all the same size? I think you said 35 gallons. So in in other communities I think There's generally 35 gallons, 64 gallons, and 96 gallons. Seems to be the three um most ubiquitous sizes um that I've come across. And what are the size of the bags right now? The the smaller bags. You know how many gallons those are? Five gallons and 15 maybe. Yeah, I was Yeah, I I was thinking

No, no. I I was thinking they were uh I will double check that because now that we've said five and 15, I was I was going to say eight and 21. So I might be I might be grabbing that number from the wrong part of my my brain here. Given the size of those toers, you're you're probably not going to be selling a whole lot of bags, right?

So the tote things would have to pay for the full cost. And then it goes back to if you can fill up 55 gallons or whatever it is, um your um your incentive to recycle for a lot of people will disappear. There's a lot of people who do it because it's the right thing to do, but there's a lot of people who do it because of the disincentive to to pay for the bags.

Yeah. I think, you know, and I'm trying not to be um selfish because totes probably would be a better, you know, I I think I'd pay more. But besides that, I think the bags, just going full bags, it would be it would be more equitable in that respect. And additionally to Jim's point, even if for the first year it would be difficult to sort out perhaps, you know, the monetary value we need to put on them, but for residents it's something that they're doing already. Um, and then let's say that becomes too difficult or whatever, maybe the tote, you know, could be further out. I don't know. Just thoughts.

So, let Evan, let me ask you a question. Do you do you think that there is realistically more options other than a combination of totes and recycling containers and pay as you throw that we would even be considering? I mean, we're not going to consider privatizing it and having people just go out to private companies like some other communities do, right? We're not going to have people just dump stuff at a central location somewhere. So, that's not the model we're going with,

right? And we're not going to I'm assuming uh and this just my assumption that you don't want to open a sanitation department and buy trucks and hire people to run your own sanitation department and take it although maybe that's something you want to do. I maybe it's

um so we we've actually done a little bit of so let me back up. So I I think you're you're right Jim. I think that the the two models that are really available to Grafton um both because of our uh you know the political will in Grafton to like say create a transport station is not going to exist. I can't I can't see that being the way anybody wants to go. So you know I think our two models are either the tower with overflow bags or just strictly bags. I think that's the the two main programs that we we would be interested in. Um, I did look, um, and this is was a very back of the envelope exercise, but I looked at creating our own sanitation department and what that would cost. And, you know, in a year where we're going to pay $1.2 million, it came out to be pretty close to $1.2 million to do it ourselves.

Um, because we don't have the economy of scale, right? Um, and so you know, you've got you've got your your employees, you've got the benefits, and you've got all these other all these other nuts, the leasing of the trucks, and you really have to lease three trucks, not two trucks, because if one truck breaks down, you know, there's a whole there's a whole a lot of factors that come into it. So, what we looked at was another community of a similar size that has their own sanitation department and said, "Well, how what does their model look like?" And it really it didn't bear fruit to Yeah. my mind. I mean, no, we're just um you know, adding to the complexity of municipal government without the benefit of saving money for people. So, yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. I I don't think we should make the decision today, but I think maybe we should begin to focus then on those two models. maybe when we have a full committee we can say look let's really focus just on these two models and start moving in that direction. Um the the the other question and this why I asked about the size of the um totes is that um with totes everybody's going to be paying the same. M

and so there isn't um a big incentive and smaller households versus larger households are going to pay the same exact every month unless there were different size totes where you had a fee structure where if you had I'm just going to throw numbers out here a 30- gallallon tote it was x amount per year a 50-gallon tote it was y if you got a 96 you're paying you know twi twice as much or three times as much as somebody who gets a 30 um that would that would maybe provide some stability in your forecasting but also retain some of the fairness of the pay as you throw program.

Yeah, I I don't I don't personally know of a community doing it that way. Um but there there may very well be and it may be a a great option for us to look at. I'll have to drill down in the data a little bit because we do have in that data they do collect information on um to sizes and you know a whole bunch of different little little nuance in there that I think is going to going to be valuable. Just before we I just want to circle back to the bag sizes because I I did just pull that up. And so the small bags are Amarie neither of us were were correct. Um although so the small bags are 15 gallon and the large bags are 33 gallon. Okay. All right. So

that gives me neither of those numbers were in my head at any point. Like I said, I just put ours out this week or my wife did to be honest. I did not. Um and so that was for three weeks, one bag and we didn't even fill up the 15 gallon bag. And so I'm just paying for that one bag. But in this scenario, during that course of 3 weeks, I'd have a um a tote that would be a I I probably wouldn't even be putting it out because it, you know, wouldn't be even close to being full. Um I would put it out eventually or maybe I'd put it out every week and would only have this much trash in it.

Yeah. And so that my my question was because some people with larger families are going to say the pay you throw program isn't fair to us and then smaller families are saying well this total program isn't going to be fair to us. And so I was thinking if there were differentiz totes you might be able to bring down the cost a little bit for larger families and just bring the cost for smaller families up a little bit. Maybe people would be happier with that if we had a different if we were able to do different sized totes and and I don't know if that causes a problem for eel Harvey either. Yeah. Can't pick up a little tiny tote and only a certain size tote or something.

Right. Right. Yeah, that would be an interesting question to to glean from those folks. Um so just just as an aside I I have started to put together um some slides on the different programs that are out there. Um starting with the most basic, you know, how many are pays you throw versus not pay as you throw. How many have um you know tax rates supplementing their entire program? Those type of questions. And so, um, I think this discussion is helpful because we're kind of narrowing in on what data points we need to be looking at. And so, I can I can start putting together some more, uh, you know, some more, uh, slides or, um, graphs on these comparisons and then also do that with our sister communities and then see see what fruit that bears.

I have a couple questions. How does like the school and municipal buildings factor into all this? So they they they don't generally um we have we have we still have EL Harvey and we have dumpsters. Um so they don't go through the same the same program uh different truck and and all of that. Okay. So we're not worried about that. And then I guess a question then for me would be like through Eel Harvey is how back to Jim's point maybe if it's automated or not like how would it look for them with all bags system versus tote plus a couple bags

and then and then just to keep in mind I was just thinking to myself you know obviously all of us are aware of this being on this committee people who have you know paid attention to town meeting and whatnot know this as well but there's going to be a ton of people out there that will be sideswiped by this, right? You know, that aren't aren't fully paying attention. That's that's right. We have to just keep that in the back of our minds to your point with the information that you're going to glean that we can push out. Here's how the communities are doing this. Here's how we fall. We're really low. They're high. So on so forth. So yeah, that'll all be super important.

What if we push out new information with the with the purchase of the current bags? Is there is there a way to include like a flyer when you go to pick up your trash bag and say, "Hey, like change is coming or you know we have a meeting coming up if you want to have your voice heard."

Uh yeah, I think absolutely. Um and I think that's a great way to do that. I will tell you an embarrassing story. So, just this week, um, I was given one of the inserts that go in with the bags from a resident. Um, and I didn't know that it existed. And I've been here four and a half years, and that information is tremendously outdated. Um, and it just had never it's it's never come up. I've negotiated the bag purchases every single year. They've never mentioned that there's a flyer or anything. It just never came up. So, um, so we're going to be redoing that as quickly as we can because it is exceptionally outdated. But I think as we hone in on on kind of the what what we think is the core bit of information we need to get out to people, um, you know, we should we should be making that change and putting that in with the the bags. And I you know what I'll do too is in the in the lapse between this and our next meeting, I can reach out to um the folks at Way Zero and find out how far in advance they need to know to make that change. Right? So if if we have thousands and thousands of bags that are already ladened with this flyer that's outdated, when does that flyer actually hit the public? Um so I'll have to I'll have to figure that out. But I uh yeah, I was a little taken aback by that. I'll be honest with you.

I don't think I've ever looked at it. I just chuck it right in the recycle bin. Well, at least you're throwing it in recycling. Oh, yeah. I'm not putting in the trash. The only the one trash bag I put out for every month. No, I was alarmed. I mentioned it to a few people in the municipal center and they were all like, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's got real old information on I'm like, well, this is the kind of information that I need to have. Yeah. You know, I just hadn't I just had never come across it. So, we'll we'll we'll clean that up. But, yeah, Larry, I think that would be a a really strong way to push that information out. And we're going to have to find other avenues, too, I think, to try to get information out to people as well. Um,

probably I I just checked, there are no participants other than us. There's no one attending other than the four of us, right? Um, But it would probably be good and um if you know once in a while the select board could have a discussion. So I assume that more people watch the select board meeting than are watching our meeting.

I would agree with that. I think probably marginally but one thing that you know as far as a select board goes I'll I'll add a slide to um our TA update that I do at at every meeting and try to push it out there. But, um, I know we've got I mean, you know, public outreach is always a an issue. Um, and we've, you know, we we sometimes do better, uh, at it than other times. Um, and so we're really really focusing on trying to get a baseline that is these are the five steps we do every single time so that we don't drop the ball anywhere. One of the things that we can do obviously with this program is yes, there's there's social media, there's our website. Um we could we can utilize our reverse 911 non-emergency segment because I I do think this is one of those things that people, you know, they they need to they need to it needs to be brought right right in front of their faces so that they know that this change is coming.

Yeah. And you know, there's other avenues like the Grafton News and Yep. you know. and Facebook page and stuff like that. Social media is way a lot of people get their news now, especially that most local papers are sort of defunct and don't really follow, you know, local government business anymore. Right.

And just so you know, we Jim, we have select board reports. Um, and my understanding of that segment of our meeting is specifically just for committees that I'm on. I report back on those committees. I don't talk about other things per se. So that would be my role too. And then of course Evan's there to correct me when I miss misspe relative to this particular committee. Um I'll be sure to do that and I think I did after our last one.

Yeah, I believe you did as well. Yeah, that's I guess all my the only other thing I I mean I have a lot of uh ideas kind of like at rollout time just things that we can do like you know one of those community recycle days like things to help people right get rid of things before this and folks are always asking for those types of things. Um, but would there I looked into a little bit about this like um sorry I'm looking for my notes here like a municipal assistance coordinator or there's grant money out there and I know that's probably just like one-time things but that will be able to use any of those things like say to have us have bags or totes for folks who you know seniors who are eligible and

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. We we already have a senior program. Um and I think it is fairly well utilized. I can get some I'll have to get some numbers on that too as far as what the exact utilization is, but um you know, I think we need to be conscious of that that need for those type of programs. Um so we could like this would be grant eligible some some portion of it potentially, would it?

Yeah. So we we do some of that. I I want to say we're using our RDP money to offset some of that um to make sure that that's exactly what we're doing and make sure that's eligible for that money. But I'm I'm pretty sure we are. Um yeah, and we've we've kind of built that in right to the cost of the program is that yes, there are going to be some folks that are going to need assistance and that might move the bag fee by a penny for everybody else, but that's that's kind of how we that's how we do it. Yeah, there was this one a sustainable materials recovery program grant.

Yeah. Um I I'll have to dig down if my memory serves me correct. It was like that's um like textiles and things like that. Okay. But I I could be misremembering that. I I had done I had done a program where we got these these local bins that you would put your textiles in and that would help divert that from the waist stream. Um, yeah, it because it's weight and it's uh bulky and it uh doesn't degrade. So, takes a long time.

So, I know that's outside the exact scope of this, but I think anything like that folks are always asking for those how to get rid of all this other stuff programs and even if as part of this we got some sort of a grant we could offer a day. I know this those things are probably a pain in the neck to run but um might be nice in good faith for folks. Yeah, I've never had fun at one, but uh but you know, I I don't think that's a I don't you know, I I I think there's some value to it, especially if we're going to be doing it at the time of change. You know, maybe we offer a little a little a little broader scope um of items that we can help folks get rid of to kind of incentivize that we're making a change here. Should we move on to our next uh I think it's research needed for next meeting.

Yeah. Um probably already gave you a few things. I was going to say we gave you a bunch of things already. Yeah. Yeah. Um Larry, do you have anything specifically you want us to or me to be focusing on as far as um get getting us some data? No, I I think that what I've heard uh as having been covered in the meeting has been really helpful. Um I just wanted to flag for you guys. I'm I'm having a lot of tech issues on my end and uh I don't know if it's showing up in the meeting, but I keep getting kicked out of the meeting. Uh and my audio is going in and out. So, okay. Uh that's why I've turned off my video. I I seem to be able to hear you better at this point.

Okay. Um, but unfortunately I I missed large swats of the discussion tonight and I apologize for that. Uh, no, I think that's probably happened to all of us at one point or another in the age of Zoom here. Um, so we'll we'll also, you know, the recording will be available on Sure. And then the minutes too and and you know I think that um you know Jim and and Amarie and and some of the things you had said Larry you know I think will drive I'm going to go this is what I did last time I go back and I watch I watched the video again and say okay I gota okay got to do that I got to do that

to try to try to put some of this uh together. So, um, so do we want to just then go ahead and, um, schedule another our next meeting? Do you want to want to stay with two weeks or do you want to go out? If you do two weeks, then the the two weeks after that would fall on Thanksgiving week. We go three weeks out. It would bring us to the I think the 19th of November. No, too long. One, two, three. The 12th. Whatever. Either the 5th or the 12th. The fifth would be a twoe cadence. The 12th would be three. Um, my personal preference would be the two weeks. Okay. So, the 5th of November. Oh, Jimmy, you're actually

Oh, yeah. November 5th then. Is that the day we're looking at? Yes. Okay. Larry, how does November 5th look for I think that looks like a good day for me. Okay. I like I like that. We can either go the 19th or the 3rd. We can talk about that next time. to see if everybody is going to be tied up or traveling or something because a lot of people do during that week. So, yeah, absolutely. But I like the twoe cadence as far as, you know, trying to trying to keep this moving. All right. So, I move we adjourn. Second. All right. Any discussion? All those in favor? Jim? Yes. Larry? Yep.

Evan? Yes. Amy's yes. All right. Good night folks.