Town of Lebanon, Maine
Office of the Selectmen
Lebanon Selectmen Newsletter – Update for Residents May 13, 2011
American Legion Spaghetti Supper
DON'T FORGET THE LEBANON LEGION SPAGHETTI SUPPER, Saturday, May 14th 4:30pm to 6:30pm at the Center Lebanon Church on Center Road, Lebanon - Great food for a great cause!! Support our Veteran's!
Savings and New Programs at Transfer Station
The Lebanon Board of Selectmen is pleased to announce that Lebanon will start a new recycling program on May 21st. For the past 24 months, the Selectmen have been working with various recycling and solid waste companies to find ways to reduce costs and increase recycling.
The Selectmen have just signed a new contract with Waste Management that will last for five years and will mean a savings of at least $45,000 for the first year. The program includes lower negotiated fees for solid waste and an exciting new “Single Sort” recycling program.
“The new program allows residents to throw all of their recyclables in one of the compactors together, making it a lot easier to recycle. No longer will they need to separate items like cardboard or plastics. They throw the acceptable recyclables into the compactor and we are able to compact the materials to make for a much more economical way of handling the recyclables. The single sort containers are then brought to a warehouse for Waste Management where they are sorted and recycled properly.” Selectman Chairman Jason Cole added.
The town is sending out a mailer this week to every residence in town explaining the new recycling program. Additionally, there will be some additional staff at the transfer station to help residents with questions and to ensure the process moves smoothly during the transition.
The start date of the program is Saturday, May 21st. When residents pull into the transfer station, the first compactor where they normally drop off their solid waste will stay for solid waste. They then would pull forward to the second compactor and drop off their recyclables. Metal, iron and the other larger items like sofas and fridges will still go in their normal areas.
“Lebanon has always had one of the highest recycling rates and just last year Transfer Station Manager Ronal Patch received Transfer Station Manager of the Year for his work increasing the recycling rate. All of the staff at the transfer station has worked very hard to encourage recycling and control costs. The workers have done an incredible job breaking down large items like sofa’s to remove valuable metals so the town can get money on those items. This new program has decreased costs over 10% and will also help the town continue to have one of the highest recycling rates, which is great for our earth as well. Overall, the Transfer Station budget for next year is decreased over 15% from just a few years ago, which is amazing with the continual increases in most solid waste costs for towns.”
Selectman Chairman Jason Cole added.
Waste Management will also have a table at the Lebanon Rescue Community Festival on Saturday, May 21st to hand out information on the new recycling programs.
We encourage anyone with questions to contact us. There will be additional staff at the transfer station for the first week to answer questions through the transition. You can also contact Selectmen Chairman Jason Cole at (207) 608-5615 with questions.
Lebanon Community Festival
Lebanon Rescue Department will sponsor its annual Lebanon Community Festival on Saturday, May 21st from 11am-3pm. The event will be held at the Hanson School and is a free event to attend. There are many events planned for this year including a new petting farm, race car, monster mud truck, police vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks, large command vehicles, Emergency Management vehicles, game wardens, state police, fire marshals, police dog, skydivers (weather permitting), Life flight Helicopter (weather permitting), games, area businesses displaying their companies, a large raffle with items donated by several area businesses (over $2,000 worth of items and gift certificates), and much more. There will be a BBQ on site for families who wish to participate. The cost is $4.00 for a hamburger,
chips and a soda or $3.00 for a hot dog, soda and chips. The Lebanon Recreation Annual Cancer 5k will also take place on Saturday. More information on this is available by contacting Director Jessica Brewington at (207) 651-5322. This year’s 5k will benefit a Lebanon child with cancer. Also on Saturday, May 21st will be a huge yard sale at the Lebanon Elementary School next to the Hanson School. This will run rain or shine from 8am to 4pm and is a fundraiser for the Lebanon PTO.
Update on Town Manager
The Lebanon Board of Selectmen is pleased to announce that 42 applications from all over the country were received in the town manager search. On Friday morning, May 13, 2011, the Selectmen reviewed the applications received from over a dozen states from all over the country. There were no resumes or applications received from any Lebanon residents, but several from nearby communities. The Selectmen have narrowed the list of applicants to five and will start interviews within the next few weeks. The Selectmen hope to finalize interviews and select a candidate by the end of May or first week of June. A conditional offer of employment will be issued by June 10th to the selected candidate. Last year, the residents approved the town manager form of government after a citizen’s petition put the referendum on the ballot. This required
the selectmen to post for the position, with a start date of July 1st pending the outcome of the ballot on June 14th, which asks residents to approve the $98,000 for the salary and benefits for the position approved by the residents.
Note: This is a required step in the hiring of the town manager. The citizens had put forward a petition to change to the town manager form of government and the voters voted last June to change to this form of government. The Selectmen have to go through this process to ensure the position would be filled July 1st pending approval of funds this June 14th at the referendum. To dispel some rumors out there, no current Selectman is either interested or able to serve as town manager under Maine State Law. The law states that a Selectman has to be out of office for over a year before they could serve this position. None of the current three selectman have any interest in serving in this position either.
Public Hearing
The Town of Lebanon will hold a public hearing on Monday May 16th at 7pm at the Lebanon Elementary School on all of the upcoming referendum questions. Additionally, copies of the sample referendums will be mailed to each residence to ensure everyone has them ahead of time to be able to review them. Copies are also available at www.lebanon-me.org. Absentee ballots for the June 14th Municipal Elections and Referendum will be available soon. Please contact the Town Hall at (207) 457-6082 to request an absentee ballot. Every vote counts!
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