HARTFORD — The Selectboard is mulling its options for the town’s transfer station after ending a curbside program this summer.
The facility is located at 2590 North Hartland Road along US Route 5, about 2 miles south of White River Junction.
The four options for the facility are continuing town operation, renting it to a third-party operator, closing the site permanently, or renovating it for other municipal entities such as the fire department, according to a presentation at Tuesday’s Selectboard meeting.
“We struggle a little bit with what we want to do with this now,” said Department of Public Works Director Bryan Gazda.
The discussion came after the town stopped offering curbside recycling pickup in July, following an unplanned price increase from the third-party vendor.
Laura Williams, an assistant project manager from Sanborn, Head & Associates, a Bedford, N.H.,-based engineering and technical consulting firm, presented on the potential costs associated with the four different scenarios proposed by the town.
The least expensive option, projected around $345,000, was renting the facility to a third-party vendor, according to the data from July and August of 2024 and 2025.
The second cheapest option was continued town operation, with a yearly cost projected at $617,000, according to the data from July and August.
Closing the site would be a one-time cost of just under $830,000, which some on the Selectboard said shouldn’t be taken off the table as there is maintenance work that needs to occur in the near future.
The last option, renovating the space for other municipal entities is projected to be a one-time cost of $7 million, which Town Manager John Haverstock found to be “unrealistic and hyper-expensive,” he said.
Selectboard member Tim Fariel thought that renting the facility to a third-party vendor was a “no-brainer,” as the vendor would assume responsibility over the staffing and operation of the facility.
“To have someone come in on kind of a clean deal to run the operation, given the unpredictability of the revenue around recycling, given a lot of uncertainty, to me would be a no-brainer,” he said.
But before deciding on this, Fariel said he would want specific numbers on how many people were using the curbside pickup prior to it ending and how many are currently using it.
“It depends on users,” Fariel said, “because we don’t know those costs until we know who’s using the program.”
Outside of these four options, some on the Selectboard thought it would be better to consider the will of voters.
Selectboard member Ashley Andreas said that were it to be voted on at the next annual town meeting, curbside recycling would “resoundingly pass ‘yes.'”
Andreas said that waste is accumulating, especially for those who can’t take their own recycling to the transfer station, such as elderly and disabled residents.
However, the tonnage of material brought into the transfer station has actually gone up since curbside pickup was eliminated, said Gazda. More people are coming to the transfer station than were before, with many dropping off scrap metal, he said.
As the data on the facility included in the report was only from July and August of 2024 and 2025, the firm recommended that additional data be gathered during the fiscal year 2026 that began in July.
Andreas proposed that a subcommittee be formed to further deliberate on the issue as further data is collected.
“I really do feel that if you really want to take action, a working committee like this would be a great first step to go forward and take a look at those options, or even explore new options,” Gazda said.
