ROCKLAND, Maine — The Rockland City Council gave unanimous approval Monday night to increasing the cost of the annual trash disposal sticker despite criticism from several residents.
The council voted 4-0 to increase the dump sticker fee from $95 to $125, effective May 1. Commercial haulers will see their fees increase from $120 to $130 per ton.
Councilor Larry Pritchett said the new fees have been discussed since last year and are designed to balance the costs of trash disposal for the city.
Former Councilor Adele Grossman Faber said the fee increases were blatant discrimination since the council was not increasing the costs of bags sold by the city to residents who prefer to pay on a per bag basis.
The costs remain $2.25 for a 33-gallon bag, $1.50 for a 22-gallon bag and 75 cents for a 12-gallon bag.
Faber said citizens have twice rejected a mandatory pay-per-bag system but that the increases being enacted by the council are aimed at pushing people into using that option. Voters rejected mandatory pay-per-bag in November 2014 by a 1,834 to 748 vote. In June 2006, voters rejected the same question on a 959 to 479 vote.
“You are out of touch with the majority of voters. You call the people who come here to speak with facts and figures, the vocal minority. I maintain it is you who are the vocal minority,” she said.
Resident Michael Lane also took aim at the increased fees.
“The city is attempting to implement pay-per-bag in spite of being voted down twice by a large majority of voters. Rather than mandating by ordinance, the city is making it nearly mandatory by economic incentives,” Lane said.
Also during the Monday meeting, City Manager James Chaousis said he would be announcing soon an abbreviated spring cleanup schedule. He said it would be more efficient and last two weeks rather than the five to six weeks it has in the past. He said a schedule would be released that states when city crews would come by each street.
In previous years, city crews would return to streets if residents put out yard wastes after crews had gone by initially. The manager earlier considered recommending that the cleanup not be held because of the $85,000 price tag.
In other action Monday night, the council unanimously approved a lease this year for the Brass Compass Cafe to use a 10-foot strip of city-owned land adjacent to the restaurant and at the Winslow-Holbrook Memorial Park for $1,500 from May 15 through Oct. 31.
The issue has generated debate in past years with a few critics saying that the city should not allow a commercial operation to use part of the square that honors veterans. Brass Compass has used the strip for 13 years for outdoor seating and tables.
Resident Gaye Best, who is the nephew of Lt. Albert Holbrook, who died in World War I and is one of the two men for whom the memorial is named, spoke out against the lease proposal.
The council also gave final approval Monday to an ordinance that will allow the Mid-Coast School of Technology to build a new school in back of the current building if voters give their approval. The change allows a school to be in that waterfront zone if it has some marine related need rather than having to be exclusively marine related. A referendum concerning the new school is expected to be held throughout the region in November.
The council also gave final approval of a zone change that will permit auto repair shops in a commercial zone. It also approved changing an area located at the intersection of Pleasant and Belvidere streets from a transitional business zone to a commercial zone. The changes are being made to allow the owner of a home to sell it to a buyer who wants to start an auto repair shop there.