At its meeting on Monday, June 3, the Moretown Select Board elected to form a committee to rewrite its host-town agreement with Moretown Landfill, from which the town currently receives about half a million dollars in tipping fees and property taxes each year.
Following the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources' (ANR) decision to deny recertification of two of the landfill's trash cells in March, the town is currently awaiting a final ruling on the landfill's appeal of that decision, which is expected to come out of Environmental Court on Monday, June 10.
Regardless of whether or not the landfill's cells will be recertified, the select board has agreed to start rewriting its host-town agreement because "we don't want to be in over our heads [if it is recertified]," select board chair Tom Martin said. The current host-town agreement will expire this August.
The select board elected to form a committee to rewrite the agreement because "I just don't think we have enough time at these meetings," Martin said, indicating that the new agreement could include "considerable changes" to account for residents' environmental, health and accountability concerns. "I don't think anything is off the table at this point," Martin said.
To Moretown resident Martha Douglass' question whether the members of the committee would be able to word an effective and enforceable agreement, Martin responded that the committee's work would result in an "outline or rough draft," which the town would then hire an attorney to help finalize.
The host-town agreement committee will likely consist of five people: two select board members (Michelle Beard and John Hoogenboom), one member of the Moretown Planning Commission and two members of the public (to be determined).
Those interested in being part of the committee should express interest to Cheryl Brown, the Moretown Select Board administrative assistant, and will be invited before the board at its next meeting on Monday, June 17, at 6 p.m. at the temporary town offices at Kaiser Drive on Route 2.
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