Transfer station purchase up for vote at Town Meeting

After years of land agreements with neighboring towns, the transfer station at King's Highway and Cranberry Highway may be in Wareham's hands. 

Town Administrator, Derek Sullivan said at the Tuesday, Sept. 23 Select Board meeting that the town of Wareham leased the property to deal with solid waste from the Carver Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District for around $100 a year. 

The district began as the Carver Marion Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District in the 1973 to allow the three towns to dispose of their waste for free at the facility in Rochester in exchange for allowing the facility to dispose of ash for free in the Carver landfill.

Marion pulled out of the district in 2020 after the contract between the three towns ended. Although the property is in Rochester, they are not part of Wareham's waste district and do not have involvement with the potential sale.

The Fall Town Meeting will give voters a chance to vote on a $750,000 purchase of the transfer station. Sullivan said that it is important to secure the land if the town continues to run trash programs. 

The article goes hand-in-hand with Article 21 that will dissolve the Carver Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District.

According to Sullivan, 300 people from Carver use the facility as opposed to 3,000 from Wareham. He said the disposal district is in favor of the purchase and that the town is interested in continuing to allow those Carver residents to use the station.

"The only work that has been done and improvements that have been done, have been done by our municipal maintenance department," Sullivan said. "Totally at our expense."

The town has put in extensive work with substantial investment into the transfer station according to Sullivan. Wareham is responsible for redoing the hardscape including roadways, updated recycling area, repaired buildings,stanchions and cleaning up the layout. 

Sullivan highlighted Municipal Maintenance Director Dave Menard's work on cleaning the station.

"I think it's probably the only transfer station you can eat off the ground at and not get sick," he said.