To the Editor:

On the morning of Tuesday, May 2, the secretary of Killingworth's Pay As You Throw Committee (PAYT) received a letter from the First Selectman effectively stopping a Transfer Station cardboard crushing trial program intended to save the town tens of thousands of dollars a year. First Selectman Marty Klein's letter stated that "after much investigation and consideration, we have decided to ask your committee not to use the MSW (mixed solid waste) compactor for the cardboard and newspaper for the foreseeable future".

This took us by complete surprise! We have been planning for the last 4 months to use the 3rd compactor for cardboard & newspapers. We have been before the Board of Selectmen numerous times with our research, facts and figures….and the board agreed with the trial program. Now at the eleventh hour, without consulting other selectmen, Mr. Klein decided to stop the experiment before it even started.

PAYT has shown how town resources and tax dollars are being needlessly spent by having the town's roll-off truck go to the regional Essex processing facility two and three times a week with just 1 ½ tons of cardboard on a truck with capacity in excess of 15 tons. PAYT has explained how the idle third Transfer Station compactor could double and perhaps triple the tonnage of cardboard & newspapers being carried to the Essex facility. PAYT says the cardboard and newspaper compacting can drastically cut town costs with trips to Essex reduced to as little as once a week.

When we brought the recommended trial program to the Board of Selectmen in February, town public works director Jim Ward voiced concerns about the cardboard getting wet and freezing in the container. We agreed with Mr. Ward to wait until the weather warmed up to conduct our trial compacting of cardboard and newspaper. PAYT members were in the Selectmen's meeting on March 24 and were told that the experiment was a go, having already been agreed upon. We were instructed to send our press releases out and go forward with the program for the first two weeks in May.

We are taken aback that there was, as First Selectman Klein's letter stated, "much investigation and consideration" after the go ahead given at the March 24th selectmen's meeting and PAYT was not included, contacted, or otherwise informed. PAYT has been studying the transfer station for the past three years, long before Mr. Klein even became First Selectman. Our knowledge and expertise should not be squandered. All three selectmen seemed to have agreed that PAYT had done the research needed to proceed with a welcome idea to save tax dollars. Why did Mr. Klein feel that he could change the will of the entire board of selectmen at last minute?

By the way, Mr. Klein's letter to PAYT states that "we" have decided the program should not go forward. It turns out the "we" was not the other selectmen! It was not the town public works director! It was not any other town official! The "we" Mr. Klein refers to are the town garage mechanic and transfer station supervisor, worried about a concern already addressed…cardboard freezing and becoming stuck. These are the two individuals with whom First Selectman Klein conferred to set town policy and to override the will of the elected selectmen and others who had decided that freezing and stuck cardboard would not be a problem.

All along the way, Killingworth's PAYT Committee has made saving tax dollars and more efficient Transfer Station operations the priority. There is so much potential for improvements and tax savings at the Transfer Station. Town residents have enthusiastically welcomed PAYT's recommendations. After all, they recognize that it is our collective dollars that we are saving. We at PAYT are volunteering our time to help bring improvements that need to be made. We will be attending the next Selectmen's meeting on Monday May 8 to get Transfer Station improvements and the crushing of cardboard back on track. We feel that it is less painful to crush cardboard and newspaper than to have town officials dig deeper into our pockets to pay for town services.

We thank you for your patience and apologize for any inconvenience.

PAYT Committee