Marblehead committee looking to reduce transfer station costs

MARBLEHEAD – The nine-member Transfer Station Building Oversight Committee is looking at a variety of areas where the estimated $22.2 million transfer station plan can be reduced, starting with the $4 million building itself and $3 million set aside for engineering costs.Finance Committee member Matthew Herring, who will chair the panel, asked members to come up with a series of “What if?” modifications that can be placed before consultant Stephen Wright in the form of questions.According to Herring, Wright told the committee last week that “Cost savings will be gained from a lot of areas, not just one area.”Committee member Allen Waller, an engineer who has worked on a number of major projects, sharply questioned several areas of the project, including the building amount. “This should be a very modest cost,” he said.Director of Public Health Wayne Attridge, a non-voting member, cautioned the committee that some changes will alter town programs – the yard waste drop-off can be ended, for example, but homeowners will have to pay for pick-up of yard waste if they can?t drop it off.Committee secretary Patrick Van der Voorn, a lawyer with solid waste project experience, recalled Wright saying that it was easier and less expensive to revamp the transfer station as part of the town plan to cap its landfill, instead of building after the landfill is capped.Attridge said he would discuss the possibility of an engineering peer review of the project plans with Town Planner Becky Curran this week. Meanwhile, committee members plan to tour the site Saturday afternoon and meet again Oct. 19.