Saugus meeting votes down trash fee

SAUGUS – Saugus residents anticipating the Aug. 1 implementation of the town’s new trash fees can breathe a sigh of relief, as Monday’s third session of the annual Town Meeting voted down the two-dollar fee for putting out more than three trash bins.The Town Meeting voted 35-1 that charging two dollars extra for placing more than three barrels at the curb would in fact be a fee, which would violate the town bylaw that prohibits fees for trash pickup. Any implementation of fees for trash removal must be adopted through a bylaw that must be approved by Town Meeting.”If you turn around at this point in time and do anything but soundly turn this down, what you’re saying to the public is, ‘Don’t listen to us,'” said Town Meeting member Robert Cox. “Those naysayers that say, ‘Don’t trust the town, don’t trust the government,’ they’d be right.”Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian echoed this sentiment.”The way it looks on Aug. 1, you’re going to get this fee from your constituents who are going to look at you and say, ‘You told us there’d be no trash fee,'” said Manoogian.Town Counsel John Vasapolli said when he met with the Board of Health, it was his understanding that the two-dollar charge did not constitute a “fee.””I did not feel it was a fee in the sense that you are not being charged for trash pickup,” said Vasapolli. “It’s a matter of doing more recycling. The information given to me by the Board of Health was that more than 90 percent of households in the town need three barrels or less of trash if they properly recycle.””The only additional fee was that if you did not properly recycle? you could then elect to pay an additional two dollars to get to put out an additional (barrel),” added Vasapolli. “Based on that information I did not feel it was a trash fee.”Town Meeting member George Moriello, however, argued that if a resident of Saugus has to pay for something, it’s a fee.”If you have to pay money to do something I call that a fee,” said Moriello. “I’m a barber, I’m not a town counsel and I’m not on the Board of Health. But I know if you have to pay for something, it’s a fee.”In other business, Articles 7 and 23, which both dealt with increases in water rates, were tabled until the next meeting on June 27.