Saugus Town Meeting to vote on trash policy article

SAUGUS – Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian said he believes Monday night’s vote on an article to give Town Meeting authority over the trash policy will be “close.””I think it’s going to be a close vote,” said Manoogian on Friday. “I think it could go a little bit of a majority for, but you never know with Town Meeting.”According to the article, “Any establishment, change, or implementation of rules and regulations ? relative to the collection of solid waste, trash, recycling ? shall occur after being approved by a majority vote of an Annual or Special Town Meeting.”The article also requires that any proposals by the Board of Health must first be approved by a three vote majority by the Board before going to Town Meeting for approval.Board of Health Chairman Joe Vinard said he’s taking a wait and see approach heading into Monday.”We’ll discuss it at our regularly scheduled meeting Monday night,” said Vinard. “If (Town Meeting) tries to do more than just regulate the fees, then we’re going to have to talk about it.”Manoogian said he supports the article because any proposed changes to the town’s trash policy affects all of Saugus.”Anything that is going to have such a broad, sweeping effect on the entire community ? decisions surrounding that, in my opinion, belong to an elected body,” said Manoogian.Town Meeting member Joyce Rodenhiser said she’ll “probably” vote for the article, but still had some doubts.”I can understand why,” said Rodenhiser. “There are 50 heads that can think about all the ins and outs of it instead of seven on (the Board of Health). My only concern is, I wonder if we should take it out of the hands of the Board of Health. They are the experts. I tend to go along with people who have knowledge about these things.”In June, Town Meeting voted to send a proposed $2 trash overflow fee back to the selectmen, stating that any trash fees are to be established through a bylaw proposed by the Board of Selectmen and adopted by Town Meeting. The Board of Health still went ahead with a three-barrel limit without the fee in an effort to increase recycling, leaving residents without an overflow option.”I don’t like the whole trash deal here in town,” said Town Meeting member George Moriello. “It seems like they want to pick up less and less things all the time. The whole reason why we’re at the spot we’re at now is because the Board of Health made a poor decision and everyone got all riled up about it.”The Board of Health meets at 6:15 p.m. on Monday followed by Town Meeting at 7:30 p.m.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter at @MattTempesta.