Imagine you are facing a major household financial crisis with no solution in
sight. Then, in an act of pure coincidence, you open an oft-ignored desk drawer
to find a pile of money inside it. Problem solved.
This analogy applies almost perfectly to the Town of Saugus, where the solution
to resolving public school spending challenges is sitting in front of the Board of
Selectmen in the form of the yet-to-be-resolved Host Community Agreement with
WIN Waste Innovations.
The agreement would generate millions in revenue for the town upon the company obtaining the permits to expand its ash monofill at its local waste-to-energy plant once it hits the 50-foot cap WIN is currently permitted for.
For the sake of Saugus students — and all residents — we urge the board to
approve the agreement in the coming weeks. The school spending plan approved
by the School Committee is a slashed version of the budget that represented
essentially only the funds needed to begin the school year in September.
If selectmen don’t approve the host agreement with WIN, they will be turning their
backs on a valuable resource to the town even as school administrators prepare to
stretch pennies to keep schools running.
WIN’s opponents point to the company’s Route 107 plant as a health
hazard-generator that should be shut down. Try again.
The Saugus Board of Health knows better than to endorse this criticism.
Tech Environmental, a Waltham-based environmental consultant answering only
to the board, has monitored WIN for 12 years. It submitted a report to the Board
of Health that shows that even under the “worst case meteorological conditions”
WIN will not cause adverse effects on air quality.
The 25-page report was submitted to the board in March after the company
conducted a year-long review of WIN’s plant and adjacent ash monofill.
“In the course of the monitoring program for calendar year 2022, all evidence
suggests that the facility was in compliance with its permitted conditions,” the
report reads.
The report also examined the monofill. It concluded that “ash is not being
released into the atmosphere.”
This solid environmental safety information in the Board of Health’s hands gives
selectmen a clear running field to approve a host agreement in a timely fashion
and provide a strong revenue source for a town that is in danger of abandoning
its bold vision for improving public education.
There is no time to waste.
