VERGENNES — Expenses for operating the Vergennes recycling center are dropping and costs will be lower for not only the city, but for surrounding towns as well, City Manager Mel Hawley told Vergennes aldermen at their April 26 meeting.
Hawley said Casella Inc. has dropped fees for accepting recycled material, allowing him in turn to lower charges at the West Street recycling center. Aldermen approved the lower rates at the meeting.
The city’s share of the center’s operating cost for the next fiscal year, beginning on July 1, will drop from $31,200 to $26,000.
The cost to the towns of Addison, Panton and Waltham will drop by about $1,000 each to $5,200.
Ferrisburgh’s cost will drop by roughly $2,000 to $10,400.
Residents of Vergennes and surrounding towns may simply show up and drop off their recyclables at the center, which is open on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings. The four neighboring towns place the charges in their annual budgets after signing contracts with Vergennes.
In other business, aldermen:
•  Voted to stop charging $8.80 a year in “bonded debt” to the eight city property owners whose buildings are not hooked up to the city sewer system. The money those property owners have paid over the years will be credited toward the cost of hooking up should they choose to do so in the future.
•  Approved spending $200 of city money to buy newspaper ads to promote the Vergennes Farmers’ Market.
Andy Kirkaldy may be reached at [email protected].