One of the most exciting and controversial opportunities facing the Town is the Tivnan Drive Recycling Facility which is proposed for the land across the street from the Worcester County House of Corrections on Tivnan Drive. Before I get to the update (which all Town residents will have an interest in) I would like to begin my presentation with an explanation of where we have come from and how we got here.
For the past several budget cycles, I have been saying that the Town is at a crossroads and has been at a crossroads for the last several years. Simply put the Town does not have the revenues coming into the Town to continue to pay the rising costs of health insurance, other benefit costs, and level program costs. West Boylston cannot continue to fund the programs and departments at their current levels without significant added revenues. Ever since I have been here as your Town Administrator, the Town has evaluated its program costs and has had to make decisions on which ones they wish to continue to fund and which ones they wish to forego. As you all know, last year the Town went for a Proposition 2 ½ override in an attempt to see what the public’s desire for additional tax revenues might be. The voters of this town spoke loudly in their opposition to additional taxes at that time.
In December 2006, the Board of Selectmen saw the serious need for additional resources in the Town and took the step of going out to bid for property that the Town had acquired several years earlier. Longtime Town Meeting attendees will remember that the town acquired this property in a deal with the Municipal Light Plant as a future location for our DPW Building and operations. The Selectmen viewed this property as an opportunity to increase the revenues of the Town and sought to structure an RFP, or Request for Proposals, which would bring the Town the most bang for their buck and the idea of a recycling facility was born. Massachusetts General Laws do not simply allow towns to lease property without going through a competitive bidding process where entities compete with each other to earn the right to do business
with the Town. According to the Town’s RFP, the successful developer would be asked to provide the Town of West Boylston and its residents with solid waste disposal services, including a transfer station for the receipt of municipal solid waste as well as the processing of recyclable materials and construction & demolition debris. As you may or may not know, construction and demolition debris is a banned substance in Massachusetts landfills and as a result, companies pay big money to ship these materials out of state. Such services to the Town shall be provided on a free or cost-reduced basis for the term of the ground lease.
The selected developer would also be responsible for all costs of permitting, engineering and design, construction, operation and continuing maintenance of the facility throughout the term of the ground lease, and shall pay all legal costs incurred by the Town in connection with this transaction. Furthermore, the developer would be responsible for the cost of extending public water and sewer services to the site, or for providing alternative on-site facilities for such services, to meet the needs of both the commercial solid waste facility and those of the municipal DPW facilities to be located on the Property. Speaking of a DPW facility, the successful developer would provide the Town of West Boylston with the financial resources to design and construct a new DPW facility on a portion of the Property to be determined by
the Town in consultation with the developer. The design of this facility will be developed in consultation with the Town’s Board of Selectmen and Municipal Building Committee. The Town is also expecting to negotiate a lease of this land incorporating a percentage of the company’s business as a fee to the Town, thereby providing a source of funds for future capital projects of the Town, to add to the Town’s stabilization fund or to help fund its operations.
Another benefit to this project is that as stipulated by the deed to this property, the Town will designate part of this property for recreational space at Town Meeting. There has been an identified need for more field space in Town. This situation has been made worse this past year as the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation has reclaimed land used as ball fields across from the entrance of the Rail Trail. In short, this project would dedicate a significant portion of the land as field space.
One company, Bay Colony Recovery, bid on the Town’s RFP and was chosen as the selected developer. Last year, the Town Meeting voted loudly in support of giving the Board of Selectmen the ability to negotiate the best deal on the Town’s behalf. Since that time, the Board of Selectmen has been meeting and discussing this project to negotiate not only the best deal for the Town but to ensure that the promises made to the voters on Town Meeting and at the public hearings were kept.
Only two days ago on May 7, 2008, the Board of Selectmen voted to terminate negotiations with Bay Colony Recovery. The Selectmen did not come to this decision lightly. They voted to rule Bay Colony Recovery as ‘non-responsive’ to the Town’s RFP meaning that that they could not prove to the Selectmen that they could do this project. Key components of the deal were becoming difficult to realize, partly due to the declining economy. I don’t want to speak for the Selectmen but I think they realized that this project had the possibility to exist within the Town for decades and they knew that there were too many questionable aspects of the negotiations considering the time that has gone by since the RFP was issued.
What’s next for this property? It is unclear at this time however I expect to discuss this with the Selectmen in weeks to come.
Leon A. Gaumond Jr.
Town Administrator
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