Rumford suspends spring cleanup

RUMFORD -- There will not be spring cleanup this year in Rumford.

Selectmen Thursday voted to support a recommendation by Town Manager Carlo Puiia to suspend the annual practice of picking up brush, tires, appliances, etc. for this year. However, the transfer station will still be open and free to residents during the spring cleanup period, which takes place the last week of April into the first week of May.

"They will still be able to take what they want to dispose of during a certain period of time at no charge. But they will be responsible for the transport," said Puiia.

"On average, we would collect 275 loads, but there were only 166 loads in 2010," noted Puiia. "By looking at these numbers, it's something we could suspend for a year and do it next year and not jeopardize the safety or problem with tenants."

Puiia said he believes there's a potential to suspend the collections for a year and "utilize the men for different jobs in the spring. I know sometimes we bring on spares and we won't have to do that during this period."

He told the board that he estimated this move would represent a savings of nearly $25,000 through a combination of not utilizing loaders and large trucks, not utilizing spares during the two weeks, and placing the fulltime crew on other jobs for the town.

Selectman Jeremy Volkernick asked, "Will this be something we do every other year?"

Puiia responded, "Because we've done this continuously, we have an opportunity to suspend it. Then we can re-evaluate what the impact will be next year. If we skip a year, does it cause next year to be abnormally larger, or takes us longer to do it? So I think this is something I would experiment with. By the looks of this, we should be safe this year, to skip this year and bring it back next year."

In other business, Mexico Planning Board member Albert Aniel presented a proposed noise ordinance, noting it was drafted due to "all the hoopla we've had about the wind industry and noise issue."

He said this document would restrict continuous noise from any proposed development to no more than 5 decibels over the background sound from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and no greater than 3 decibels over background sound from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. at the development's property line.

“It doesn't pick on any industry. Basically, it says we want to protect our citizens from intrusive noise,” Aniel said, adding that it states that background sound is defined over a continuous 10-minute period as the average sound level during the quietest one-continuous minute of the 10 minutes.

He said the noise ordinance would apply to any proposed development to be located in zones such as rural, two different classifications of residential, commercial, downtown commercial or industrial.

Knowing Mexico has industrial, commercial, residential and rural sections, Aniel said he researched the noise issue, such as when it becomes a nuisance, intrusive and affects sleep.

Following the presentation, Selectman Mark Belanger noted that Rumford doesn't have zoning. In response, Aniel suggested selectmen start work to bring zoning to town to have a sense where they want to expand industrial and residential areas.

Board Chairman Brad Adley asked if this noise ordinance had been approved by any towns in the state.

Aniel said it had not.

No action was taken on this presentation as discussion regarding ordinances is done in April.