No Recycling Center roof will be erected this year, Town Board agrees to seek temporary solution

For a while last week, it looked as if the town just might find the time and money to put a roof over its new $90,000 paper baler and collection bins at the Town Recycling Center before winter snows begin to fly.

But Town Board members on Tuesday agreed that the pieces were not falling into place fast enough and time had run out. They agreed some kind of covering for the baler would be needed to protect it from the weather as a long-term plan is implemented next year.

Public Works Commissioner Mark Ketcham and Brian Sherman, who heads up the Recycling Center, told the Town Board last Friday at a budget review session that the money to pay for the project — about $75,000 or $80,000 if it were built in-house — could be found in balances remaining on hand in the 2011 budget.

With a delivery time of six weeks for the structural elements and the need to install and let cure the concrete footings for the building’s posts, there was little time to spare for getting the structure up before winter.

Mr. Ketcham wanted to buy a 40-by-110-foot open structure as a kit for just under $36,000 from a manufacturer in Arkansas. It  would have a sloping metal roof to protect people as they use the recycling bins and keep rain and a snow off the new baler, which the town uses to package waste paper for shipment to recyclers.

It was last spring that Mr. Sherman first told the board that a shed with a roof could be erected at the Recycling Center this year in-house with funds available in the 2011 budget. The project seemed to go to a back burner, however, until Councilman Ed Brown in recent weeks began pushing for the town to protect the new baler before winter sets in.

Mr. Ketcham and Mr. Sherman reported earlier this month they had been shocked to learn the project could cost $200,000 if a contractor erected the building. That put it out of the town’s reach financially, board members agreed.

The two men came back to the Town Board on Friday with the better news about doing the work in-house and within the budget. They had been expected to return this week to clarify the cost of options for the future installation of siding and solar panels, as well as engineering and labor costs and the cost of concrete for footings but no such presentation was made at Tuesday’s work session.

With Mr. Ketcham absent, board members Ed Brown and Glenn Waddington argued that too many details remained uncertain to decide on options, order the kit, install the footings and erect the building before January at the earliest. The rest of the board appeared to agree that the best plan was to erect a temporary structure before winter to protect the baler and work on a permanent structure for the whole recycling area to be erected in 2012.

Candidate for highway superintendent, Jay Card Jr., talked with the board members about options for a temporary structure, such as a hoop-framed tent or canopy that could put to other departmental uses once a permanent shed is built.