FARMINGTON — Farmington's Town Council chair is "on board" with a public food-scrap bin, the chair of the town's Green Efforts Committee told members Monday. By her account, he agreed that a year of emptying it would be "a small little minuscule item in the budget."
Patti Boye-Williams, who chairs the committee and also sits on the Town Council, said she had talked with Council Chair Brian F.X. Connolly. "I have talked with the chair of town council with my strong encouragement that we need to really get started on this and he's on board," she said. Later in the Nov. 2 meeting, she added that he had brought it up on his own. "He actually said, 'Patti, we need to do this,'" she said.
The bin would be an enclosed drop-off where residents could leave food scraps for composting instead of throwing them in the trash. The committee has tentatively settled on a single bin at the municipal campus, near the library. Members could not find a second spot on town property.
Nothing is funded yet. "We don't have anything firm and set from anyone on anything in terms of dollars, because the town is still looking at that," Boye-Williams said. A member reminded the committee that it had agreed to wait for the results of the town survey, expected in "December or January."
Who would pay for what
One bin would cost $5,824 with a graphic wrap, according to the price the committee heard in October. Blue Earth Compost quoted $36 a pickup, or $1,872 a year, to empty it weekly.
In October, Boye-Williams told the committee that Town Manager Kathleen Blonski's "strongest recommendation is to wait for the survey," though Blonski had said the committee was free to spend the $38,657 in its own account. Boye-Williams said then that at least four council members wanted to see the results before funding anything new.
On Monday, one participant sketched how the cost might be split if the survey comes back "really positive": the town could pay for the bin through its budget "and then Green Efforts funds a marketing, or have the town push more, have more money for the marketing of it."
Connolly's main concern, as Boye-Williams described it, was marketing. "He didn't want to have the pilot and not have anyone know about it," she said.
A spring launch, maybe with a picnic
With the money unsettled, members talked about timing instead. One member liked a spring launch "because we can have a picnic if the weather's nice." Members weighed tying it to the town's cleanup day in April, when committee members are busy running the cleanup sites. A library event was another option, and so was May, when the weather might be better. One member suggested putting the bin out first and holding an event later.
Members also raised what happens if the pilot works too well: another bin, and more pickups to pay for. One member called that a nice problem to have. The committee tabled the rest of the discussion.
West District is next for school composting
Composting in the schools is further along. Sam Kilpatrick, the school district's director of facilities, said composting is "going very well" in the schools that have it, and that of the three elementary schools without it, "West District was the most eager, so that's next." Asked who would pay, he said: "That we don't know yet." The district has sent principals information on grant programs, he said.
The committee next meets Wednesday, Dec. 9.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road, the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. Food scraps go in the bin. Everything else can wait at Farmington Storage. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has reported on Farmington's compost bin since the summer, one price quote at a time. He is on his second coffee, and the grounds are going in the bin. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers Farmington from the records up: the committee that has priced a compost bin down to the pickup, the police log that is technically public record but that you'd never find unless someone typed it up, the school board vote that decides what your kids learn next year. Our motto is "Always last to breaking news," and we stand behind it. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell your neighbors. 📰