WALPOLE PLANNING BOARD

RUGGIERO SITE WALK

AUGUST 17, 2015

Mr. Aldrich said it was his understanding that everything that’s happened  at the Ruggiero Waste Facility was because of a variance of the Zoning Board. Mr. Tom Hanna answered no. He explained that the Zoning Board rules on three things: Ordinances, Variances and Special Exceptions. Special Exceptions is a misnomer. It actually means permitted uses.

So, Mr. Aldrich asked, everything that came in here was a Special Exception – with conditions? Mr. Dalessio interrupted and said that this could be discussed at our Planning Board meeting and that it wasn’t relevant to what we are doing here on a site walk.

Mr. Hanna told Mr. J. Miller that he wanted to have a list of everyone who was at the site walk so the secretary passed a sheet of paper around for people to sign. There were about 20 people:

Planning Board members: James Aldrich, Steve Dalessio, Jason Perron, Robert Miller, Jeff White, Jeff Miller

Selectboard: Peggy Pschirrer

Zoning Board: Myra Mansouri and Mary Therese Lester

Abutters: R. F. and Karen O’Brien, Frank, Miranda and Lahatha Anderson, France Menk

Reporter: Ray Boas, Clarion

Owners: Joe and Chris Ruggiero

Lawyer: Tom Hanna

Surveyor: Rob Hitchcock

Nick Martel

The excavator operator

Mr. Hitchcock went over the site plan while people were signing the sheet of paper. He pointed out where things were on the map to orient everyone. The office trailer was to the north about 50 feet from property line. The pole barn was also on the northern property line about 150 feet from Houghton Brook. The new pole barn would be directly east by the bank. The high metal building (The Big Barn) is where items are dumped and sorted. The back of this building is closed to the west. On the other side of that is where the new scale and new the new trailer will be. The place where some people parked is the new access road.

The abutters are to the north. Mr. Aldrich asked Mr. Dick O’Brien, an abutter, how far from Houghton Brook he lived. He answered was about 200 feet.

A bridge crossing Houghton Brook is about 200 feet away from the property line. Mr. Dalessio asked about the property line to the center of the new road. Mr. Hitchcock answered about 30 feet.

Mr. Hitchcock talked about the new property Mr. Ruggiero had acquired. He pointed out the additional acreage purchased from Hodgkins & Sons, so the total now is about 15 acres. That property was merged with the former piece. There was a boundary line adjustment. It is also zoned Industrial.                                                                        1.

Mr. J. Miller said it was pretty quiet. Is this typical, atypical? he asked. Someone pointed out that it was the end of the day and the place was closed. Someone else said he was there at 4:15 p.m. and there wasn’t anyone working.

Mr. J. Miller asked what kind of noise was at the site. Is the noise trucks dropping off loads and going during the day?  He was told the trucks backing up have beepers but they are the quiet beeper – a condition of the Zoning Board. It was during the working day that there was more noise.

Mr. Aldrich asked about water. He was told there was no town water.

An employee answered that there were port-a-potties. Mr. White asked, What about washing up? What do you do. An employee said there were wash stations in the port-a-potties. Then Mr. White asked, what do you do about eye wash emergencies? No one answered the question.

At this point, Mr. Hanna asked that everyone identify himself or herself before talking.

Then everyone went into the Big Barn with Mr. J. Ruggiero. He explained what happened here.

The truck backs up and dumps all the material on the floor. Once it’s on the floor, everyone sorts through it, pulling out the cardboard, metal, aluminum and  single-stream recycling, which takes anything – cardboard, glass, plastic, tin cans.

“We try our best to save anything with money value,” Mr. J. Ruggiero said. “Cardboard goes for $10 a ton. Single-stream waste costs money now but it is cheaper than getting rid of trash. The construction debris had already been gone through and then it gets send to a second recycler in Maine. They go through it and get 80 percent recovery.”

Mr. J. Ruggiero said his operation gets 20 percent recovery of a total dumpster. Ruggiero’s does a preliminary refining. The Maine operation has a conveyor belt system and several people on either side are picking things out.

Mr. Perron asked if  the Maine operation did more recycling than Mr. Ruggiero. Mr. Ruggiero said they are more aggressive. Right now he doesn’t have the tonnage to make it worthwhile. The Maine operation goes through about 200 tons a day. Ruggiero goes through 200 tons a week.

Mr. Ruggiero continued about the building saying the floor is tipped so all liquid goes down the drain. About three-quarters down from the opening to the barn is a 2 – to-3- foot wall with a significant drop and a tarped dumpster was there. That concrete floor also has a drain.

Ms. Menk asked where the fluid went. Mr. Ruggiero said to a collection tank on the other side of the wall that has an alarm that tells when it is full. Then it is pumped out and hauled away.

Mr. Aldrich asked if when he gets household waste is he going to dump it in this barn. Mr. Ruggiero said yes.

Mr. Aldrich asked if Mr. Ruggiero was going to dump municipal waste in the Big Barn. Mr. Ruggiero said he was. Mr. Aldrich asked if that included black bags full of dirty diapers and all that stuff. Mr. Aldrich said he was in the waste business for 9 ½. years Mr. Ruggiero interrupted and asked if he had different colored bags?

Clear plastic bags go in the recycle bin, same thing with compost, he said. If he decides to take that, it would be a red bag.

Mr. J. Miller tried to explain that when he gets a new customer they have to agree to sort into red, black yellow whatever. Mr. Dalessio asked if it was optional to use any colored bag they wanted and Mr. Ruggiero said yes. Mr. Miller asked? You mean they don’t sort. Mr. Ruggiero said I can’t force them. There is no way to enforce it. The black gets treated like trash.

Abutter Mr. Frank Anderson said that two-thirds of your trash comes from Vermont and Vermonters are required to recycle now. So what do you do if they don’t.

Mr. Ruggiero said you have to get on the Vermont State Web site and look up Act 48. It’s mandatory but the state has no way for Ruggiero’s to enforce. It is a mandatory law but the state hasn’t found out a way to enforce it.

Mr. Anderson asked about the new stuff. Mr. J. Miller said all the new stuff is regulated by DES.

Mr. Ruggiero said every pound that is on the floor is recorded: where it’s from, where it goes after it leaves here. Mr. Ruggiero said  if you put a 50 gallon drum of waste oil in your dumpster and I pick it up and when I get it here I find the drum. I know where it came from. I know your address. I let DES know and they are the ones coming to your door. It gets sent to Bar Harbor and you get the bill.

Mr. O’Brien asked about compost. Mr. Ruggiero said he may get into compost. Then Mr. O’Brien said the city of Keene had trouble with collecting compost and stopped doing it.

Mr. Hitchcock said there is another permitting process for compost. Mr. Anderson said it is already in the application, something to do in the future. Mr. Ruggiero said you could argue that it could be a possibility and it could be a possibility that he might want to rent this property. There are all kinds of things he could to do.

Mr. Tom Hanna, a lawyer for Mr. Ruggiero, asked if it was part of this process. The answer was no. So Mr.  Hanna said it is not part of this hearing.

Mr. Hanna reviewed the operation and then said that people may want to look over the wall and see what is there. Those that did saw the covered container referred to before.

Mr. Aldrich asked if Mr. Ruggiero could foresee 53-foot trucks coming in. Mr. Ruggiero said no that they use 48 footers.

Mr. O’Brien wanted to know about the diesel fumes from the excavator when it was in the Big Barn. Mr. Ruggiero said the operators never complained. Mr. O’Brien said you said were going to have doors on this barn. Mr. Anderson jumped in and said originally there were going to be doors and you were going to have big fans taking out the fumes. There didn’t appear to be doors on the barn at the site walk.

Mr. Dalessio wanted to know the DES standards. Mr. Hanna suggested that he request that information for the hearing.

Then people headed over to the pole barn. Mr. Ruggiero said that most of the materials were from some place else. For example, the lighting came out of a gym that was closed, the beams came out of a Sunoco station, some of the roofing came from Home Depot jobs. The sheeting is new and it came from Balla & Company who gave it in trade for his skid.

Someone asked about a sprinkler system. Mr. Ruggiero said he tried getting in touch with the Walpole Fire Department, a Mr. Herb Hurlburt. He sent him a couple of emails but he wasn’t feeling well. Then he talked to Mr. Mark Houghton. Mr. Ruggiero was informed that Mr. Dick Hurlburt was the fire chief now and he was the person to contact.

Then Mr. Ruggiero was asked if he was doing any welding and fabricating. Mr. Ruggiero said he was not doing any fabricating but was doing some welding.

Mr. O’Brien asked about the new pole barn. The new one is 25-by-100 feet. Mr. Ruggiero said his largest dumpster is 22 feet  so he could put it under the pole barn rather than tarping it. It’s going to 100 feet long in case the facility gets a 48 footer. He could leave it under the pole barn, it could fit on the other side of a dumpster.

Mr. R. Miller wanted Mr. Ruggiero to have someone start up the excavator to see about noise. While the employee was getting ready to start the excavator, the abutters talked about the noise. They said, “This is going to be dull. It’s usually Bam! Slam! Boom, Boom, Boom!” Someone else said, “Or dumping bricks into a lower dumpster. It’s all during the day.”

The excavator came out just far enough to be totally out of the pole barn. The operator lifted the shovel up and down.

The purpose of the new pole barn is that some of the trucks will be tarped and some will fit right under the barn and stay under there. Mr. Ruggiero pointed to the dumpster in the old pole barn and said it was two-thirds full with paper. When it gets filled up, the dumpster will go into the Big Barn be dumped, sorted and the rest go into another dumpster and hauled off.

Mr. Dalessio asked when does the trash go from being in transit to actually being here. Mr. Ruggiero said once it’s dumped on the floor. But there could be dumpsters waiting to be picked and sorted? Mr. Dalessio asked. Mr. Ruggiero agreed. Mr. Dalessio said but it’s here. Mr. Ruggiero said that’s a gray area. Besides, everything will be gone in 72 hours and most likely 24 hours.

Mr. Miller asked how many tons in a dumpster of trash? Mr. Ruggiero asked. About 12 tons, he replied. Then Mr. Miller asked, So you do 10, 12 of these a week? Yes, but that’s a packed one, Mr. Ruggiero said. That dumpster there with the tarp on it, Mr. Ruggiero pointed to the one to the right, might have a ton and a half. It depends on what it is in it. Some dumpsters are packed down, others are not.

Mr. Hitchcock asked who wanted to see where the scale was going to be.

The secretary didn’t get to the top of hill where the discussion about where the scale was going. Perhaps one of the Planning Board members that were on the hill could fill the public in about that discussion. The discussion went on for about five minutes.

Respectfully submitted,

Marilou Blaine

Secretary