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| By Natasha Clark Reminder Assistant Editor EAST LONGMEADOW "The Board of Selectmen plans on having a full detailed description explaining the benefits of the trash contract," Selectman John Claffey told Reminder Publications. The town of East Longmeadow has recently signed a new trash contract with Central Mass Disposal, Inc. Residents will no longer have bi-weekly unlimited trash pickup. Under the new contract homeowners will be allowed a 35 gallon trash container. Any trash bag beyond that receptacle will fall under a pay-as-you-throw program. Those bags will be available through stores and vendors throughout the town. "That money will then come back to the town and help defray our trash disposal costs," Claffey explained. "The board will be setting a price no more than $2 per bag." Claffey said one of the benefits of this program is its possible recycling rewards. The town pays a per ton trash fee at the ECO/Springfield facility in Agawam. Claffey said the anticipated result of this effort is to keep those costs in check. "Trash disposal costs have been spiraling higher and higher every year. We needed to take some serious efforts to keep these costs under control," he added. At one time East Longmeadow had been examining the benefits, along with Hampden and Longmeadow, of having a united three-town trash pickup contract. However, Claffey said they found that there was no substantial financial break after they met with three trash haulers. Longmeadow, as Reminder Publications reported last week, has decided to stay with their current trash pickup program and investigate other cost saving methods. Claffey said the week of June 6 the Board of Selectmen plans to release information that explains the new contract and its terms. "This is a hot issue because it affects every resident of this town. We will start an informational campaign in June to spell out the specifics. This is an area where the Board of Selectmen saw that we could control the ever increasing costs of doing business as a town." |