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Date: 8/24/2022
WARE – The Ware Select Board meeting became heated during a Resource Waste Request discussion on Aug. 16.
The Board of Health has received a plan modification submitted by Resource Waste Services located at 198 East St. This facility is a destruction and demolition processing facility that is presently permitted up to 750 tons of waste per day. The modification request is to increase the amount to 1,400 tons per day, five days a week. One thousand four hundred tons would equal 3 million pounds of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste being brought to the site five days a week.
C&D waste is generated from construction, renovation, repair, demolition of houses, large building structures, etc. The main concerns of this modification are that it would bring an exponential increase in truck traffic, noise and air pollution to Ware.
For the application process of this modification, Resource Waste Management will prepare a traffic, pollution and noise study along with an overview of the project. The Board of Health will then review the application to decide if it will protect public health, safety and welfare.
Representatives for this project came to the Select Board to give their opinion that the best possible person to coordinate these studies would be Attorney David Wojcik.
Wojcik is a retired attorney and served as the Ware town counsel for over 40 years. They also said that he was directly involved with at least three prior public hearings associated with this facility.
Select Board Chair John Morrin questioned if Wojcik had been involved with these specific matters before. The representatives said that he has dealt with projects involving residuals, meaning solid waste. Morrin rebutted that those involved different licenses and different businesses.
With this modification project, there would be an administrative hearing and then the Board of Health would make the final decision on its approval.
One concern of the Select Board was that hiring Wojcik could be a waste of taxpayer money as they already have retained legal counsel in the town. They also noted that Wojcik has retired, hence why they hired a new town attorney.
The representatives said that using the retained legal counsel would take them away from focusing on other town issues where Wojcik already understands this project and its history.
The Select Board then moved forward with the motion on whether or not to hire Wojcik to be part of the hearing process. Many people in the meeting audience voiced that they wanted to speak about the matter and continue this discussion, but Morrin called for order.
The Select Board voted, and denied hiring Wojcik to be a part of the hearing process for this application. This denial led to further audience outcries and anger. Morrin continued to call for order, and banged his gavel several times on both the desk and the wall.
One resident who attended the meeting called this “a very horrible decision,” and another yelled “shame on all of you.”
Town Manager Stuart Beckley called the police to make sure everyone in the audience was escorted out. The meeting continued after the last remaining audience member who refused to leave on their own was escorted.
Those interested in viewing the Ware Selectboard meeting in its entirety are encouraged to visit the WareTV page.