Thanks for the detailed response Andy, and thanks to everyone else who has responded to me. I’m actually only advocating for an extra day on weeks that the holiday falls on a transfer station day. I’m not advocating for a third opportunity each week, even though that would be great! So it shouldn’t cost that much to add a day here and there when a holiday lands on a transfer station day. I’ll write to the select board to offer my suggestion. All my best, Margo
On Sat, Jan 4, 2025 at 2:18 PM Andrew Payne <a...@payne.org> wrote: > > Margo wrote: > > I’ve lived in this town for more than 30 years. When we first moved here, >> the transfer station was open 3 days per week. >> > > I thought in the very early 90s it was more than 3 days per week, but my > recollection is fuzzy. I do remember when it dropped to 2 days a week > being, er, "annoyed". When the kids each turned ~16.5, they inherited the > Saturday morning dump run, as a rite of passage. It was the Lincoln > version of having kids to "work on the farm", perhaps. > > With the amount of taxes we pay, and the ability to build a new school and >> fancy community center, etc… you’d think a couple of additional hours of >> transfer station opportunities would be added. [...] I’m wondering if >> the town can cough up a bit more of our tax money to add a day or 2 per >> year. I’m not asking for pick up ( although, wouldn’t THAT be nice?!)! >> These are BASIC services. >> > > At the end of the day, of course, it's the residents that cough up that > money. Generally, there are not buckets of money available to add new > ongoing services without impacting our budget and resident tax bills. If > we want to expand services in one area without paying more, what > service/budget do we cut to offset the cost? That's always the $64,000 > question. > > (A small one I've been lobbying for: exiting the "printed matter" > business for town reports and the financial warrant. We'd have a small > number of reports available, printed on demand, at Town Hall for those that > don't have digital access and/or prefer that format. We have to comply > with various (mildly antiquated) notice/posting laws, and town staff is > making progress on this. NOTE: I'm giving this as an example, not > suggesting any cost offset is enough to cover additional T/S days.) > > Dover, with a smaller population, offers 3 days per week. And they have a >> lower tax rate than Lincoln. > > > One *general* issue we run into: higher staffing costs, driven by our > location. The "Metro Northwest" area of Boston, within a reasonable > commute to Lincoln, is an expensive place to live. That means: to attract > and keep staff, we need to pay accordingly. Otherwise, we (a) can't hire > people, or (b) as soon as a comparable job opens in > Weston-Concord-Sudbury-Wayland-Bedford-Lexington, employees jump, and we > have a revolving door. > > One "it's always a tradeoff" resident's view, > > -andy > https://payne.org/lt-disclaimer > > >
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