I am sorry if I wasn’t clear.  I wasn’t looking to add an additional
transfer day from 2 times per week to 3.  Only when a big holiday occurs on
one of the transfer days (Wednesday or Saturday) like 4th of July,
Christmas or New Years, which may happy once every couple of years, would I
consider reprioritizing the next work day  to a transfer day.  So, once or
twice in a year every couple of years we ask the Dpw to open the transfer
station on the next workday after a holiday.  Not a big request with no
budget impact whatsoever.


Peter Buchthal


On Sat, Jan 4, 2025 at 8:31 PM Seth Rosen <rosen...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Regretfully, it does not work that way.  I am reasonably certain our DPW
> employees are non-exempt under FLSA.  Therefore if they work “overtime”
> they must be compensated at 1.5x base wage.  If they don’t work overtime
> and/or the town doesn’t wish to fund overtime, you are correct DPW could
> reprioritize other activities.  However our guys do some pretty important
> work around town, and I imagine their “honey do” list is both long and
> essential.  Also I’m not sure it’s a good idea for us to tell Chris Bibbo
> how to run his crew and prioritize… they do a heck of a job over there.
> It’s one of the areas in town where I feel like our dollars are well spent,
> and Chris does a very good job doing things in priority order.  I suspect a
> third transfer station day each week just isn’t a priority.
>
> Of course if they had more resources, they could do a lot more - but we’ve
> already chosen to allocate our resources to other projects, like a
> soon-to-be-mostly-empty-most-of-the-time community center.   So if your
> rotting trash is stinking horribly, you will at least be able to hang out
> there while you wait patiently for the transfer station to reopen in a
> week.
>
> Seth Rosen
>
>
> On Jan 4, 2025, at 7:52 PM, Peter Buchthal <pbucht...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 
>
> Maybe I am missing something so please correct me if I am wrong, but
> aren’t all of the people who work at the transfer station supervising
> garbage drop off are full time employees of the town?
> If so, I don’t believe re-prioritizing the schedule of the transfer
> employees should cost the town money.  If a full time town employee enjoys
> the holiday, they could then work the transfer station on the next “work
> day” by relieving them from their normal Thursday or Monday duty at the
> highway, water department or other department.
>
> Let’s figure this one out without costing the town any money. It can be
> done!
>
> Peter Buchthal
> Weston Rd
>
>
> i
> On Sat, Jan 4, 2025 at 2:52 PM Margo Fisher-Martin <
> margo.fisher.mar...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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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