Wilton Select Board of Directors Starts New Year with Old Business

WILTON — The first Wilton Select Board meeting of 2024 began with a brief follow-up to Water and Sewer Superintendent Dalton Plante’s request to transfer funds to the Water and Sewer Authority’s undesignated net principal. During public comment on Tuesday, Jan. 2, Wilton resident Nick Santora asked for clarification on how previously allocated funds were used.

At the last special committee meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 19, Plante announced that the remainder of the budget line designated for the proper disposal of sludge that may be contaminated with permanently hazardous chemicals (PFAS) Requested that funds be transferred to an unspecified net principal amount.

The amount remaining was estimated at $78,000, and the original budget line was set at $200,000. In a follow-up phone interview with the Livermore Falls Advertiser, Plante clarified that the funds reallocated to undesignated net principal were drawn from the department’s own contributions to the budget line. .

Of the $200,000 budgeted for disposal of sludge and manure at Madison’s landfill, half came from the Water and Sewer Department. Plante said this was done to cushion the blow of potentially sharp rate increases to offset the increased costs of sludge treatment under the PFAS law.

This regulation was the subject of discussion at the previous Select Committee meeting and will continue to be discussed at this meeting, with Chair Tiffany Maiuri responding to a question from Mr. Santora stating that the issues discussed at the Select Committee do not meet the criteria. He said it was about the need for an exemption for the town. Threshold of concern.

“[State Legislature] We did not exclude towns that were not detected,” Maiuri said. “In my opinion, this was an oversight, and I have worked with legislators to try to address this issue.”

Selectman Mike Wells investigated the matter and followed up by saying he felt Wilton and other towns were simply exempt from testing for long-lasting perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals.

“The majority of PFAS comes from places like Fairfield, where there are factories that feed into the city’s sewer system,” he said. “Our town doesn’t, and many other towns don’t either, so we pay.”

Following his comments, he mentioned an amendment added during the draft of LD 1911 to allow the use of sludge derivatives and compost if no PFAS chemicals were tested, which was removed from the draft. It was added just to be used.

“That means millions of Maine dollars from local communities are being unnecessarily sent to waste management and landfills,” Wells said. “We’re sending money to the landfill.”

Wells said he plans to contact the Maine Municipal Association. [MMA] Consider forming a coalition to fight the bill.

In other business, Special Agent David Leavitt asked about follow-up on The HoneyComb Farm’s pending application. The application was tabled at the last Select Committee meeting over the question of whether it fell within the legal scope of Wilton’s affirmative suspension of cannabis applications.

Maiuri said he had planned to follow up at this meeting, but it was postponed pending responses from the companies that helped draft the suspension. Mr Wells said he would need to speak with a lawyer to find out if the application would be granted.

Town Manager Maria Greeley said she has reached out to an attorney but has not heard back. Maiuri blamed the slow response to a storm that left more than 400,000 people without power in the state in mid-December.

Selectman Keith Sweat added that he also asked the attorney about the normal ordinance regarding use permits, which can be extended for more than a year upon request. “I asked her to review it to see how it affects us,” he said.

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