In Cornish, even a quiet day means getting town work done

By JEFF EPSTEIN
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CORNISH  — The board of selectmen had no formal agenda items at its Monday meeting, but it was in session to handle regular business with chair John Hammond and member Scott Baker. Select board member Ginny Wood was out sick, as was administrative assistant Mary Curtis.

In a small town, things still have to get done, even when you are down two people. So Hammond and Baker kept their office open and heard people who wanted to speak to them.

A member of the highway department had a proposal for managing crew hours and uniform expenses. The highway crew is currently five people including the leader (called the road agent) and they are the employees who keep the roads in good condition when it snows or storms.

 Hammond and Baker listened, but did not want to take action without Ginny Wood.

Another person dropped off an invoice. That will get taken care of, although the administrative assistant isn’t immediately available.

But a quiet session such as this can obscure real work that is not apparent on the surface. One thing that the selectmen are taking a hard look at is Cornish’s recycling program, which has not been making money, mostly due to a collapse of the overall marketplace for disposal of the recyclable stream. The town operates a “zero-sort” program that saves consumers from having to do their own sorting of recyclables. The waste management vendor handles the sorting, but that means the vendor then passes the cost to the town.

“The only thing we make money on is the scrap metal,” said Baker.

The specifics of all this will be discussed Wednesday at a public meeting at 7 p.m. with Michael Durfor, the executive director of the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA). The organization specializes in this, said Hammond, and will be able to fill in a lot of details to help Cornish decide what to do.

“I think a lot of people don’t understand what is going on,” he said.