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1/31/2022
Dear editor,
A few thoughts on two very controversial Hampton topics:
1. TRASH AND RECYCLING
The Solid Waste Collection (SWC) and Transportation portion of the Hampton Public Works (PW) 2022 budget totals $1.7 million or 28% of the total PW budget. Transportation expenses have gone from $553,357 in 2020 up to $966,080 in 2021, or a 75% increase. Neither the Selectmen, the budget committee, nor the Solid Waste committee seem to bat an eyelash at this increase. As an individual selectman, I have brought up SWC and transportation costs several times, but the response is always crickets. Why is that? One could argue it is because making a decision to discontinue or limit trash and recycling services is much too controversial. To continue at the rate we are going for trash and recycling costs, the town is looking at a soon to be $2 million-dollar annual expense. What else do we budget $2 million dollars a year for? I would argue, not much. Definitely not road and sidewalk maintenance.
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The question of the Hampton selectmen should be:
How can we offset the tax effect of this large continuous expense?
I would suggest that the board immediately begin to implement an "annual per cart fee" to "parcels with more than 10 carts" for the additional carts issued by Hampton PW. These parcels with 10 or more carts are already outlined in the Town of Hampton Cart and Service Collection Policy, with the exception of "23 Island Path," which was noted and addressed by PW and the BOS at last week's public meeting.
Again, this new fee would be applied to any additional (over the 10 maximum) carts. The fee to be determined by Hampton PW in time for May 1, 2022, implementation. This would be a convenient way for Hampton PW to collect some offsetting revenue for the SWC and transportation annual costs.
Ideally, many would argue, including myself, that the town should get out of the trash business, however, we cannot simply just pull out of something that was implemented so poorly to begin with. This solution would at least offset some of the astronomical cost for the benefit of town wide taxpayers, most of which only require one recycling and one trash cart to be collected by Hampton PW on a weekly basis. The selectmen should explore and implement this as soon as possible.
2. STATE BEACH RESPONSIBILITIES
Another controversial topic that could easily be solved, in my view, is if the Hampton BOS as a body, demanded well deserved financial support from Concord. $20 million dollars of relief is not too much to ask for, many Hampton taxpayers would agree. The money is there, it just needs to be redirected from the state education trust fund back to municipalities.
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