Mello Appeals Planning Board Conditions

GEORGETOWN – The G. Mello Trash Disposal Corp. has asked the state Land Court to remove the conditions the town’s Planning Board imposed on the 500-ton trash transfer station the company plans to build once it gets town approvals.
Mello’s appeal said some of the Planning Board’s 39 conditions are “unreasonable and beyond the authority of the Planning Board to impose.” The board ruled that unless Mello complies with each of the conditions, including the rebuilding of Carleton Drive, it cannot be awarded a permit to build and operate the transfer station.
In an unrelated matter, the town’s SelectBoard released a draft of the minutes for its Executive Session on June 5 that showed the board voted four to zero, with Rachel Bancroft abstaining, to hire the STIRM Group, private detectives, to investigate alleged fraud by the Conservation Commission.
Bancroft, who serves on the Conservation Commission as well as the SelectBoard, said she recused herself from the vote “because it is a farce.”
The fee for the STIRM Group was capped at $10,000, which was to be taken from the town’s Wetlands Fund. It is unknown if the STIRM Group has submitted an invoice to the town for its investigation.
No report on the results of that investigation has been made public.
Land Court Judge Kevin Smith sided with G. Mello Trash Disposal Corp. on its appeal of the Planning Board’s denial of a permit for the transfer station.
The Planning Board last month followed the court’s order and approved the construction of the transfer station, but imposed more than a dozen conditions. In a 10-page decision, the board approved the conditions that must be met before Mello can receive a permit to begin construction.
The conditions included rebuilding Carleton Drive, a dead-end, deteriorating, two-lane road near Interstate 95. The board required that Mello rebuild the road that will handle the increased truck traffic to a high standard. It also required Mello to pay for a police detail at Carleton Drive and Rte. 133 for the first four months it is open.
Mello was also ordered to prevent all trucks, while leaving the station, turning west from Carleton Road and traveling through downtown. It also required that Mello clean up any spills immediately and prevent any increase in rodent population.
While Mello proposed resurfacing the road with two inches of asphalt, an engineering firm said the 1,600-foot Carleton Drive, whose sub-structure is mostly sand and water, must be rebuilt with 20 inches of gravel as the base, topped with 12 more inches of crushed gravel, 3 inches of binding material and 2 inches of asphalt on top.
The appeal objected to hiring a police detail, which it said would require Mello to turn away cars that are waiting on Carleton Drive to enter the station. “A single vehicle waiting for traffic to pass before making a left turn into the Facility would in violation of Condition 14,” the appeal states.
Condition 14, as approved by the Planning Board, appears to require only that there be a police detail at the intersection for 120 days.
Mello’s appeal also said that requiring employees and contractors not to go through the downtown area was unreasonable because it would prohibit their ability “to fully utilize the public road system.”
The Planning Board also required Mello to “police Carleton Drive hourly to assure that no debris, including dust, relating to its operation has accumulated.” Mello said there was no reason to check the roadway for dust every hour.
On rodents, Mello’s appeal said there is no standard for determining if the station has caused an increase in the population.