HALIFAX — There has been a lot of news about the Windham Solid Waste Management District lately. Closing the Materials Recovery Facility seems to have been a foregone conclusion.
Now, let's hold on for a minute: The vote to close the MRF was a close one.
I think it's not fair to encourage Brattleboro to use its voting power to settle the issue. WSWMD Executive Director Bob Spencer should have made sure all member towns were treated fairly.
Simply put, Brattleboro should not have been allowed to vote on the issue. At the very least, the results should have been published to reflect things both ways.
The possibility of Brattleboro leaving the district has hung like a cloud for at least a few years. With this in mind, the management should have developed and refined three alternate plans for this scenario, with both pros and cons of each. By this, I mean well-thought-out plans, not panic-and-shoot-from-the-hip conclusions.
Now, let's see where Bob seems to be leading us: Lay off six people, sell or scrap more than 100 rolloff containers, scrap or sell off the conveyor system, dispose of the three trucks, turn the building into a composting system.
Nothing has been mentioned about the very expensive front office.
I think it's time to get rid of the deadwood and make way for real progress. We don't need to lay off people and trash the system.
Bob, you can do better. Let's see well-written alternatives.