After a raft of complaints regarding what seemed like a stricter interpretation of the town’s discounted senior Transfer Station sticker policy this year, the Select Board voted unanimously to change the policy at its July 10 meeting. The town will now issue only one discounted sticker per senior household, to be affixed to any vehicle registered to the household’s address. The policy took effect July 11.
The complaints came primarily from seniors whose under-65 spouses owned the vehicle that was used to take trash to the transfer station. For example, if 70-year-old Joe Smith owns a small car, and his 60-year-old wife owns a van, the Smiths would probably prefer to put Joe’s discounted sticker on the van. In prior years, that wasn’t a problem. In fact, $35 entitled the Smiths to stickers for both vehicles. But this year, only Joe was entitled to the senior discounted sticker, and he would have had to use it on his car. To get a sticker for the van, Joe would have had to pay the full price of $250.
Why? The rules have not changed, but their enforcement has. At its July 10 meeting, Town Administrator Tim Bragan told the board that in prior years, Town Hall staff failed to read the entire regulation governing senior stickers and gave out second stickers to vehicles that were not eligible for them.
In response to complaints, Select Board member Kara Minar proposed that senior households, defined as having one or more residents over 65 on July 1, be eligible to buy a single discounted sticker to be affixed to any vehicle registered at the household’s address. No second or third sticker would be available to senior households, regardless of how many seniors live there. The board voted the measure proposed by Minar, effective immediately. Executive Assistant Julie Doucet told the Press this week that the policy is not retroactive in any way, so the old policy applies to any discounted sticker purchased prior to July 11.
