Nowhere on the online link for a new Transfer Station sticker does it mention the senior citizen aid for a supply of bags to those who qualify. This program was “sold” to the town with the offering that seniors would receive this perk as an incentive due to the annual sticker cost ($130) plus the cost of the bags over the span of the year. Before we had the “pay per bag” program, seniors were given a thoughtful discount on the cost of the annual stickers; they were asked to pay $25. For the past two years, seniors were asked to pay the same amount as everyone with the incentive of a supply of 30 bags to help them through part of that year.
Deborah Thompson of Harvard’s Council on Aging says we have “just under 1700” senior citizens. How many do not, cannot drive? How many live alone? How many others pay for a service to pick up their trash? Cut the balance in half as they only get one allotment per couple … do the math.
According to Stu Sklar, a Select Board member who is on the Transfer Station Committee (so he should know), the “approximate cost to the town” for this “aid” is $4,500. That’s all?
Now seniors must either swim or drown in the ever-growing expenses for living in Harvard. One of the only benefits seniors had for living in Harvard (whuh hooo!) has been quietly removed without even a comment by the elected Select Board or by the town administrator, who was appointed by that same Select Board.
We know they care about us because they tell us so. Oh, wait … they do, don’t they?
Tom Garfield
Myrick Lane
