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Community Corner

Trash Talk


I attended the Finance and Advisory Board meeting last night as a private citizen and I was surprised by the turn out. There were 20 or so people in the audience, very unusual for a F & A Board meeting. They were there mostly because of their interest in the Trash Contract deliberations.

About 10-12 people in the audience spoke out in favor of the Hiltz proposal. They pointed out that there was not a significant difference in the bids and Hiltz has been providing exemplary service to the Town over the last 12 years. No one spoke in favor of the JRM proposal. In fact questions were raised about the JRM proposal and why JRM was allowed to submit a second proposal the day after the initial proposals were due (highly irregular and suspicious behavior). It was also brought to light that JRM has 12 serious OSHA violations on file. JRM was recently cited for violations of the Stoneham ordinance prohibiting 3AM dumpster picks in Town. JRM is a much larger Company than Hiltz and therefore the Stoneham contract will not be as important to them as it is to Hiltz which translates into the Town having less leverage with JRM.

Hiltz has had none of these problems that I know of SO WHY DID THE FINANCE BOARD VOTE IN FAVOR OF THE JRM PROPOSAL???

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The only reason that I can think of for favoring JRM over Hiltz is that some of the members are suspicious of too cozy a relationship between DPW and or other Town officials and Hiltz. That is a sad state of affairs.

If the Selectmen go along with the F & A Board recommendation we will be getting a new trash hauler with a spotty safety record and no local knowledge of Stoneham.

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Too bad:(

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