What did the Swap Shed cost?

Now that the Transfer Station is closing the Swap Shed due to budget cutbacks, some might be wondering how much it cost the Town to run it.

This was explained at a meeting quite some time ago by John Whetton, Director of the DPW, who also used to run the transfer station. Stafford Free Press checked back in for an update. Whetton estimates the Swap Shed cost somewhere between $3,000 and $6,000 a year just to haul out the materials.

Over the course of two years, Whetton tracked what was hauled out of the Swap Shed, and he puts the number between 45 and 60 tons of material. This all needs to be hauled away. Today, it costs $110 to get rid of a ton of material. Whetton also noted that by the time trash is hauled away, it costs more than the $180 per ton the Town charges.

And while anyone driving their trash over the scale, or putting it in one of the designated trash bags, is paying to offset those costs, no one is paying for the junk coming out the Swap Shed. In otehr words, the Swap Shed was entirely tax funded where as other transfer station services are offset, in part, by fees.

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