Residents are shown tossing recyclables into the bins at the Southwick Transfer Station. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, the crew that mans the station said anywhere between 300 and 400 vehicles will arrive to drop off household waste and recyclables.
Reminder Publishing file photo
SOUTHWICK — The Select Board was talking trash during its meeting on June 1 before it raised the annual regular transfer sticker price from $180 to $195 and the senior sticker from $95 to $110.
The change will cover the increase of $7,000 in salaries for the DPW’s Solid Waste Division, but it won’t cover a drop in sticker revenue of over $100,000 over the last two years.
“How do you lose 600 stickers … where’d they go?” asked new board member Joseph Deedy about the number of stickers sold in 2025 versus 2026.
“I’ve been racking my brain,” said DPW Director Rich Bosak about trying to understand the steep drop in sticker sales.
In fiscal year 2025, there were 753 stickers purchased at the full rate of $170 and 1,325 stickers sold at the senior rate of $95. Other sticker categories, including prorated and second vehicle stickers, generated $266,159, which is $101,355 less than this year.
For this fiscal year, there were 526 stickers purchased at the full rate of $185 and 731 stickers sold at the senior rate of $105. Meanwhile, other sticker categories, including prorated and second vehicle stickers, generated $187,334.
“I drove around, and I’ve just seen more and more [residents using a private curbside pickup company]”, Bosak said.
“There’s a lot of trucks … there’re just more [trash] barrels,” said board member Russ Anderson.
Board member Douglas Moglin, who was chosen to be chair as the meeting started, said there were two things at play.
“One is, you’re seeing more and more homes [taking] private pickup,” he said, adding that the increasing number of seniors who qualify for the senior rate has risen as the town’s elderly population has increased.
“That’s reflecting the population in town,” he said.
Moglin also said that the increase in the sticker rate closes the difference between the cost of curbside pickup, which is between $400 and $500 annually.
“If you raise a sticker price to a certain point, people will start taking curbside, and then you start to run into the problem where you still have the fixed cost to operate the transfer station on way fewer users,” he said.
That drop in revenue means every taxpayer in town is on the hook for the division’s projected operating deficit of $495,277, which is a $141,954 increase from last year.
Before the board voted to raise the rates, Anderson said he had a “feeling that people will feel that 10 or 20 bucks in the sticker [price] more than they’re gonna feel the absorption of the tax rate.”
After the board unanimously approved the increase, Bosak proposed a change in policy for pricing prorated stickers that were bought after Jan. 1.
He proposed that prorated stickers, which cost $98, would only be for new residents or residents who have cancelled curbside pickup with DPW approval.
That proposal would have regular transfer stickers cost the same amount no matter what month of the year they were purchased.
“There are a lot of folks waiting until after [Jan. 1] and then getting it at the cheaper price … So I think that’s where we’re losing some funds,” Bosak said.
“So, they wait till January and then get a half-price sticker,” Anderson said, clarifying Bosak’s proposal.
To get the prorated sticker, Deedy said, there might be residents who “have snuck” into the transfer station for the first six months, waiting until Jan. 1 to buy it.
“There’s a hundred of them doing that a year now,” Deedy said to Bosak.
“Not that many. Not 100, but I mean – 20, 25 – anywhere in there,” Bosak said.
He also said that while part of the reason for the proposal was to generate additional revenue for the division, another part was to keep residents honest.
“This was just to have everybody be a little more honest,” he said.
“I understand where you’re coming from,” Anderson said.
The board elected to discuss the issue again at its next meeting on June 8.
