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VOTED: that the Town, acting under the provisions of Article II of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, commonly called the Home Rule Amendment, adopt the following bylaw establishing a solid waste disposal fund in the Town of Concord.
Section 1.
The Town of Concord hereby establishes in the Town Treasury an individual revolving fund (the “Solid Waste Disposal Fund” or the “Fund”) for its Solid Waste Disposal Department (the “Department”). All receipts of the Department shall be credited to the Solid Waste Disposal Fund. The Fund shall be kept separate from any other monies or funds of the Town, and shall be expended only for those purposes outlined in the bylaw.
Section 2.
There shall be a fixed schedule of prices or rates established by the Public Works Commission for solid waste disposal (the “schedule”) which schedule shall not be established until the proposed schedule is first published in a newspaper in general circulation in the town and considered at a public hearing held for this purpose. No price or rate in the schedule shall be fixed at less than the cost of disposing of solid waste as such may be determined by the Town Manager and approved by the Public Works Commission. The schedule shall be established to yield a zero balance after the payment of all operation and maintenance expense, principal and interest on outstanding debt, if any, and an accrued reserve for replacement of plant and for sanitary landfill closure, including perpetual monitoring and leachate removal, the
cost of which will be determined by the Town Manager and approved by the Public Works Commission, and shall be based upon the actual capitalization, land, structures, disposal systems, environmental monitoring, leachate removal, machinery and equipment, and anything else comprising the Department. Refuse disposed of by the Town from its public facilities and by the public school departments shall be charged for in accordance with the schedule beginning July 1, 1990.
Section 3.
The income from tipping fees, user charges, jobbing and any appropriation shall be received by the Town Collector, and shall be used by the Department to pay the annual expenses of the landfill facilities, to make payments on the indebtedness of the landfill facilities, and to set up the depreciation and sinking fund accounts which will be kept and managed as separate funds for reconstruction, renewals, extensions, improvements, major repairs, enlargements, additions or similar purposes. The general authority to manage and expend the fund for ensuing year by the Town Manager will require approval by the Town at the annual Town Meeting. The accounting system to be used for keeping the Department accounts will reflect on a monthly basis, the status of all accounts and the financial position of the Department.
Section 4.
Nothing in this act shall prevent the Town from appropriating monies for repairs, improvements, extensions, additions or maintenance of refuse disposal systems over and above those programmed under the Fund. Such appropriations will be treated as special deposits in the Department and will be administered by the Town Manager for the specific purposes for which they were appropriated. Any balance remaining after completion of the project will be returned to the General Fund by the Department. Nothing in this act shall prevent the Town by a two-thirds (2/3) vote at an annual Town Meeting from transferring accumulated monies in the Fund in order to reimburse the Town for monies which may be appropriated and used for Department projects as outlined herein. The Department is expressly allowed to accept grants or gifts for
Department projects.
Section 5.
This bylaw shall take effect upon its acceptance by a majority vote of the qualified voters of the Town present and voting thereon at the annual Town Meeting or any special Town Meeting called for this purpose. This bylaw supersedes any bylaw which may be in conflict with it.
Section 6.
If this bylaw is accepted, it may be revoked by the Town only by a majority vote of the qualified voters of the Town present and voting thereon at the annual or any special Town Meeting called for this purpose three or more years after the year in which the bylaw is accepted.
Article 27, Town Meeting, April 1989
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