ecomaine hiking fee
for drop-off at plant

Citing COVID-19, ecomaine is raising the minimum rate private citizens will be charged to haul trash to its facility on Blueberry Lane in Portland.

The minimum rate beginning Feb. 1 will jump 200% from $5 to $15.

Customer vehicles are weighed entering and exiting the facility with a fee based on weight of trash offloaded. A sign posted on the ecomaine scale house also says it will no longer accept cash payment on Feb. 1.

Kevin Roche, ecomaine general manager, announced the change last week in a message released to the American Journal through Town Councilor James Hager, the board’s representative to ecomaine. The town is one multiple municipalities that own the waste and recycling facility.

The objective, Roche said, is for customers to use available curbside collections. Gorham has tags, costing $1.50 to be placed on a small trash bag, and tags costing $3 each for large bags.

Roche said in an email that COVID-19 has forced ecomaine to make changes over the past 10 months and during the recent surge in cases. Roche said traffic rise has increased risk of the virus to staff and customers.

“We have seen a trend towards higher volumes of traffic and consumers using our facility, sometimes bringing in very small quantities of trash to take advantage of the $5 tipping fee,” Roche said. “These small transactions can be more work than a large garbage truck that has an account.”

Free drive-in movie night

The Gorham Outdoors Club is hosting a double feature drive-in movie night at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23, in the Gorham High School parking lot.

The first movie is the family friendly “The Incredibles” followed by an adult movie, “Ghostbusters.”

Reservations can be made at gorhamrec.com. Those with reservations should arrive at 5 p.m. Remaining spots will be available at 5:30 p.m.

The first movie will end at 8 p.m. Those planning to attend the second movie should arrive at 8:15 p.m.

Concessions will be delivered to your vehicle. Portable toilets will be available. Face masks and social distancing will be required when people are outside of their vehicles.

U.S. taxpayer debt

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service reported on Jan. 14 that the U.S. public debt was $27,682, 228,608, 521.37.