New Gloucester has been making progress on its plans to repair its transfer station, which was built in the 1970s and has fallen into disrepair.

According to Town Manager Bill Kerbin, the repairs will be part of a $50,000 warrant article addressing painting the interior, as well as repairing some of the more major cracks, which will be voted on at New Gloucester’s town meeting in May. Kerbin told the Lakes Region Weekly that the transfer station will be open and functioning as normal during this time. Although not mentioning a specific date, he said that, should the warrant article be approved, the town would get the project moving as quickly as possible, dependent on the weather and the schedules of potential contractors.

The Lakes Region Weekly previously reported on a Dec. 16 Select Board meeting where the board discussed specific areas of the building that needed renovation. During the December meeting, Select Board Vice Chair Stephen J. Hathorne had said that the town had “kicked around” a lot of ideas related to the transfer station, such as doing a traffic study of the nearby roads. Hathorne recalled visiting the transfer station and seeing serious disrepair, including a long, extensive crack, galvanized steel corroded with exposed rebar, and one of the upper floors being in seriously poor condition.

Following this meeting, the board held a workshop on Jan. 28, which Select Board Chair Dustin Ward framed as a way for interested parties to assess the state of the building, as well as how they could move forward with potential repairs. The previous day, Glen O’Donnell of Hascall and Hall, a masonry firm, inspected the site and said he thought the building was in satisfactory condition. Public Works Director Ted Shane explained that the town had previously worked with Hascall and Hall, which specializes in concrete repairs, to clean, fill cracks and repaint the exterior of the building.

Transfer station Director Jeff Pratt said in addition to issues with the main structure, repairs were needed on a hump in the pavement in front of the compactor, which had caused at least one injury. Shane noted that this would require the station to be shut down for a day, but that the question of which day would come if the funding was approved.

In addition to immediate repairs, the meeting discussed a potential long-term reorganization of the transfer station. The meeting also discussed a solid waste report from 2008, which made suggestions on what to do with the transfer station’s traffic flow. Ward asked Pratt and Shane what items from the report would still be relevant in 2025, which led to a lengthy debate around potentially building a second building or moving the recycling center in order to reduce traffic congestion.

Ultimately, the parties decided to have further discussions on moving the recycling center, which is projected to cost around $250,000 and would likely take place next year, at a yet to be determined date.