Did you get your new Transfer Station Permit? Stick it on by 10/15 (or stick with the bigger one)

Above: New replacement Transfer Station permit stickers are in. So, if you haven’t already, it’s time to post your permit proof to your vehicles. But check twice before scraping off the old one. (photo taken and modified by Beth Melo)

The Town Clerk’s office mailed out a new batch of permit stickers for the Southborough Transfer Station recently. The stickers are half the size of the ones sent out this summer – in other words, the same size as past years.

Back in September, Town Clerk Jim Hegarty told residents unhappy with jumbo stickers that they could continue to use last year’s stickers until October 15th. That was to allow time for the smaller replacements to come in. 

Some of us who registered around the deadline received our 2018-19 permit stickers for the first time this past week.

Another, roughly 1,800 orange letters were mailed to residents who initially received a large sticker. It explains that replacing the larger sticker is a choice – not mandatory. As long as one of the 2018-19 stickers (with your license plate #) is properly placed, you’re good to go.

But take a second look before you stick it on. Hegarty wrote me:

Because this was a HUGE manual effort to get this project done, inevitably we’ve made some mistakes. If anyone finds that they received the wrong sticker, they can just call me at (508) 485-0710 x 3007 and I’ll send them the correct sticker or they can stop by the Clerk’s Office and we’ll fix the problem.

Meanwhile, if you never re-upped for this year, you better act quick. Amnesty for the old stickers will run out on October 15th. And Police will begin checking to make sure Transfer Station users are properly permitted. (The new font will make that job easier.)

If you still need to sign up, click here for a reminder of the details. (Anyone under $65 will have to pay extra for missing the 9/15 signup deadline.)

If you’re wondering what was said in the Town Clerk’s “orange letter”, here it is: 

Dear Resident,

We heard you!

The problem: The license plate numbers on last year’s Transfer Station stickers were not easy for the Transfer Station workers to read and as a result, it was difficult for them to check stickers.

The well intentioned solution: Make the 2018 stickers bigger and the license plate numbers larger and clearer. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but after hearing from many of you, we now know that the size of these larger stickers is much more of a concern than expected. So we redesigned the 2018 stickers to keep them the same size as 2017 while also making the license plate number more readable.

You need to decide which 2018 sticker (big or small) you want to use:

1. You can keep the big 2018 stickers you have now and throw away the enclosed smaller stickers.
OR
2. You can use the enclosed smaller 2018 stickers and throw away the big stickers that you have.
It’s up to you – either the big or small sticker will be valid.

Remember that you can only put these stickers on the vehicle with the matching license plate.

Whichever sticker you use, please be sure the sticker is on the FRONT of the car, either on the OUTSIDE of the windshield on the driver’s side or on the front bumper on the driver’s side.

By October 15, be sure you have a valid 2018 Transfer Station sticker attached to your car. The Southborough Police will be at the Transfer Station this fall to check for valid 2018 stickers.

Thank you for your feedback and patience while we addressed this issue!

If you have any questions, please call us at (508) 485-0710 x 3005.