Above: If you want to throw out trash or recycle items at the Transfer Station later this month, you’ll need to renew your permit. (photo by Beth Melo)
If you haven’t already renewed your Transfer Station permit for 2023-24, you better get a move on. The ’22-’23 stickers expire on September 15th. (That means you’re still good for this weekend, but not the next.)
If you drag your feet in making the purchase, there’s no financial penalty for buying stickers after September 15th. You’ll just need to get one before you can resume using the facility. (You can buy them in-person, but those hours aren’t the same as the Transfer Station.)
There are some price increases for this year’s stickers (especially for seniors), which I wrote about in July. For those who missed it, I’m sharing those details again.
The biggest news is that Southborough residents over 65 years old (on or before December 31st) will no longer automatically have free access to the Transfer Station.
On the plus side, the Town is making it easy for seniors with financial constraints to get a free sticker. (Read the Town’s insert for seniors here.) And for seniors who don’t qualify, their $40 fee is still less than 15% of what most residents are being charged.
For non-senior residents, the annual fee went up $15 for the first permit (to $275), plus the price per additional vehicle (up to 3) rose to $20 (from $10).
Permits can be purchased at the DPW office window, online, or by mail.
The DPW’s Transfer Station page has this year’s rules and regs, and all the necessary instruction links. Below are my highlights.
Streamlined Documents
The paperwork has been simplified this year for permit renewals if all the vehicles, residency, and age status remains the same. But there are documents that must be provided for anyone who is getting a first time permit, had a status change, bought a new vehicle, etc. (The image right is from the Town’s email earlier this summer.)
- Proof of Senior Status
- If you already proved this status last year, you won’t need to re-prove that status, since as DPW’s Tammi Rice put it, “they aren’t getting any younger!”.
- Otherwise, to get the senior discount you’ll need to provide:
- A copy of your driver’s license.
- Proof of homeownership (through a recent tax bill) or that the rent/lease is in your name (through a page of that agreement).
- Plus, you’ll need to resubmit the vehicle registrations.
- Vehicle Registrations
- If you are using all the same vehicles (and plates), and your senior/non-senior status didn’t change, you don’t need to provide registrations.
- But if you are a new permit holder, or if any of the vehicles change, you will be asked to provide registrations for all of the vehicles (up to 4). (That’s even if you just drop a vehicle.)
All of the documents can be provided through any of the payment/registration methods:
- You can purchase the sticker(s) online. (If you pay online there are transaction fees. But the DPW’s instructions include how to avoid that by following up with a check after you complete the transaction.)
- You can fill out a mail-in form and send it in with a check/money order (and necessary documents).
- You can walk up to the DPW’s outdoor window again this year at 147 Cordaville Road (in the lot on the right from the driveway to the Transfer Station).
- The hours are weekdays 8:00 am – 4:00 pm.
- To avoid a transaction fee, you’ll want to bring a check. (Otherwise there is a convenience fee for use of a credit/debit card).
- Make sure to bring copies of any necessary documents.
For those interested in what was behind the Select Board’s vote to change the fee structure, click here for my July recap of that discussion.
