Life is good at the Boothbay Region Refuse Disposal District (BRRDD). The organization is in the black, a fact Operations Manager Steve Lewis attributes to recycling, wood chips and metal.

Lewis said the latter is what "really drove the revenue up" for the district.

Because of this solid financial status, the trustees voted on applying some of the surplus to the capital reserve fund and pay off the truck loans.

The interest on the truck loans alone, over the two years remaining on the loan alone, will save the district roughly $19,000.

The trustees voted unanimously to payoff the "roll-off" trucks, vehicles that have brought revenue to the district, since they were purchased in January 2005.

Trustee Chuck Cunningham suggested they then take the budgeted funds for the truck payments, in the 2008-2009 fiscal year, and apply it to the principal on the horizontal grinder.

"I just want you to keep in the back of your minds that in a year and a half we may have to start thinking about replacing one of our trucks," said Operations Manager Steve Lewis. "One truck usually lasts 10 years, if we replace one every five we are ahead of the game."

Chairman Rob Hopkins said that the board should form a small sub-committee to price scales.

Lewis said before any actual changes can occur - namely the arrival of scales - the Department of Transportation (DOT) would have to grant a permit to change the entrance location. Trustee Tom Carbone volunteered to assist Lewis with pricing research.

Cooking oil - canola, vegetable, olive - all varieties are being recycled at the Waste Management Facility.

The new baler arrives, and will be installed, on June 19. From here on out, magazines and mixed paper will be recycled together. The current mixed paper bins will be removed.

Eleven loads of compost were taken to Morse Brothers in Lewiston, with five or six remaining.

New compost materials will then be sent to Lincoln County Recycling.

The trustees went into executive session, 1 MRSA §505 (6)D and 1 MRSA § 405 (6) E and did not return to public forum.

The trustees will meet again on Thursday, July 10 at 5 p.m. at the District Office.