ROCKLAND — Rockland City Council members convened Monday, April 6, for a special agenda-setting meeting and workshops to discuss transfer station fees and transient housing. 

Transfer station solid waste fees 

In the order to amend the solid waste disposal fee scheduled, which had been postponed from an earlier council session, the council voted unanimously to decrease the Per Ton Disposal fee from $125 to $120. At the same time, the Resident Sticker Fee, which had increased from $65 to $135 last year, was reduced to $95. Seasonal permits will also cost $95. Both fee reductions will be effective beginning May 1.

“The sticker price is essentially 1.2 times the per ton prices,” said Rockland Code Enforcement Officer John Root. “That’s how many tons the average household is bringing in — 1.2 tons. In aggregate, that number goes down. People bringing 1.2 tons to the facility, they can bring it down to .9 tons. That will bring the cost of the sticker down. Any resident bringing trash to the facility has the option easily available, or as easily as practicable, to use the least expensive option to dispose of their trash.”

Councilor Valli Geiger reminded the public that “it remains an option for each individual household to do pay-per-bag if they want to, if they feel that that is the less expensive alternative to them, so they are not forced to buy the sticker.”

Transient housing

Mayor Frank Isganitis attended a meeting earlier in the day in which a representative of the Governor’s office said that the Governor wanted the Health and Human Services Committee to consider eliminating licensing requirements across the board. According to Isganitis, this was met with mixed reviews. 

“It doesn’t take care of insurance issues, and it doesn’t take care life-safety issues,” Isganitis said. “From a business aspect, it involves the State Fire Marshal, local fire chief, state building code, local building code. Outside of the lodging component itself, there’s the food service component that is also a part of Health and Human Service.

“I’m struggling to understand the benefit of doing away with licensing across the board because the license is sort of the umbrella that encompasses all of these other things. It seems to me to be a step in the wrong direction. Even if we did away with the lodging license component, it doesn’t foreclose anybody from still having responsibility for life safety and public safety in terms of food service.”

The council continues to question the definition of transient housing, and therefore, what permits and codes to enforce.

The life safety code referred to by the councilors is a national code that Maine has adopted as law and that the City regulates as an ordinance. Using the ordinance, the City can decide when to apply the national code and when not to.

“It wasn’t often, in the past, that people did rent for less than a month. This is relatively new,” said John Root.

Councilor Geiger said: ”That is great news. That means Rockland has become a vacation destination, which it never was before.”

Root suggested having no inspections for RTA- 1, which is the single owner-occupied home, along with most of the RTA- 2s, the whole-house unit, other than to confirm that parking is available. The multi-family dwellings should still be inspected by the code officer. In lieu of that, a person would fill out a permit application.

Root also suggested exempting anyone renting out rooms for less than 14 days in an entire year. This is accommodate for those who rent just for festivals.