TILTON – Voters passed all warrant articles and approved the town’s first ever mandatory recycling plan at Town Meeting on Saturday.<br /><br />
Voters also added $500 for the Pines Community Center at the request of the Tilton-Northfield Recreational Fund.<br /><br />
The total budget passed was $5,111,174, up slightly from last year’s $5,076,976 budget. Town officials said the impact on the tax rate of the new budget had not yet been calculated.<br /><br />
Among the most-discussed articles at the two-hour meeting was one for “pay-as-you-throw” mandatory recycling, said Town Clerk/Tax Collector Cynthia Reinartz.<br /><br />
“There was a lot of talking, some people didn’t like it, but it passed by a strong voice vote,” Reinartz said.<br /><br />
Under the new recycling system, the town will enter into three-year contracts with local trash collectors requiring them to pick up specially labeled trash bags with sorted waste. Residents will be notified how to get the bags, she said.<br /><br />
Besides the overall goal of improving the environment through recycling, the town will save thousands through the program, Reinartz said.<br /><br />
The program will go into effect in June.<br /><br />
It will be the town’s first-ever mandatory recycling program.<br /><br />
“It’s been brought up before, but this time it was presented in a better way, and people responded,” she said.
Town officials hoped for the positive response.<br /><br />
“We really didn’t know how it would be received this time,” Reinartz said. “We’re very pleased.”<br /><br />
dseufert@newstote.com