Above: Out with the old and in with the new — Transfer Station stickers for the new season are available to purchase. (images by Beth Melo)
Last month, the Select Board voted to increase the permit fees for the Transfer Station Stickers that are now available for purchase for the coming season, which starts on September 15th.
As usual, public discussions about Transfer Station costs prompted chatter about users and taxpayers unfairly covering the costs for people abusing the system. At a Select Board meeting, officials discussed plans to gather data on the issue.
Buying Permit Stickers
Southborough Transfer Station, permit stickers for the year (through mid-September 2026) became available for purchase starting on July 1st. If you are a current user, make sure to replace your purple stickers with the new teal ones before September 15th.
For most users, the sticker fee for the first car is $295 this year, and additional cars cost $25 each. For seniors over the age of 65 (by Dec 31st), the cost is now $50 for the first sticker, and $15 for each additional car.
The fees for each category of users. The sticker for a primary car increased by $10 and additional cars by $5 each.1
Under this year’s rules, the purchase options for stickers have been expanded to allow residents to use cash (as well as check or credit) when purchasing stickers in person at the DPW office. (Be warned, there is a processing fee for using a credit card.)
For details, including links for purchasing the stickers online, click here.
The only other change in the fees was the clarity around the already prohibited disposal of “Commercial Waste”. That was defined as “waste generated by businesses, institutions, contractors, or any nonresidential source”.
Illegal Transfer Station Use
Speaking of the illegal use of the Transfer Station. . . When I covered the pending hearing, John Gulbankian posted comments on the blog to complain about illegal use of the station. He wrote:
It would better served to the town residents that there is some form of enforcement being done.
The majority of commercial contractors using the transfer station as their own dumpster is getting obscene.
The law as written is supposed to be 40 gallon pails of debris cut up not full sheets of plywood and pickup trucks full of someone’s bathroom remodel.
Along with people without stickers also utilizing the dump .
And he followed up to share a photo of an example of someone violating those rules.
At the July 1st Select Board Meeting, member Al Hamilton stated that he believed all of the board’s members received an email from Mr. Gulbankian about the illegal uses. Hamilton said he had heard nagging complaints for decades.
He suggested gathering data on the situation. His comments focused on learning how many cars are missing Transfer Station stickers. DPW Superintendent Bill Cundiff pointed out that’s just one of two main violation complaints. The other is commercial use.
He told Hamilton that he is planning to use one of the Town’s “senior workoff” employees sit at the station to monitor the situation. That person will just document what is happening and “keep a tally, not intervene”. Then he will follow up with a report to the board.
- The cost increases were approved by the Select Board at the annual hearing in June for revising Transfer Station rules and regs. The decision was made to slightly increase the user fees in order to minimize the impact to the Town’s tax base for the rising operational costs of the facility.
