PORTSMOUTH — Users of the transfer station on Hedly Street will be charged $250 for a vehicle sticker — a $40 increase over the current fee — starting Jan. 1, 2023.

The current sticker fee is $210, and $10 for each additional household vehicle.

The unanimous Town Council vote on Monday also set the grace periods at Jan. 31 for the Hedly Street station, and April 1 for the transfer station on Prudence Island.

Brian Woodhead, Department of Public Works director, said transfer station operator Waste Connections has agreed to extend its contract with the town for two years through June 30, 2025. However, the contractor has increased the operation and transportation costs 10 percent through June 30, 2024.

In addition, fewer people are purchasing transfer station tickets every year, reducing a needed source of revenue for the operation. In 2020, 2,553 sticker were sold. That number dropped to 2,395 in 2021 and to 2,270 this year, Woodhead said. 

Despite that, the transfer station is running a projected surplus of more than $9,000 for the 2022 calendar year, Woodhead said, adding that the operation’s debt service will fall off in 2025.

The $40 fee hike could have been worse, as the council considered issuing an 18-month sticker in order to get the transfer station’s enterprise fund calendar in line with the town’s fiscal year calendar. Town Administrator Richard Rainer, Jr. said the town must either sell an 18-month sticker first, then a 12-month sticker — or do the opposite.

The council chose the latter route, citing the current high cost of fuel, heating costs and electricity. An 18-month sticker could cost around $370, and that may be a “tough nut” for people seeing their electricity costs going through the roof, said council member Keith Hamilton.

“We might be better off going with the 12-month sticker this year,” he said.

Council member Leonard Katzman agreed. “I think we should go with 12 months first, because a year from now the economic conditions may be better,” he said.

Larry Fitzmorris, president of Portsmouth Concerned Citizens, asked the council to consider a six-month sticker instead. “We do six months, we’re going to avoid a heavy bill. But it also gets us more quickly into a normal rotation of 12 months beginning July 1,” Fitzmorris said. “The whole purpose here is to reduce the bill in the wintertime. The town should be working a little bit harder to help the citizens on this.”

Council members said issuing a six-month sticker would create more complexity and work — not to mention the added expense of printing additional stickers — for the town.

The transfer station operates under an enterprise fund — it pays for itself — and is not in the town budget, although council members have expressed a desire to put it back in the tax rate years down the road. 

Administrator’s report

In his report to the council Monday night, Town Administrator Richard Rainer, Jr. announced that Deputy Police Chief Major Mike Arnold will retire on Nov. 28. 

“Mike has honorably served Portsmouth for 20 years,” Rainer said.

Michael Morse will be sworn in as new deputy chief at the next council meeting on Nov. 28, he said.

Rainer also said the last electronic waste drop-off event of the year locally will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Nov. 19, at Portsmouth High School. It’s open to any Rhode Island resident.

Ray Perry, the town’s emergency management director, was recently named the professional emergency manager of the year by the R.I. Association of Emergency Managers, Rainer said.

Rainer also gave a brief update about ongoing work at the town-owned Mt. Hope Park on the north end of Bristol Ferry Road. The Department of Public Works is removing failed sections of the seawall and pouring concrete, and also regrading after removing two large concrete slabs, he said.

Finally, Rainer announced the recent passing of two longtime civil servants of the town: Byron J. Hall, 94, a Town Council president from 1994-1996 who also served 10 years on the Zoning Board of Review; and Louise Brown, 76, who served more than 27 years as assistant town clerk for Portsmouth before retiring in 2013.

Annual licenses approved

The council, sitting as the Board of License Commissioners, unanimously approved a slew of annual liquor license renewals, including Class A licenses for the four liquor stores in town: Allen’s Wine & Spirits, 3001 East Main Road; Ferreira’s Package Store, 1965 East Main Road; Moriarty’s Liquor Locker, 624 Park Ave.; and Sanbev, Inc. doing business as Portsmouth Liquors, 1557 West Main Road. Annual Sunday sales licenses were also renewed for the package stores.

The board also scheduled for Dec. 12 a public hearing on an application to transfer a Class BF beverage license, along with the expansion of service, from Thriving Tree Coffee House to Sunset Cove Inc., d/b/a Thriving Tree Coffee House, at 706 Park Ave.

Upcoming meetings

The council will meet on the following Mondays at 7 p.m.: Nov. 28, Dec. 12, and Jan. 9.