As the Bethel-Royalton Transfer Station has grown over the last 41 years from a small two-town landfill to a million dollar-plus operation, the selectboards of Bethel and Royalton have come to find the facility to be increasingly unwieldy to manage.

One major problem the boards encountered recently was the embezzlement of approximately $170,000 by former landfill employee Tonya Drury. The Bethel and Royalton Selectboards met Monday, Feb. 13 at the Bethel town offices and tossed around some ideas for changes in governance to the facility. No changes of this magnitude can be made with out the agreement of the voters of both towns.

“Probably the thing that is weighing heavily on everybody’s mind is the embezzlement issue,” said Bethel Selectboard Chair Neal Fox, who asked the boards listen to Town Manger Delbert Cloud about how the landfill came into being and how it got to where it is today. He also wanted to discuss other operating procedures and options for the landfill. Currently, the town of Bethel manages the transfer station. He said it would be a lot of work to change the governing style of landfill and it wouldn’t be done in a flash.

Peggy Ainsworth of the Royalton board asked Cloud about how to speak on the embezzlement issue at the Royalton town meeting. Cloud noted that last summer there was no trial and neither board could speak too much about it due to the sensitivity of the matter until the fall. A federal prosecutor was able to obtain a guilty plea. Sentencing hasn’t been done yet. An insurance claim has been submitted given what the software company had retrieved from the computers. The computer files show a $167,000 loss. The state police estimated that $173,000 was stolen all together.

Cloud said that a procedural change has been made at the landfill where now the cashier has to have a written reason for all reversals of transactions on the computer program and why. He added that another crucial step to prevent further temptation for embezzlement is for customers to take their receipts.

“Without running off the receipts, there is no record of the transaction that took place. Entries were often deleted when customers didn’t take their receipts.” Cloud said. There is now a sign at the landfill asking customers to take their receipts.

Cloud and Phil Gates of the Royalton board gave a brief history of how the two towns came together to create the landfill. It started operating as a joint solid waste facility in 1970. The operation was an unlined dump as most towns had at that point. In 1987 the Vermont state legislature passed ACT 78, to make all towns create a plan on how they were going to handle their solid waste more effectively. All landfills had to be lined from that point on.

Cloud said the landfill was closed, and capped, with regular water quality checks each May and October for 20 years. The landfill then became a transfer station and recycling center. The groundwater quality has been steadily improving over the last 19 years. The two communities decided to continue running the transfer station instead of joining a solid waste district to keep prices down for their constituents and to maintain local control.

Cloud showed a copy of an old Bethel town report to explain how the landfill has grown over time. In 1972, the landfill cost $13,700 in expenses. The town general fund at the time was $185,000, which included the operation of the landfill. He then went on to say that today, the operating expenses are $1,049,000 and the town general fund is $1,597,966. The landfill in 1972 was 7% of the town of Bethel’s budget, now it represents 69%.

Cloud said the two towns could agree to do nothing to the governance option of the transfer station or they could create a solid waste district. This would be a municipality unto itself with a separate board of directors and an on site foreman. Cloud said the transfer station would then need to contract for services and see about adding 10-25 towns in its solid waste district. Ernie Amsden of the Royalton board suggested turning the solid waste facility into a private corporation. Both towns agreed that any proposals would have to be thoroughly researched before presenting to the voters.

Ainsworth of Royalton said that she often found the facility filthy and this was embarrassing.

Cloud said that currently there is a cashier and a transfer station operator and they are often overwhelmed with work. He added when he has a sick call or a vacation request at the transfer station he finds it very difficult to find replacement coverage. Both boards agreed that a third person at the landfill would be a great help. The Royalton board gave their authorization to hire a third person if the Bethel town manager wanted.