After a bumpy first weekend that saw a large number of complaints, Public Works Director Fred Hurley said the transfer station has been sorted out and users are getting in and out much more quickly.

The Legislative Council discussed the transfer station at its November 1 meeting, with Council Chairman Jeff Capeci saying that he was “impressed at how well things were moving” and that the “lines were short.”

“I think after the bugs were worked out, it’s much more efficient,” said Capeci.

“There were a lot of complaints that week, the rollout was sprung on people,” said Hurley. “But we got through it.”

Hurley said that the “major difference” between the first week the newly revised transfer station was open and last week was that the upper portion of the station was closed due to continuing construction.

“We had to move some activities down to the bottom loop,” said Hurley. “There was no good way to do it from a construction standpoint. I apologize for the problems it caused.”

Hurley said the changes since that weekend, including opening the top loop, have made it so there were no real backups the following weekend. The only real slowdown, he said, was at the beginning of the day when he and staff were “explaining too much” to residents coming in to throw away their trash.

With the upper part open, it is now possible for users bringing only garbage and no recycling to throw away their garbage at the top, pull a U-turn, and leave. This means only users bringing recycling and other things such as electronics and oil need to come to the bottom loop.

“If you look at the average before, it was 8-10 minutes for people to leave; now it’s 3-5 minutes,” said Hurley. “We’re obviously on the right track and we’re not done.”

Hurley said one issue they are still struggling with is “command and control” of people arriving at the transfer station without permit stickers, who are “not paying their fair share” by not renewing the permits that allow them to use the facility.

More cameras will be added and employees will be generally on the lookout for expired stickers, Hurley said.

Additionally, they are trying to “maintain flexibility” in the changes being made, as there are several “onerous mandates” potentially coming from the state that may necessitate changes in the transfer station’s layout.

“We’re trying to look ahead and guess to meet those changes,” said Hurley.

Councilman Matt Mihalcik said the changes to the station have been “great,” and the big problem was changes to what residents were used to for years.

Hurley noted that even with the complaints his department received, most said the staff at the transfer station were “courteous and doing the best they could.”

“They [the transfer station staff] reacted very well,” said Hurley.

Councilman Ryan Knapp said he was confused at first as there was originally supposed to be two loops; however, Hurley updated the Transfer Station Workgroup and said the area for the second loop was “unstable” and had to be taken out of the plan. Following the initial opening, Knapp said he was appreciative of how quickly staff responded to make changes. He hoped that word would get out through The Newtown Bee about the changes.

First Selectman Dan Rosenthal noted that the map and some explanatory text would be put up on the Public Works website (newtown-ct.org).

Councilman Michelle Embree Ku hoped for the return of colored balloons to help mark where different items went (the original balloons were stolen) and that the station find a way to control pedestrians crossing the loop to get to different receptacles.

“People were weaving in and out of traffic to go from garbage to glass,” Embree Ku said.

Hurley said that in the first week, there were three lanes to travel in, which was “dangerous.” The loop has since been moved back to two lanes. He also said it was difficult to get people to not do what’s the most convenient for them.

“The best way to make it work is for people to have courtesy for each other,” said Hurley.

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Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.