DEVENS --
Pending state approval, the Devens Recycling Center may be shifting gears by summer as the company makes room at its Independence Drive plant to handle municipal solid waste in addition to its current recycling operation involving construction and demolition materials.

The Devens Enterprise Commission -- the one-stop land-use approval board -- last night voted 9-0 to grant a change in the company's site permit, allowing the transfer of a maximum of 500 tons of municipal solid waste a day. The company will also continue recycling reclaimed construction materials in an amount not to exceed 1,000 tons a day.

"It's been a long road. To finally get a unanimous vote is just really pleasing," said DRC Chief Operating Officer Jack Manning.

The company's permit hearing process before the DEC started a month ago, and still requires approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The commission is hoping to secure local municipal trash-hauling contracts. Savings would be realized because transportation costs would be pooled by DRC in consolidating the smaller loads for trucking purposes. It's proposed that no trash processing would be handled on site, but would all be contained inside the company's massive building.

The DEC approved the change with nearly 30 conditions attached, focusing on noise, odor, vermin, and traffic control issues.

But Auman Road resident Denise Saroff, a biologist, says reports by the DEC and DRC consultants on the affect of the trash transfer station on residential neighbors was not properly analyzed.

"I do believe that it was a done deal for short-term business gains," Saroff said. "The long term cost is something that has really not been evaluated or acknowledged. Some of the areas discussed, like rat populations, really do fall outside the expertise of the committee making this decision."

A handful of residents from Ayer and Devens attended last night's meeting, but no input from the audience was permitted during the proceedings.

"I think there was a great sense of hopelessness that the process had already proceeded so far and there was so little that we could do that people, I think, gave up," said Saroff about last night's small turnout.

Recycling center president W. Kurt Macnamara said, "we have been contributing to the neighbors and the surrounding communities in a positive way, and I think once things settle down, and once we get up and running with the MSW part, people will see that it's not (going to have problems)." He added, "the facility is brand new, state of the art, and should be able to support any efforts that we undertake."

"House starts are at an all-time low. It's made doing business very difficult," said Manning, "We just look at this (MSW handling) as a bridge to keep us financially solvent to keep going because at the rate we were going, it would have been very difficult."