Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority disburses funds

HARTFORD — Five New Haven County communities will share in a $3.4 million disbursement from the recent Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, the latest in a series of payouts from the quasi-public authority to the municipalities it used to serve.
Cheshire, Hamden, North Haven, Wallingford and Meriden will receive the money by todayFriday following a vote taken by the CRRA’s board of directors Thursday, said Paul Nonnenmacher, a spokesman for the agency. CRRA owned a trash-to-energy plant on South Cherry Street in Wallingford that took garbage from the five communities before a contract with the agency expired June 30.
The New Jersey company that had operated the plant for CRRA, Covanta Energy, took ownership of the plant July 1.
The money is being distributed after the CRRA’s independent auditors, Bollam, Sheedy, Torani & Co. deemed it to be surplus, Nonnenmacher said. Under municipal service agreements between CRRA and the five communities, funds the auditor has certified as surplus can be distributed to the municipalities.
The amount each community will receive is based on the amount of trash they delivered to the plant between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2010, Nonnenmacher said. The disbursement breakdown is:

- Cheshire: $459,219.
- Hamden: $789,680.
- Meriden: $758,859.
- North Haven: $491,752
- Wallingford: $924,946
The latest disbursement brings the total distributed to the towns to more than $46 million, Nonnenmacher said. There have been two other disbursements: $26.6 million in April 2009 and $15.99 million in November 2010.