North Stonington - Nearly six months after the town began charging residents $60 to use the transfer station, residents voted to repeal the annual sticker fee Monday.

Those who purchased a sticker, however, will not be refunded.

The vote to repeal the annual fee passed 47-29, but the vote to allow the Board of Selectmen to refund the money earned from the payments failed 37-25.

More than 100 residents attended the special town meeting meeting Monday night to vote on three questions circulated in a petition by residents Brian Rathburn, Bill Ricker and Vilma Gregoropoulos.

Before the town decided to charge residents the fee last July, Rathburn protested, saying it was a hidden tax.

"The first indication I got to circulate the petition was when they closed the dump on Sunday, which was a first," Rathburn said Monday night. "Then, they instituted the $60 tax and it made my blood boil."

The town implemented the fee in an effort to decrease the tons of trash coming into the dump.

Last October, the three began circulating the petition among town residents calling for the repeal of the $60 transfer station sticker fee and a refund for those in town who purchased a sticker.

On Jan. 7, the petition was submitted to the Town Clerk with 87 signatures.

"We believe that the current transfer station sticker fee unfairly taxes only half the town's households, and therefore disproportionately taxes lower-income residents," the petition reads. "We believe it is not an equal and fair option for all North Stonington residents, and, further, we believe that imposing such a fee actually discourages recycling."

"There's no encouragement to recycle with this system and I think if you're going up there to recycle, it should be free," said resident H. Chris Chrissos.

"I have to get help taking my recyclables and garbage to the transfer station, that $60 for the transfer station is a lot of money," Chrissos said. "… And trash has been dumped around town and I suspect it's some of the people who cannot pay or refuse to pay the transfer station sticker fee."

Around 1,050 residents have purchased the sticker, earning the town close to $62,000, First Selectman Nicholas Mullane II said.

In 2005, the town produced 3,764 tons of waste, which Mullane said was a record amount of trash. Last year, the town produced 3,200 tons of garbage and although the amounts fluctuate year to year, the average cost to dispose of that trash has remained steady, he said.

The estimated cost to make up for the difference in varying tonnages and the cost to haul the garbage is about $60,000 a year, the amount the town needed to offset by charging the fee.