Preston — Residents and contractors who bring bulky waste to the town transfer station will be greeted with a new system for measuring and paying to dump loads, with the Board of Selectmen’s approval this week of a fee schedule based on estimated volumes rather than weight totals.

The change was necessitated once the town’s aged, third-hand scale broke in late September, forcing the town to close the transfer station to bulky waste delivery until the new system could be implemented. The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Thursday to forgo trying to buy a new scale, citing expense, logistical difficulties in installing it and the widely accepted practice among neighboring towns to use fee schedules for estimated volumes rather than weights.

The new system took effect Friday, with a Ledyard Public Works Department transfer station attendant providing two days of training for Preston employees.

Ledyard Public Works Director Steve Masalin, who has been consulting in Preston on Public Works issues, helped Preston officials work out the new fee schedule, which was designed to pay for 100% of Preston’s disposal costs for bulky waste. Preston had not updated its fees in years and the old fees were not covering the full costs, town officials said. The average per-ton disposal fees in the region is $130 and Preston was charging $80.

“We are trending a little bit lower than other towns,” First Selectwoman Sandra Allyn-Gauthier said. “We tried to be prudent. Even if the weigh scale hadn’t broken, fees hadn’t been looked at in a long time. So, we probably would have needed a fee increase anyway.”

The Board of Selectmen reviewed other options, including repairs estimated at $20,000 to the old scale — a 60-foot-long scale Preston acquired used from the former Calamari Bros. Co. junkyard in New London — purchasing a new scale or changing the fee structure. Allyn-Gauthier said repairs to the old scale would have been iffy at best, with no guarantees, and purchasing a new one also would be costly, time-consuming and would require demolishing the old scale and re-grading the land.

Under the new fee schedule, Preston set categories of loads: compact pickup, estimated to hold 1.5 yards; full pickup, 2 yards; small dump truck, 3.5 yards, and a large pickup, 7 yards. Load prices will vary depending on the type of material, with a regular load for a compact pickup at $25 and a load of heavy material, such as drywall or shingles, costing $50.

Masalin said transfer station attendants will use those guidelines to estimate how other types of loads, such as waste carried in the trunk of a car or being hauled in a trailer, compare to the listed categories.

“You can’t have a schedule of values too complex,” Masalin said. “Eventually, attendants are going to have to make judgments, whether a load is less than a typical or other load. ... They’ll learn to do it well, and it won’t take too long.”

c.bessette@theday.com