Regional Waste Systems Board Elects New Officers for 2001-02

Norm Justice of Gorham to serve as chairman

PORTLAND, Maine - The board of Regional Waste Systems, Inc., a non-profit municipal solid waste and recycling organization owned and controlled by 27 towns in southern Maine, elected new officers for the 2001-02 fiscal year at its annual meeting Thursday (July 19) in Freeport.

The four named to lead the 28-member RWS board are: Norman E. Justice Jr. of Gorham as chairman; Jeffrey K. Jordan of South Portland as vice chairman; Nicholas M. Mavodones Jr. of Portland as secretary; and Gary S. Lorfano of Scarborough as treasurer.

Norm Justice, who takes over for three-term chairman Dale Olmstead, has been an RWS board member since 1993. He is the facilities manager for the Scarborough School Department and has served on the Gorham Town Council since 1992, including three years as chairman. Justice attended Northeastern University in Boston and the University of Maine, and is a graduate of Gorham High School.

Jeffrey Jordan is the city manager of South Portland. He has served on the RWS board since 1996 and is the former treasurer. He is a member of the International City Management Association, director of the Casco Bay Estuary Project and vice chairman of the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System (PACTS). Jordan is a graduate of Syracuse University, the University of Southern Maine and Lewiston High School.

Nicholas Mavodones, the operations manager for Casco Bay Lines in Portland, has served on the RWS board since 1997. He has been a member of the Portland City Council since 1997 and is a former mayor of Portland. Mavodones serves on the Portland Fish Pier Advisory Board and is a member of the Maine Service Center Coalition. In addition, he served from 1989 to 1995 on the Portland School Committee. Mavodones attended the Center for Advanced Maritime Studies and is a graduate of Yarmouth High School.

Gary Lorfano, the public works director for Gorham, has been an RWS board member since 1988 and has served as chairman, vice chairman and secretary. He is chairman of the Cumberland County Civic Center's board of trustees and is a member of the American Public Works Association. Lorfano is a graduate of the Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute and Scarborough High School.

RWS is owned and controlled by 21 member communities and also has six associate member towns. Those communities are: Baldwin, Bridgton, Cape Elizabeth, Casco, Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Gorham, Gray, Harrison, Hollis, Limington, Lyman, Naples, North Yarmouth, Ogunquit, Parsonsfield, Porter, Portland, Pownal, Raymond, Scarborough, South Portland, Standish, Waterboro, Windham, and Yarmouth.

Established in 1974 after Portland, South Portland, Cape Elizabeth and Scarborough decided to form a cooperative to handle their waste disposal, today RWS is governed by a 28-member board, consisting of officials appointed from member towns.

RWS accepts solid waste and recycled materials from its member communities and today operates the largest municipal recycling program in Maine with newly expanded sorting equipment and more than 100 recycling bins in 60 locations. For additional information on RWS, visit the RWS web site, http://www.regionalwaste.org.

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