Plan-It Recycling and Transfer in Gorham will need to wait another few weeks before Gorham approves an already built recycling separator at the plant.

The recycling center on Monday night did not have an engineering report ready to present to the Planning Board, forcing the board to halt its decision until a report is presented.

Plan-It Recycling is applying for a permit to continue using its recycling separator, also called a picker. The Planning Board wants to be assured by an engineering firm that the 30-foot high utility poles can support a green, 30-foot high buffering fence that would shield onlookers from seeing the picker and piles of recycling along Juniper Way and Route 25, and prevent wind from blowing trash out of the facility.

“They want it before the next planning board,” said Ron Smalley, the plant’s owner on Tuesday. “It was our intention to have it before last night’s meeting.”

The board at the Sept. 8 meeting continued the public hearing on the issue to Monday’s meeting and gave the plant that amount of time to put together a report.

Plan-It chose Macleod Structural Engineering of Gorham to study the poles. The plant needed more time to study the issue as schedules conflicted, Smalley said, adding that it shouldn’t be a problem to submit a report at the next Planning Board meeting on Monday, Oct. 20.

“The screening they’ve provided is adequate,” said Deb Fossum, town planning director. “We just want to make sure that the utility poles will be able to support the structure before we approve the permit.”

During the Sept. 8 meeting, Gorham and Westbrook residents expressed concerns over the picker’s appearance. The picking station is a 1,440-square-foot mobile unit the facility installed in the spring without the proper permit from the Gorham Planning Board. While the plant is applying for a permit after installing it, it continues to operate the picking station because Gorham Code Enforcement Officer Clint Cushman said he believed the operation is more efficient with the picker.

“This has been ongoing for several months,” said Cushman. “I could’ve terminated the operation at this point in time, but it’s enhancing the operation, and they’re acting in good faith and are applying for the appropriate permit.”

Plan-It Recycling officials said it installed the picking station without the permit because they believed it was a mobile piece of equipment that they didn’t think needed Planning Board approval. Cushman disagreed and said it was a structure that needed to have a permit, Scott Collins, an engineer with St. Germain & Associates, which is working with the plant, previously said.

Collins also said at the Sept. 8 meeting that the picker has improved the efficiency of plant operations nearly 30 percent and drastically cut down on the height of the debris piles.

Plan-It Recycling, which was built in 2004, has been a hot-button issue in both Gorham and Westbrook as several Westbrook residents who live on the Gorham-Westbrook line, near where the facility is located, have lodged numerous complaints about the appearance of the debris piles and odor.

On Sept. 8 the Westbrook City Council voted unanimously to remove Plan-It Recycling from the list of authorized vendors for the city, because city officials claimed it had an adverse impact on Westbrook residents.

According to Tom Eldridge, Westbrook’s public services director, the city uses Plan-It Recycling for the majority of its disposal of brush, wood roadside debris and unacceptable materials, such as television, regular trash and furniture, left at drop-off recycling locations. From here on in, those items will be taken to Riverside Recycling Facility in Portland.

According to Eldridge, disposal for clean wood and brush costs $34 per ton at Plan-It Recycling and $51.50 per ton at Riverside Recycling.

“I’m upset that Westbrook made the decision to not use the facility given the lower rates that are offered for the city of Westbrook accounts,” Smalley said on Tuesday.

Bob Morrill who lives on Conant Street in Westbrook, has been outspoken against Plan-It Recycling since its opening. He was the only person from the public who spoke at Monday night’s meeting, asking the planning board to look into allowing the facility to plant trees along Juniper Way.

A green picker sits idle on Wednesday morning at Plan-It Recycling in Gorham. Owners of Plan-It Recycling are seeking Gorham Planning Board approval for a permit to keep using the picker, which sorts recycling debris. Westbrook residents have complained about the plant and its installation of the picker without prior planning board approval.