ENGLISHTOWN – City officials have proposed the creation of a solid waste management department that would handle the collection and disposal of garbage and recyclable materials in Englishtown.
On January 26, borough council members voted 4-2 to introduce an ordinance that, if passed, will create the solid waste department.
Board Chairman Gregory Wojyn and Board Members Eric Mann, Dan Marter and Cecilia Robilotti voted “yes” on a motion to introduce the ordinance.
Councilors Daniel Francisco and William Lewis voted “no” on the motion.
The ordinance will be considered for adoption at a future council meeting.
Mayor Thomas Reynolds pointed out that the council vote to introduce the ordinance did not establish the solid waste service, but will allow members of the governing body to vote on the creation of the utility before the contract expires. current Englishtown waste disposal facility with Suburban Disposal on February 28.
The question of waste the elimination was originally raised by Reynolds at the December 20 board meeting. The mayor said Englishtown would not be able to pay its waste disposal contract in 2022 due to rising costs.
Reynolds said the operators of Suburban Disposal have granted the borough a three-month extension of the current waste disposal contract. He told council members that in order to ensure the continued collection and disposal of trash and recyclables, they may need to establish a solid waste management department.
“Solid waste service (would) be just like our water and sewer bill,” Reynolds said. “Residents would be billed (based on) whichever contract we choose, which will be the cheapest rate for everyone.”
Reynolds said another option available in Englishtown would be to allow residents to hire their own contractor to collect and dispose of trash and recyclable materials.
“(Entrepreneurs) are rushing us. We understand that we are going through a difficult time, we try not to increase the budget, but we have huge increases for (2022). We try to impose as few problems as possible on taxpayers, but we are between a rock and a hard place.
“Some tough decisions are going to have to be made over the next three months on all operations to at least keep the municipality strong and to ensure that Englishtown remains as it is,” Reynolds said.
Following the advice of the mayor comments in December, the possible creation of a solid waste management service was again discussed at the January 26 council meeting.
Reynolds said creating a solid waste management service would reduce costs for contractors. He did not support the option of requiring residents to enter into individual waste collection agreements.
However, Francisco said he believed Englishtown representatives could negotiate a better deal by declining those currently on offer.
“Once (waste collection companies) learn there will be no contract, suddenly five to seven are ready to come and do business,” he said.
Francisco advocated allowing residents to contract out their waste collection and disposal services on an individual basis.
“We’re a small town and we’re trying to create more bureaucracy and more cost,” the councilman said. “We’re not worried about people cutting their lawns, people are hiring landscapers. Just let people make contracts with these (waste collection) companies.”
Mann said that if officials were unhappy with the proposed waste disposal contracts, the introduction of the Solid Waste Utilities Ordinance would prevent waste collection and disposal from being halted. waste on March 1.
He said if Englishtown received a better contract offer, members of the governing body could reject the solid waste management utility ordinance.
Officials then met in executive session (closed) to draft the order. The governing body returned to open session and introduced the solid waste management utilities ordinance in the 4-2 vote.