Township trying not to 'waste' money or services DPW is evaluatingmost effective way to collect garbage and recycling BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer NORTH BRUNSWICK - The township Department of Public Works (DPW) is evaluating the most cost-effective and manageable method of collecting solid waste in town. During the Township Council workshop meeting April 28, department Director Glenn Sandor compared reimbursing apartment-complex associations directly for the money they expend to their choice of a company, which is the current method, hiring a third-party contractor to handle garbage and recycling services, or to have the DPW resume control July 1. The preliminary comparison showed a cost of $800,000 in 2009 for the current system of association reimbursement, $565,000 for hiringWasteManagement of New Jersey, the low-bid third party contractor, and $595,000 for using the DPW. The DPW's costs would include disposal costs, the lease of two front-loader trucks, the lease of 173 containers, and fuel and vehicle expenses. Business Administrator Robert Lombard said that since property owners are not liable for their expenses, there is no control over which company an apartment association will choose, and there is no incentive to keep costs low. Sandor said that hiring Waste Management to collect waste for the 4,797 apartments in town will result in controlled, fixed costs; a flat increase fee; a performance clause for ineffective employees; fixed health care and workers' compensation costs; and fixed fuel costs. However, there will be less control over customer service, and costs will be unknown after the five-year contract expires. To give his point of view, Jack Bernadino, from the Old Bridge location ofWasteManagement, said the company's bid, which came in $1.8 million lower than the next lowest bid, will be a fixed cost, will be under the direction of the labor-intensive Teamsters Local 945, includes safety liability costs, takes into account new clean-air-emissions standards from the Environmental Protection Agency, includes maintenance costs, allows for competitive fuel and steel-container pricing, secures tier I pricing at the landfill, assures proper customer service and addresses community outreach to young students about recycling. "Regardless of where those numbers fluctuate, it would be $565 [thousand] with us," he said. From an in-house point of view, the DPW will have direct supervision over its employees, will utilize manpower for other operations, will utilize existing trucks and manpower, and can ensure better customer service. Yet Sandor said that the current manpower would be spread out over more operations because additional staff is not requested, and there could be extraordinary maintenance repairs to vehicles. Although Sandor's initial recommendation, with the help of a DPW task force, was that the refuse services be provided in-house and a contract be signed with Central Jersey Waste for recycling, a motion to award contracts for a front-load refuse truck and refuse containers was tabled at the public council meeting Monday because the DPW is re-evaluating the costs associated with handling the collection in-house. "The goal is to save taxpayers money," Sandor said. Sandor said that in 2001, a new law required that apartments be considered multifamily homes and that the township provide the same services that were afforded to houses, condominiums and town homes. The process was phased in over a five-year period, with a 20-percent reimbursement obligation to the apartment complex required beginning in 2003, with 20-percent increases each year thereafter. Thus, in the fiscal year 2007, the township assumed 100 percent of the reimbursement costs. The issue will be revisited at the Council workshop meeting on Monday, May 12.