RUMSON – It won’t be borough-owned trucks or borough employees collecting trash and recyclables possibly as soon as May, but officials said service would remain the same if not improve with privatizing the collection service.
Local officials are putting the finishing touches on the specification requirements for the request for bids that will likely go out in the next week or two, as they look for private contractors to take over that responsibility.
Mayor John Ekdahl said last week the cost savings could amount to as much as $200-000$300,000 by having an outside company collect the trash.
And none of the existing fulltime employees would lose their positions, noted borough administrator Tom Rogers.
“We do this without having to tell anybody they haven’t a job,” Ekdahl said, with a position being eliminated through attrition.
The borough council a few years ago had considered taking this step but abandoned the idea. The reason was, “We got a lot of push back from residents,” who were concerned about job security for the existing Public Works employees, Ekdahl recalled.
What has changed is that one full-time employee will be retiring this spring and there is a need to buy a new garbage truck, which is a large expense, officials acknowledged. The truck purchase would likelycost about $180,000, Rogers said.
At this point, “It just works,” Ekdahl said.
Many municipalities have taken this step, including locally Little Silver and Fair Haven. At the county trash landfill, where trucks go to unload, it is almost exclusively private haulers, with the exception of Rumson, Long Branch and Red Bank, Ekdahl noted.
Included in the bid requirements will be that trash collection remain the same, at two times a week; the private hauler will be responsible for collecting recyclables; residents can continue to get the “drive-in” collection service on to their property for an additional fee, as has been the case; and homeowners won’t need to change their trash cans, officials said.
In addition, bulk trash pickups will be more often and easier, Ekdahl said. Currently bulk trash collection is only once a month and that will improve.
The borough will save on equipment purchases and maintenance and on employee costs and will allow the Public Works Department to allocate that manpower elsewhere, such as park maintenance in the spring and summer, the officials said.
