With Republic now handling the trash collections, does the Borough still require the trash truck equipment? Perhaps, there is a need for special collections not handled by Republic, but if there are two vehicles in the Public Works arsenal, wouldn't selling off one or both fetch a pretty penny (~$75K) in the market?
30 comments:
I belive selling these trucks has already been discussed by Borough Council.
How will leaf collection now be handled? Are the trusks needed for leaf collection?
The trucks are not needed for leaf collection and although this might have been discussed council is not planning to sell the trucks.
Why not sell at least one of them. $75,000 is alot of money. What do we need to keep parked trash trucks for? They'll be worth alot less next year.
Does anyone know why they are keeping them? Seems like a waste of money to just let them sit there.
Trash truck came through my street last Tuesday. Just from two houses alone the guy picked up 120+ bags of lawn debris. I think maybe you should ask that guy if we should sell off our trash trucks.
Where did the $75,000 figure come from? Was that discussed during a council meeting?
They have to keep two because one or the other is always broken stupid.
I think another municipality borrowed our third trash truck after we started with Republic.
Sure, borrowing our truck out that works is smart. Whoever made the stupid comment ought to realize we should have kept all three then to have a back up and have one to sell off. Duh!
Tell me, 10:04, which would you sell of the three? The one we are using; the one that is broken; or the one lent out until their truck is fixed?
Let me suggest not selling any. Now we use the working truck, fill it up and take it to the dump. Often it fills before the route is finished and so some sections don't get their pick up.
Here's an idea. Fill the first and park it. Take out the other working truck (after getting it back) and finish the pick up route. The next day drive them both to the dump. Keep the broken truck for parts. It is not worth fixing.
Thought this was about selling one of them. If you just kept two why does the third one have to be in the picture to borrow out to someone else??? The borough clearly needs the money so why is it lending out a vehicle. As usual, noone knows what's going on in this town and just leave people wondering. Then they wonder why they have such opposition to the point we want the merger. That's our money they are using. Our money.
Let's keep them all! We don't need a couple hundred grand. Shouldn't we also build something to house them to protect their paint finish from bird droppings while they're parked for the next few years???
HA! Wish I was drinking what you were drinking. Thanks, needed a laugh at the end of a long day...HA!
This is crazy. Why don't we sell them all and contract the rest of the trash pick up out. Have Republic do it!
Wow, I just did some research into the worth of used trash trucks and you weren't kidding blogmaster. If I had a couple expensive cars in the driveway that I didn't use, I'd sell them. Unless I was Jay Leno with his bankroll. Can we afford an unneeded equipment collection? Does Merchantville have a bunch of money that I'm not aware of? Wouldn't this money help replenish the surplus that is just about gone?
Poplar: If I had a couple expensive cars in the driveway that I didn't use, I'd sell them.
Poplar raises a point about depreciating assets and usually I would agree; however, Council put a lot of time into decisions on what services should be contracted out and what should be kept in-house, going all the way back to Mr. Brunton's recommendations over a couple of years. I think whatever was decided re: trash collection equipment should be left alone.
There is a similar dilemma facing Council regarding money spent on Wellwood Manor. It seems that the money owed to the bank in the receivership and the debts to the Borough for unpaid taxes and its expenses and fines related to safety and health violations ALL TOGETHER EXCEED THE PRICE THAT THE BUYER IS WILLING TO PAY.
By law the Borough comes first and the bank second. Apparently the bank will not agree to a loss.
The question is whether Merchantville is will to eat its fines and expenses in order to get the property sold to a respected developer.
I do not like the losses we have suffered on Wellwood, much of which we could have avoided years ago, but letting it sit in our driveway by insisting on collecting what's due would be a far greater negligence than a couple of trash trucks.
Any car dealer would say to accept our losses and get that property on the road with a new owner. I'm for that.
So why not just keep one of the trash trucks and sell the others to compensate for our losses at Wellwood? I don't think this has really been discussed.
Sounds as if you need to talk to Councilman Brickley or read the Council minutes or go to meetings now and again. Mr. Brickley supervises Public Works and makes monthly reports to Council on that department including the status of equipment and related needs.
I don't know where you have been or gone, Anonymous. Council has talked about the trash trucks during the time we collected our own trash, through the time we contracted out that service, and now while we still collect grass, leaves and wood with our own equipment.
Asking on this blog will get you misinformation most likely and chances are you won't recognize the real reasons anyway if offered.
People don't care about the "real" reasons. They want a comfort level that the people in charge in this town are doing the right thing and obviously, it's not there. Going to a meeting would probably not make them feel any better about that fact. Once trust is broken, it is difficult to get back unless people see results.
...that the people in charge in this town are doing the right thing
Different people are doing it. Remember the complaints about Councilman Brunton and snow plowing the 23-inch storm? And his complaints about equipment and his recommendations for contracting out and all related?
Well, unhappy with that winter operation, Councilmen Perno and Brickley jumped in and took over --don't you remember?-- and the streets were not plowed any better in the next storm half the size and leaves not collected even as well the next season, and services got contracted out evantually and the new guys decided to keep the trash equipment in the yard.
Who knows what happened with the leaf vacuum machine. That reminds me of the tire shredder in Burlington City. The City allowed a contractor to recycle tires with his new tire shredding machine in the space along the Burlington Bridge. The shredder inventor took in a million and a half tires at $2 each and stored them along the bridge. Then he threw up his hands, told the City his shredder didn't work, and he left town without his tires.
In our case the piles of autumn leaves were eventually collected this spring and maybe next year ... well, it's best not to speculate on what will be done. Let's say for now, everyone's happy with the changes. And you are right. It is not WHAT is being done about services; it is the WHO that establishes comfort level.
Sorry k.t.b.f.w., but in this case I believe you are living up to your name.
I personally had nothing but respect for the efforts and involvements put forth by Mr. Brunton; but please don't try to rewrite history.
While your experience may have varied, far and away the public works situation has significantly improved under the new leadership - including most recently with the hiring of Republic.
We are not one of these anti-government workers families, but looking at the trash pick-up; I never saw our public works guys work anywhere near that efficiently and neatly. Republic is actually almost "respectful" of our trashcans, placing them upright back at the curb!
Still, it's nice to still see some of the old, familiar PW faces on Tuesdays, picking up trashcans full of branches - even as they just hurl the cans back in the general direction of the house before moving on.
You like the contracted trash service as I do?
It was Mr. Brunton alone who pushed for it. He lost at every discussion.
How's that for clarity of writing?
How do you like the contracted trash services now??? It's just like old times...manpower and equipment problems=delayed trash pick up.
Actually, a driver told me, without slowing down his work, that the delayed pickup was a planned delay - owing to the Monday holiday pushing back the schedule one day.
Apparently, downtown forgot to tell us.
Or I just missed hearing about it.
I propose a solution for the dog-dirt mailboxes that stand on end and require a maintenance worker to put his hand inside to pull out the bags of dog dirt one at a time, each on top of the next.
If the mailbox were mounted on a flange with one bolt through the center and a second, removable pin through a second hole through the flange, then a worker could pull the pin and rotate the box around 180 degrees to dump out everything within.
Faster, cleaner and less chance of spredding disease.
What!!! This is rediculous. Pulic works should not be expected to pick up dog cr**. Having a pet is a choice and shouldn't be supported by tax dollars. Clean up after your own pet.
Exactly, and we can fire some of them and free up more tax dollars.
Woodbine: "should not be expected to pick up dog"
You've gotta get out more often. The vertical mailboxes have been mounted along the bike path for years.
Because they are always full, I thought maybe the TWO Public Works employees (1 worker; 1 supervisor) had too long of a job list in other areas to find time to stick their hands into piles of aromatic plastic bags.
So I invented the mailbox on a swivel for fast, clean dumping. Don't crap on the idea man.
No, I like your idea! I just don't think public works should be responsible for picking up dog crap. Having a pet is a choice. Tax payers shouldn't be expected to pick up any of the bill.
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