At the January 18th Mayor & Council meeting, during his committee report, Fifth Ward Councilman and Department of Public Works (DPW) liaison Thomas ‘Thos’ Shipley mentioned complaints he had been getting from residents regarding garbage collection.
“[The] garbage collection company has missed pickups. I’ve been getting calls and e-mails,” he stated, “I’ve been informed that this has been an on-going issue with garbage pickup and recycling throughout the borough and this issue is not exclusive to any one area of the borough.”
The councilman went on to say that on any given garbage or recycling day there are streets that have been missed. He gave an example of a resident calling the DPW regarding the missed pickup and that Suburban Disposal was contacted by Public Works about the incident with the presumption it would be handled. Later, the resident called again stating that the company never returned. DPW ended up going to the residence and removed the garbage.
Councilman Shipley added, “The streets that are missed most are often dead ends and one-ways but that’s not always the case. In the past few months, there have been days where main cross streets such as Sherman, Pershing, Clay, and Lincoln to name a few [have been missed]. There have been excuses given by the company such as they have a new driver or containers were out late or put out late or the truck has already passed. [It’s] something I think we need to look into.”
Suburban Disposal out of Fairfield, New Jersey, was awarded contracts for both solid waste (regular garbage) pickup and recycling collection in May of 2017. The total amount of both contracts is $2,458,974. Resolution 148-17 awarded Suburban Disposal a three-year $469,974 contract for recycling, beginning on September 1, 2017, with three equal payments of $156,658. The solid waste contract (Resolution 147-17) is over five years starting on August 1, 2017, at a total of $1,989,000 with the following breakdown:
Year 1: $382,000
Year 2: $390,000
Year 3: $397,000
Year 4: $406,000
Year 5: $414,000
Suburban Disposal is currently in the first year of both contracts.
When reached by phone today, the person answering at Suburban Disposal stated that no one who would be able to comment was available.