ALAN BREWER CANDIDATE FOR FLEMINGTON BOROUGH COUNCILRESPONDS TO FLEMINGTON’S NEW TRASH CONTRACT
PAY MORE & GET LESS
Under the old contract, the Borough paid $240,000.00 for up to 10 bags of garbage and 2 bulk items each week.
Under the new contract, the Borough will be paying $260,000.00 but residents can only put out 1 container per week and no bulk items. This was based on budgets for 2020 and 2021, the public statements about the new contract, and what we could do in the past.
The Mayor and Council President want you to believe they are saving us money. I see it as “Paying More and Getting Less.” I have a few concerns listed for Council’s consideration:
(a) For bulk items we will have to keep them around for 3 months, until pick up, go to Borough Hall or online to obtain a sticker for each item, and pay $10.00 for each sticker, and
(b) The Borough apparently made no provision to pick up and safely dispose of all the existing garbage cans and recycling containers. There are about 800 residences in the Borough (this is not counting the apartment complexes, which use dumpsters). If each one has 1 green recycling container and two trash cans, that is about 2400 trash cans to dump somewhere into the environment. The borough won’t pick them up, so where are they supposed to go?
(c) For Townhouse communities do we expect widowed or retired seniors to hump 96 gallon containers to the curb? Even if they get 65 gallon containers where are they to be stored? Many townhouses (Coppermine Village) have detached garages across the complex.
Council has NOT thought this change out and in the end it will result in taxpayer’s paying more and getting less.
For more information about the new garbage contracts please visit the following links:
https://www.historicflemington.com/government/news/304-guidelines-for-garbage-and-recycling