SANATOGA PA – A plea by one of the area’s largest trash haulers to have the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Board of Commissioners reconsider its rejection of all garbage collection contract bids opened earlier this month was itself rejected Thursday (Nov. 17, 2011) by a majority of board members, who said they were willing see what a new round of bidding brings.

J.P. Mascaro attorney William Fox

Officers of and the attorney for Norristown-based hauler J.P. Mascaro and Sons tried in vain to convince commissioners to not only look again at bids submitted by their company and two others, but also to award them the contract as lowest bidder. The board declined, in a 3-1 vote.

At issue is how much the township and its property owners will pay during the next three to five years to have their garbage, leaf waste and bulk items like used appliances picked up weekly. Mascaro has done the work for the past eight years; it and two other bidders, Waste Management and Republic Services, are vying for the same opportunity through at least through 2015.

Township Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway claimed “material defects” were found in all three bids once they were opened, and on his advice commissioners voted Nov. 3 to dismiss them all. The board decision Thursday – commissioners Jonathan Spadt, Michael McGroarty and James Kaiser reaffirmed the rejection; James Phillips favored reconsideration; and Bruce Foltz was absent – allows it to wait for new bids expected Nov. 30.

Its vote followed a half-hour discussion by Mascaro attorney William Fox of the legal intricacies of bid rejection and acceptance. Fox’s two points:

• The board had the authority to reverse its rejection and accept a bid; and, he contended,
• Mascaro should be chosen as the lowest bidder because of its submitted price of $274 per household per year for one-day-a-week pickups.

Holloway generally agreed with Fox’s tutorial on applicable law, and congratulated him on his eloquence. What it didn’t change, Holloway added, were “several” problems with all three bid submissions that were severe enough, in his opinion, to recommend against acceptance.

The board also offered no comment on a request to defer any action on accepting trash bids until after newly elected commissioners were sworn into office. It came from former Commissioner Stephen Klotz, who again won election to the board and will be seated in January.

Related:

• Township Says It Won’t Reconsider Rejected Trash Bids
• Lower Pottsgrove Back To Drawing Board On Trash
• Township Bends To Give Garbage Bidders Choices
• Thanks To Survey Input, Township Preparing Trash Bids
• From Township Trash Survey, A Heap Of Interesting Ideas
• Township Didn’t Know You’d Have Trash On Your Mind
• Trash Talkin’: Township Wants Opinions On Messy Topic
• Lower Pottsgrove Seeks Suggestions In A Trash Survey

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ Nov. 17 meeting):

• Township Says It Won’t Reconsider Rejected Trash Bids
• Buchert Ridge Reps Expected At Township Meeting