The Sanatoga Post

Graphic from Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township

A Saturday mailing includes Lower Pottsgrove's trash collection calendar for next year

Mascaro's postcard

NORRISTOWN PA – Although little has changed in what, how, when or where garbage and recyclables are collected in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, under its new trash hauling contract with J.P. Mascaro and Sons of Audubon PA, the company paid to print and mail on Saturday (Dec. 17, 2011) glossy, full-color postcards to township residents that describe what it called “important information” about its services.

What may be most important to property owners, according to township Manager Rodney Hawthorne, is that they’ll pay less for collection during 2012. The deal with Mascaro reduces annual collection costs next year by $17, compared to 2011.

The contract renewal – Mascaro did the work for the past five years as well – is not mentioned in the postcard. It does, however, supply a full-year calendar (above) of pick-up days (all Mondays, with three holiday exceptions) and yard waste collections (highlighted by an orange-colored leaf).

It also addresses when items may and may not be placed at the curb, how to contact Mascaro for bulk item pick-ups, and how its single-stream recycling program operates. Much of the same information is found on the township website, here. The mailed piece in its entirety also can be found at the website, here.

Related:

• One Mailing Across Township You May Not Want To Trash
• Township Budget Final, Approved With Average $31 Hike
• 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

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

SANATOGA PA – Area trash haulers and Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township commissioners are going back to the drawing board to draw up a new set of bids for garbage collection across the township in coming years.

Commissioners, at the suggestion of Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway, placed an advertisement today (Monday, Nov. 7, 2011) to again seek quotes for the “collection, hauling and disposal of municipal waste, recyclable materials and leaf waste, with (a) bulk trash option” from more than 3,000 township properties and four municipal locations. Bidders are being asked to quote on providing services for a minimum of three, and as many as five, years.

The ad appears in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury, Lower Pottsgrove’s publication of record for legal notices.

The board has sought these bids before, and hoped to consider awarding a contract last Thursday (Nov. 3) during the first of its two monthly meetings at the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd. That didn’t happen, because a majority of commissioners heeded Holloway’s advice and rejected all three bids submitted. He claimed all had significant problems, the Pottstown Patch online news service reported.

• Read a story by reporter Brian Zarley, titled “Trash Talk Turns Heated” and published Thursday by The Patch, here.

Holloway even proposed the township conduct an information session on how and why the bids must be improved and resubmitted by any hauler that wants its business. The meeting is  reportedly scheduled for this afternoon at 1:30 p.m., also in the municipal building.

Commissioners clearly had hoped to have the trash contract behind them as the end of the year approaches, in part to complete the township 2012 budget. Board Vice President Bruce Foltz voted against the motion to reject; board member James Phillips suggested the bids be tabled rather than rejected, The Patch said.

The board now hopes to award a contract by Nov. 30.

Related:

• 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. 3 meeting):

• Lower Pottsgrove Back To Drawing Board On Trash

SANATOGA PA – To ensure Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township can attract more than just one bidder for its garbage collection business, the Board of Commissioners said Monday (Oct. 3, 2011) that it’s willing to consider having a hauler pick up trash over a two-day period.

Don’t worry; there’s no guesswork involved. If a multiple day pick-up schedule is ultimately accepted, property owners north of Buchert Road would have their garbage collected on Day One, and those south of Buchert on Day Two. The winning bidder, most likely, would specify the days involved.

Getting multiple bidders involved is what commissioners ardently hope for, as they negotiate a new contract for waste hauling in coming years. The current contract, soon to expire, is held by Norristown-based J.P. Mascaro and Sons. None on the board have openly criticized Mascaro, but they’ve made it clear they want other firms involved in the negotiations to gain some bargaining leverage and lower costs.

Several potential bidders attended an initial meeting earlier this week to review the Lower Pottsgrove’s requirements. All but one clamored for the multiple day option as a way to cut their expenses and, in return, those of the township. Without it, Solicitor K. Kurtz Holloway explained, the firms’ representatives indicated they probably wouldn’t be interested.

“So we run the risk of not getting competitive bids if we don’t do more than one day,” Commissioner Michael McGroarty said. Holloway agreed. “Probably should do that,” McGroarty added.

There’s a precedent for multiple day pick-ups, Manager Rodney Hawthorne noted. Over slightly more than a decade the township has had as many as four, and as few as one, pick-up days scheduled. Buchert Road was the dividing line then too.

Commissioners agreed to “split out multiple days as a bidding option,” as Holloway put it, and create a sort of bidder’s smorgasbord intended to elicit more than one price quote from the competing companies. Another meeting with bidders is planned for next week.

Related:

• 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’ meeting of Oct. 3):

• Township Bends To Give Garbage Bidders Choices
• The Problems At Pruss Hill Lurk Beneath Its Bridge
• Police Detail At Limerick Hearings Cost $1,468
• Pruss Hill Bridge Might Re-Open With Weight Limit

SANATOGA PA – Give James Kaiser credit as a man who can sift through garbage and create a valuable checklist from what he finds.

Kaiser – a member of the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Board of Commissioners – did not physically picked though piles of refuse. He did, however, read the extensive compilation released earlier this month of residents’ answers to a survey on trash collection. Within its 70 double-sided pages, he claims, were a few golden nuggets.

From that report, Kaiser told board members Thursday (Aug. 18, 2011), has come a list of items that likely will form the basis of the township’s next contract with a waste hauler.

Lower Pottsgrove during March (2011) issued a 21-question survey about existing trash removal services. More than 960 people responded; some with compliments, some with complaints, and many with suggestions on what they want to see in whatever forthcoming deal commissioners sign with a hauler.

The current contract with Norristown PA-based J.P. Mascaro and Sons is due to expire. Commissioners want to solicit bids for future years’ hauling, from Mascaro and competitors, as quickly as possible so they can be evaluated “well before year-end” and in advance of work on the 2012 township budget, Kaiser said.

Most survey respondents generally hope to pay less for hauling services they already receive. That would be nice, Kaiser agrees, but may not be possible. What the township might accomplish, however, is to avoid a substantial hauling price increase by heeding residents’ suggestions.

Lower Pottsgrove will actively look, he said, at a choice of days other than Monday on which garbage is picked up. It may reduce its number of yard waste collections, and rely in part on a North Coventry PA compost vendor that says it will accept for free yard waste brought to its site. It may rethink how bulk items like stoves are collected.

Just as important, Kaiser noted, is what it probably won’t do. The township is unlikely to consider charging for garbage by the bag; a bookkeeping nightmare, commissioners said earlier. It probably also won’t limit the number of bags or cans that can be put out to the curb weekly. “The survey makes it clear people want the ability to get rid of more junk, not less,” he said in answer to a question.

His colleagues asked Kaiser to help prepare bid documents for board consideration during its Sept. 6 (Tuesday) meeting.

Related:

• 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’ meeting of Aug. 18):

• Thanks To Survey Input, Township Preparing Trash Bids
• Pottstown Library Asks Township For Higher Funding
• Commissioners OK Pruss Hill Road Accidents Study
• July 2011 Warrants From Lower Pottsgrove Now Online
• Township Pays Two Attorneys In Police Discipline Case
• Road Re-Paving Is Coming; Just When Anybody’s Guess
• Township, An Unhappy Bank Customer, Goes Elsewhere
• Township May Put Money Where Authority’s Mouth Is

Illustration by The Post using Google Images

Out with the trash.

SANATOGA PA – The average cost of a bag of groceries – the paper kind, not the smaller plastic carriers – is estimated nationally at about $25. Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township resident William Wolfgang guesses his average cost of a bag of garbage is about $4. The groceries, Wolfgang recently told the township Board of Commissioners, surely are the better deal.

“Getting rid of garbage is just costing too much,” Wolfgang said during a board meeting earlier this month.

• Got something on your mind to discuss with commissioners? You get another opportunity tonight (Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010) when they meet at 7 p.m. in the municipal building, 2199 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA. The meeting is open to the public. Find its agenda here.

Trash recycling and collection bills were mailed Sept. 17, and were due to be paid just three days ago, on Monday (Oct. 18). Wolfgang wrote his check his early, and then did some quick calculations. “We’re pretty careful,” and the household is small “so we don’t throw out a lot,” Wolfgang explained Oct. 4. “I think that’s an awful amount to be paying for garbage.”

No one on the board disagreed.

Wolfgang’s solution, also occasionally proposed by others, was to charge individual households for the amount of waste they actually produce. That way each would pay its fair share and, Wolfgang expected, he would pay less. But several commissioners and Manager Rodney Hawthorne noted that keeping track of how much trash each household generated could become an accounting nightmare … and a smelly mess.

Hawthorne offered hope though. The township’s contract with garbage hauler J.P. Mascaro and Sons, headquartered in Audubon PA, is due for renewal during 2011. “It’s worth exploring,” he said of Wolfgang’s idea. “In fact, any and all options can be considered next year. We’ll put it all on the table then,” Hawthorne said.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Oct. 4):

• Minutes Of The Board’s Oct. 4 Meeting (Approved Oct. 21, 2010)
• What’s A Better Deal?: Groceries, $25, Or Township Trash, $4
• Township Plans No-Parking Zone On North Adams Street
• Lower Pottsgrove Opposes Firefighter Cancer Mandate
• The Marshal? Sorry, He’s Kinda Busy Right Now …
• Former Reporter Asks Commissioners To Support 422 Tolls
• Welcoming The Newest Of Lower Pottsgrove’s Finest
• Lower Pottsgrove Gives Gift Its Diesel Fuel Business
• Lower Pottsgrove Commissioners May Reward Bidders