EDITORIAL
By: Ruth Luse
During a lengthy discussion Feb. 4 on privatizing trash collection, Pennington officials said they want input from borough residents and merchants before making a decision about a service that has been performed by borough employees for many a year.
We urge Pennington citizens and merchants to answer that call!
We do not remember a time when Pennington has not handled its own trash collection. But we can account for only about 45 years years during which Gerald Barry, Michael Pinelli and Jeff Wittkop, respectively, have been overseeing public works operations.
A few years ago, borough officials made some changes in the trash collection system, instituting a stickers program and setting up other regulations concerning how much trash could be put out by residential and business property owners per pickup. There was some flak about this new system at the time, but since then little has been said at monthly council meetings about the trash pickup system now in place. We definitely have not heard any outcry for trash privatization from Pennington property owners.
However, two trash-hauling firms Waste Management Inc. and Central Jersey Inc. have responded to an official borough request for bids on taking over the job of collecting garbage in town. Details about what these companies would do for the borough were discussed in some detail in last week’s edition and discussion of privatization is expected to continue at council’s March 4 meeting. A decision must be made, according to Administrator Karen Waldron, by the April 1 council meeting.
We urge Pennington property owners, all of whom should be interested in this very important topic, to share their feelings with their elected leaders now … and certainly by March 4 at the latest.
If Pennington decides to give up its long tradition of handling its own garbage, and as a result gets rid of the personnel and equipment needed for the operation, it would not be able to reinstate the system in the future without considerable effort and expense. If Pennington finds, a few years down the road, that privatization is not working as officials had hoped and that people in town are not pleased with the system, it would not be easy to turn the clock back.
Based on what we know of Pennington and its people, we are inclined to say that if the system "ain’t broke" it should not be fixed. But that’s just our gut reaction. We’d like to hear what the people of Pennington really think and we know Pennington Borough officials would, too.
Pennington has a long history of serving its own people. While some brief thought was given years ago to contracting for police services with Hopewell Township, borough officials ultimately decided to stick with their own Police Department and included space for same in their new Borough Hall. The borough also is the only entity in the Valley to handle its own trash collection.
It is time for Pennington people to think about just how much home control they want. The decision on trash collection could set the stage for other changes in the way Pennington delivers its government services. Should regionalization of all local government services be considered in the future?
Right now, however, it’s imperative that Pennington citizens make it quite clear to their leaders how they feel about changes to the existing trash collection system.