By Nicole M. Wells, Special Writer
CRANBURY — After Monroe Township flushed its sanitary sewer system maintenance agreement with Cranbury due to the increasing demands of its own system, South Brunswick may step in, officials said.
Monroe officials also said a sluggish response on Cranbury’s part to system repairs played a role in its decision.
“As our own system is growing and aging, it’s demanding a little more time,” Monroe Township Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton said. “We’ve been doing this for years, helping them out doing inspection maintenance on their sanitary sewer system, and, as our operation has expanded, we’ve reached the point where our workloads were such where we just decided not to renew the agreement.”
Although the time and resource constraints were the main reasons for terminating the agreement, they were not the only reasons, Mr. Hamilton said.
“We’ve had some issues in the last couple of years where we’ve made recommendations for various necessary repairs and they (Cranbury) are not exactly expeditious in making those repairs,” he said. “If there’s something, like a repair is needed with one of their pump stations, and we make a recommendation, sometimes those improvements on their side have been slow to come.”
The slow-moving rate of repairs put Monroe in a position that it didn’t want to be in, Mr. Hamilton said.
“As a secondary reason, we just didn’t want to be married up into situations where we identified a problem and they failed to correct it,” he said.
Part of the problem could lie in the way such recommendations are processed and implemented, Mr. Hamilton said.
“A lot of the repairs that we recommend have to go through their outside engineering firm and I think there’s just a lot of delays in getting things from the recommendation stage to the completed stage,” he said.
Cranbury is looking to enter into a shared services agreement with South Brunswick Township because of Monroe’s decision not to renew its agreement, Mayor Jay Taylor said.
“I am hopeful that we’ll be able to show the residents the savings via cost avoidance of not using a private vendor,” he said.
According to Mayor Taylor, South Brunswick is maintaining Cranbury’s sewer system for the month of January at the same rate Monroe had charged.
For its part, terminating the agreement just made financial sense for Monroe, Mr. Hamilton said.
“Rather than continue an inter-local agreement with an adjoining town and forcing us to hire an additional person or two, it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense,” he said. “It’s certainly much more cost-effective for us to say, ’Okay, we can’t do the agreement anymore with you’ and just take those resources and reallocate them into our own system.”
In fact, the neighboring township of Monroe has helped Cranbury keep things moving in the right direction for a number of years, through its inspection maintenance of Cranbury’s system.
“They have been a valued partner to Cranbury over the years,” Mayor Jay Taylor said, of Monroe. “We appreciate their support and are thankful for the work they have done to keep the sewer working.”
Made last week, the allegations of slow repairs came as a surprise to Mayor Taylor.
“To my knowledge, we have never had the sewer system stop working, while the process we follow has been successful in keeping costs down,” he said. “The sewer is presently operating fine and we don’t have any issues servicing our residents.”
According to Mayor Taylor, that process is fiscally responsible, while Mr. Hamilton said he believed it may be the reason for the alleged sluggish response to recommendations.
“Just like any recommendation made, the town evaluates the recommendation in full,” Mayor Taylor said. “As soon as recommended repairs are presented, we evaluate them with our engineer and licensed sewer operator.”
At that point, the engineer and licensed sewer operator determine if the repair is necessary or recommend alternative solutions, he said.
“We then act immediately to address the situation with full information in hand,” Mayor Taylor said. “This keeps our sewer rates down and ensures we are performing our fiduciary duties.”
Because of Monroe’s decision to terminate the agreement, Cranbury is now looking to enter into a shared services agreement with South Brunswick Township, Mayor Taylor said.
According to initial estimates, a shared service is less costly than a private vendor, however, the township is still negotiating the final cost, he said.
As such, figures as to how much a shared services agreement would cost the township versus a private vendor are not yet available.
According to Mayor Taylor, South Brunswick is maintaining Cranbury’s sewer system for the month of January at the same rate Monroe had charged.
“They have been very helpful and diligent in supporting our sewer system,” he said.
