SOUTH RIVER — Members of the Borough Council reported that they are looking at a number of cost-saving measures during the Feb. 11 meeting.
One of those possibilities is implementing a 3 percent surcharge for credit card payments for electric, water and real estate taxes payments.
“It was my recommendation,” Councilman Thomas Roselli said after the Feb. 11 meeting. “South River allows its residents and utility customers to make payment by credit card as a convenience. However, like all merchants, the borough is charged 3 percent of the payment by the credit card company.
As a result, the borough is not receiving full use of the money being paid by the customer or taxpayer.”
As such, he said, the borough is put in the position of making up this lost revenue through revenue streams like taxes and utility charges. Instituting a surcharge would allow the borough to “collect and utilize the full amount of the tax or utility payment,” according to Roselli.
The surcharge would not apply to payments made by cash, check or money order.
Borough Administrator Frederick Carr said at the Feb. 25 meeting that he is in the process of preparing a recommendation on the issue.
In addition, the council looked at the borough’s solid waste contract with Carr’s and Chief Financial Officer Joseph Zanga’s assistance, Roselli said.
“It became apparent that the town could save money by fully collecting all solid waste or garbage rather than having a portion collected by private haulers,” Roselli said.
The change would mean the borough would no longer contract with a private company to collect garbage from the borough’s south end and various apartment complexes, he said.
“After being assured by the director of the Department of Public Works that no additional personal or equipment would be needed, it was determined that South River can save approximately $40,000 to $45,000 per year if said contracts were not renewed when they expire later this year,” he said, adding that there also would be no loss of service as part of the change.
At both the Feb. 11 and Feb. 25 meetings, Councilman Shawn Haussermann also told residents that he is looking at various ways to cut phone costs.
He said at the Feb. 11 meeting that the borough is currently spending about $4,700 a month in phone bills. He said, however, there are a number of phone numbers that are not being used.
He added that between the phone lines that are minimally used and the 28 existing phone lines that are not being used at all, the borough may be paying $1,600 more a month than may be necessary. He said he and Zanga are doing an audit of all the lines to confirm these figures.
At the Feb. 25 meeting, Haussermann added that he thought the borough should also cut back on the amount of phones that are used by departments as on-call cell phones. He suggested the borough reach oncall employees via personal cell phone or home phone.
However, Councilman Jim Hutchison suggested retaining just a few of the phones and having them handed off between oncall personnel.
“If you’re on call, you take the on-call phone,” he said. “That way everybody knows the number, too.”