but we wanted the opportunity to develop a plan if we saw one that could work.” Eventually, Palmyra purchased one collection truck at the cost of about $400,000, hired some trained personnel from established collection companies, and trained some of its own people.“We took advantage of the provision and gave our contractor notice that we were going to move into one small neighborhood and just pick up trash in that little community, while we learned how to do it. And we did that. Then we took advantage of another neighborhood and now we’re collecting trash in about 35% of our community. Now, our vendor, Republic Services, realizes that they bid on a contract that they thought had a value of ‘X.’ But since we took advantage of the provisions that we built into the bid specification (that no one has ever done before) they’re seeing a loss in revenue, and they said they couldn’t maintain the contract. So, we re-negotiated, which gave the borough the ability to release them from their obligation on January 1, when we will take over trash collection for our entire community with years still left on the contract. And they agreed to that. They could not believe that we were able to do that, and in such an efficient way -- one trained operator in a truck completes an entire neighborhood in just a couple of hours. “We now have three trucks with a fourth one on the way. That’s something that no other municipality would be undertaking. We’re expecting our fourth trash truck to arrive in October and we didn’t just buy a lesser, traditional trash truck. We purchased high-tech, high-end Automizer Side Loaders.And we Photo Credit: Jennifer Carr Photography and Environmental Resolutions, Inc. 102-unit affordable housing complex under construction by Conifer Realty, with offices in NJ, NY & Maryland. Completion expected fall 2025. This development fully satisfies Palmyra’s current state-imposed affordable housing obligations. 11 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 05, ISSUE 09 PALMYRA, NJ VOLUME 4, ISSUE 01
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