Borough seeks trash service expansion

Mike Joseph

STATE COLLEGE — The regional government in the county’s economic center plans to expand a household trash collection program outside its territory, and the county’s biggest municipality expects to bid for the work.

State College is a licensed trash collector in Pennsylvania and has long picked up garbage from its own residents. But in the 17 years since the Centre Region Council of Governments instituted a single-contractor program to cut fees in four surrounding townships, the borough has never before ventured outside its boundaries.

“Council thinks it’s a good idea,” council President Elizabeth Gore-ham said. “It’s a municipal service

at which the borough excels. It’s logical that we participate.”

Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said State College “is preparing to offer a proposal to the COG to extend our service to our partners in the COG.”

He said the service extension would require the purchase of additional garbage trucks and would generate borough revenue. But he refused to discuss plans in detail until after COG opens the bids, perhaps in June.

COG’s $2.2 million-a-year contract with the world’s largest waste services company, Veolia Environmental Services, will expire at year’s end. The contract covers households in College, Ferguson, Harris and Patton townships — all the Centre Region municipalities except the more rural Halfmoon Township and the borough.

Bid specifications in the works will include options for expanding service into Benner Township to the east and Halfmoon Township in the west.

In those two outlying townships today, households either make individual arrangements with private trash collectors or try to dispose of it themselves, sometimes with unsound outcomes.

“There’s some people we keep citing — they just throw their garbage out the back door,” said John Elnitski, Benner Township Board of Supervisors chairman.

Elnitski and fellow Supervisor David Breon said Benner residents now pay between $22 and $25 a month in individual deals with trash collectors. That compares with $15.44 a month that Veolia charges for unlimited pickup in its COG contract.

“We want to have a program like that, for sure,” Breon said. “The cost savings to our citizens would be tremendous.”

The borough’s household trash collection fee now amounts to about $25 a month. Whether a winning bid on the COG contract would alter that fee remains to be seen.

Besides the borough and Veolia, other potential bidders for the next three-year contract include another big company, Waste Management, and a smaller company based in Huntingdon County, Park’s Garbage Service, said Pam Adams, COG’s refuse and recycling administrator.

The lowest per-household cost will define the winning bid if the bidder is qualified and meets specifications, Adams said.

Waste Management and Park’s Garbage Service officials could not be reached for comment. Veolia regional manager Ed Yahner said he was surprised to see the borough among potential bidders but has no objections.

“They’re certainly highly qualified,” Yahner said. “I guess it’s unusual to see government bidding on government work. It’s the first time I’ve seen a government bidding on government work.”

With Benner and Halfmoon townships in the contract area, Yahner said, the potential for cost reductions will depend on household densities. “There could easily be economies of scale by having one hauler there,” he said.

Dennis Hameister, Harris Township supervisor and chairman of COG’s public services and environmental committee, said next year’s trash pickup fees may not go down as a result of the new contract structure, but they probably won’t go up either.

“There’s lot of cooperation,” Hameister said. “That’s why Benner’s joining the whole thing is so exciting. I’m sort of intrigued by the Halfmoon option.”

Benner may opt out of the program if the bidding process produces unexpectedly high fees, Breon said. But he added: “I know Benner Township won’t tarry on this. We will act on this because the supervisors do want to see better service than we have now.”

Elnitski said some Benner residents have complained because they’ll be compelled to pay a collection fee. He said others have said a transition to a comprehensive program will hurt small-business trash collectors.

On such collector, Jack Carson, owner of Fred Carson Disposal Service, of State College, said he would have to lay off two or three of his seven employees if his company loses households in Benner and Halfmoon townships.

“Obviously some of our guys will probably lose their jobs,” he said.

Halfmoon Township’s interest in the program surfaced during a COG meeting Monday as Adams made a presentation about the coming contract to the elected leaders of the six Centre Region municipalities.

Halfmoon Township Manager Karen Brown said e-mails to poll residents on the matter went out Friday to 500 households on the township’s list-serve. The township has 900 households. She said anyone not on the list may send an e-mail to townshipclerk@halfmoontwp.us. Supervisors will take up the issue May 14.

“No decision will be made until then,” Brown said. “In the meantime, we’re just trying to get some feedback from the residents.”

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.