‘Yes’ vote on municipal garbage collection raises hackles

December 6, 2007

By Staff Writer

Sparta — irate residents barraged local press and Web sites for several days following a split vote by the township council in favor of a township-wide garbage contract.

After two packed-to-the-rafters public hearings, council voted Saturday, Dec. 1, to contract with Blue Diamond Disposal of Succasunna to collect the ordinary garbage of Sparta residents twice a week and the bulk trash once a month.

The service, which will begin some time in January, will cost Sparta’s 6,500 single-family home residents a flat fee of approximately $230 each year, with the charge billed as a utility. Seniors may apply for a $25 tax credit. Green Tree and Sparta Commons residents will be eligible for certain exemptions. The service will be mandatory: no one may opt out.

The total cost of the contract Blue Diamond has offered the township will be $4.5 million for three years of service.

Voting in favor of the Blue Diamond proposal were Mayor Michael Spekhardt, who said he was acting in the best interest of the town; Deputy Mayor Brian Brady, who said that most of the town would benefit from the decision; and Councilman Manny Goldberg, who also cited the good of the citizens as the reason for his ‘yes’ vote.

The two dissenting votes came from Councilman Jerry Murphy, who said that he opposed the garbage contract because the citizens had overwhelmingly favored freedom to choose their own garbage collection services, and Councilman Scott Seelagy, who said he thought people should have the right to opt out of the service.

The issue of garbage collection has riled hundreds of Sparta residents, and supporters and opponents of mandatory garbage collection have fought with equal passion to persuade government officials to vote their way. Currently, Sparta residents contract privately for collection. Many opt to take garbage and recyclables to the Sussex County sanitary landfill, just over the municipal border in Lafayette, claiming the low cost of disposal and proximity to Sparta make that the cheapest option.

About 300 hundred residents turned up on Tuesday, Nov. 27, for a council meeting where they expected the council to vote. The news that Mayor Michael Spekhardt had pulled the garbage vote from the agenda evoked loud boos from members of the crowd. In the wake of that demonstration, the mayor rescheduled two public hearings at Sparta High, to better accommodate the expected crowd, one for Friday evening, Nov. 30, and the other for Saturday morning.

Between the two, the public was given about seven hours to weigh in on the issue before the council voted.

The issue came to a head during the past two weeks after National Solid Wastes Management Association conducted a telephone survey on Nov. 19 and 20, and reported that an overwhelming number of the residents they surveyed opposed eliminating residents’ choice in selecting a garbage service provider.

Over the two-day period 1,451 residents responded to the survey with 53.5 percent opposed to the proposal and only 22 percent, in support, said Steve Changaris, northeast manager of NSWMA.

Changaris urged Sparta officials to hold a public referendum on the question of whether the Township should take over the selection of garbage removal services, rather than allow residents to continue to choose their own waste hauler and service level.

Meanwhile, township officials posted their own survey on the Sparta Web site, and reported contrary results: of 895 responses, 74.18 percent favored municipal garbage pickup and 25.81 percent opposed it.

But Changaris said that in his view the reliability of the township survey was questionable, and several citizens echoed his viewpoint.

“The message we are hearing from township residents is loud and clear — they do not want government making decisions for them,” he said.

But Township Manager Henry Underhill said that the new collection services would save money for people using Waste Management, which costs approximately $400 a year.