Petition drive aims to scuttle trash plan Residents fear higher costs for collection

December 6, 2007

By JIM LOCKWOOD

STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Sparta residents opposed to a town wide trash-collection system the township council has approved are starting a petition drive to scrap the plan.

A pair of 3-2 council votes Saturday to create a garbage utility and award a hauling contract capped raucous public hearings that were dominated by residents speaking out against the proposal.

Under Sparta's nonpartisan Faulkner form of municipal government, an adopted ordinance takes effect 20 days after a public notice on it has been published — unless there is a successful petition drive within that 20-day window to force the council to either repeal the measure or place it on a referendum, according to township clerk Miriam Tower.

The public notice was published yesterday. A petition drive would need to collect signatures from 578 registered voters. That threshold, set by law, is derived from 15 percent of the votes cast in town during the most recent Assembly election. That election was in November, when 3,850 votes were cast in Sparta, Tower said.

"This is a battle," said petition organizer Jesse Wolosky, who spoke against the trash plan at both public hearings and secured 90 names by carrying a clipboard around and taking contact information from concerned residents.

Opposition came mainly from residents, many of whom are seniors, who prefer to take their trash to the county landfill to save money. They don't want to be forced into a "one-size-fits-all" system that will cost them more money, and they want to be able to opt out of any town wide collection. But the council plan does not provide that option.

Wolosky, a tax lien investor, believes residents do not fully understand an unpaid utility bill could lead to a lien being placed on a delinquent payer's property.

"The council is not thinking of what's good for homeowners. They're forcing us to put our house as collateral to pay a garbage bill," Wolosky said.

Under the current system, about 6,500 households either arrange for garbage to be picked up by private haulers or take their trash themselves to the landfill in Lafayette. It costs most residents about $350 a year for a private hauler, while about 300 who use the landfill pay about $100 a year.

With a switch to town wide collection, all households would be billed $230 a year for a twice-weekly trash pickup and a monthly bulk collection. This would save each home using a hauler about $120 a year and provide more pickups, but it would cost landfill users about $130 more a year.

A council majority of Mayor Michael Spekhardt, Brian Brady and Manny Goldberg voted for the plan because most residents would benefit. Councilmen Jerry Murphy and Scott Seelagy voted against the plan.

Spekhardt said of the petition drive, "It's part of the process. People have the right to assembly peacefully, they have a right to speak and do whatever they want."

"We'll take it as it comes," the mayor said. "If they rescind the utility, you might be looking at doing it tax wise," in which garbage collection perhaps would be included in tax bills. "If anyone signing a petition is thinking it would go back to the way it is, they may want to think again."

Such a petition drive, believed to be a first in Sparta, is rare in Sussex County. Five years ago, a petition drive in Vernon led to the repeal of bond ordinance for a park.