Residents should be on the lookout in the coming weeks for a survey and coupon that Community Waste Solutions (CWS) and the borough’s Solid Waste Working Group will use to gauge public interest for a garbage drop-off site for times when the landfill is closed.
The survey also aims to measure customer satisfaction and will include questions about the landfill’s prices and hours, among other topics, CWS manager Craig Franke said. Customers will receive a 10% discount on drop off fees on the day they return the survey to the landfill.
“The survey started as a way for me to gauge feedback on the landfill and pinpoint the direction we want to keep going or want to go,” said Franke, who is also on the borough’s Solid Waste Working Group.
Borough assembly members asked the working group earlier this year to discuss creating a centralized drop-off location for use when the landfill is closed. “We decided that perhaps, before we hit the borough with an (idea), we would gauge interest in that type of service. That is part of the survey where the working group is concerned,” Franke said.
Franke said residents will be asked whether they agree that the borough should provide a financial guarantee to CWS should the service go unused by residents. A draft concept of the collection station would include staffing from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at a location closer to town than the landfill. Residents would prepay for biodegradable bags and could drop off household garbage only.
“If we don’t make a certain amount, we want the borough to step up and have the borough pay the expense,” Franke said. “Pending the results of the survey I’m sure the draft is going to change to either the idea is deader than disco or maybe there’s no real concern about a financial guarantee.”
Franke hopes to collect the surveys by the end of the year and, pending the results, develop a proposal with the Solid Waste Working Group and deliver it to the borough in early 2022. Should the assembly approve a plan to develop a collection site, Franke said he hopes to begin in April 2022 and test it for eight months before deciding whether it’s financially viable and in the public interest.