Macomb Township Trustees amend garbage ordinance, approve contracts

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — It was a short session for the Macomb Township Board of Trustees on Aug. 9, with the board mostly focusing on housekeeping items and formalities.

One such item was the approval of amendments to the township’s garbage collection ordinance.

“In the renegotiation and bidding process of awarding a new waste hauler, the selection committee had identified a number of areas in which our ordinance was inconsistent with the requested services and the terms of those services so our ordinance had to be amended to account for the new contract that is being negotiated,” Macomb Township Supervisor Frank Viviani said. “Once this ordinance is approved, counsel and I will finish negotiating with GFL and the new contract will be presented to the board in the next meeting or two.”

Changes include adding mandatory hazardous waste disposal and shred days, setting new weights for containers (wheeled 64-gallon carts can be 100 pounds, 95-gallon carts can be 125 pounds and bags can be 50 pounds), addressing the responsibilities regarding electronic waste and shred waste, amending the delinquency date and adding a policy for the temporary and permanent suspension of services.

Trustees approved the amendments unanimously.

 

Custodial contract extension
Master Maintenance, the custodial provider for the Department of Public Works and Parks and Recreation Department, had its contract extended and responsibilities expanded. For about $154,392, Master Maintenance will perform cleaning services for the departments, in addition to cleaning for the Township Hall and Macomb Township Fire Department.

“The township routinely does carpet cleaning, tiling and grout cleaning, things of that nature,” DPW Director Kevin Johnson said. “They’ve been using other vendors that come in individually that typically fall under the $8,000 limit. … By utilizing (Master Maintenance), we’ll be saving significantly on these services that we routinely use throughout the township.”

Trustee Frank Cusumano initially stated he would vote no due to the contract’s expanded services being awarded without a bid process and the lack of a confirmation of process memo. Treasurer Leon Drolet proposed an amendment to have a confirmation of process memo produced for the next meeting and included in the meeting packet. This was “acceptable” to Cusumano and the contract was approved unanimously.

Other contracts approved by the board include $24,750 for Advanced Pools, to resurface parts of the aquatic center; $46,226 for Vermont Systems, for recreation registration software for the next three years; and $517,038 for Italia Construction Inc., to perform work as part of the 2023 Pathway Gap Closure Program.

 

Water main breaks postmortem
During the portion of the meeting reserved for trustee comments, Viviano and Drolet spoke about the township’s response to the Aug. 1 water main breaks.

“I want to commend our water department, the GLWA, the road department, our sheriffs, our Fire Department, everybody that worked very quickly and very harmoniously to get that problem solved,” Viviano said. “We restored pressure in the township within four hours, and we were pretty fortunate to have such a highly skilled and efficient staff. They had a few other water main breaks to clean up. They worked very hard for a couple of days, and everybody pitched in townshipwide. Every department did what they could to help out and make sure they had the support, residents had the information.”

According to Viviano, about 1,800 cases of water were distributed to residents in the aftermath of the breaks.