The cost of your Public Works Department

Oct, 21-2009 5:14 pm

By CLAIRE LOWE
Staff Writer

So far, in this municipal salary series, we’ve explored what your tax dollars pay for in terms of municipal government, from mayor and council, behinds the scenes administration, police, recreation and now public works.
The first question in dealing with any municipal department is finding out what that department covers, so the first question here is “What falls under a public works budget?” For each municipality, the answer differs, but most include buildings and grounds maintenance, trash and recycling collection, street cleaning and road repair and vehicle fleet maintenance.
In some towns, trash and recyclable collection is done in-house while others contract their services out. Is one option cheaper than the other? That answer may not be immediately obvious.
Avalon budgeted $700,000 for trash and recycling contracts in 2008. The borough also budgeted $338,500 for a landscape and lawn care contract. Of the department’s $2.6 million budget, as outlined in its municipal budget document, 38.7 percent went to salaries, 39.8 went to contractual agreements, and the other 21.5 percent went toward other expenses.
Like Avalon, North Wildwood and Middle Township also contract out trash and recyclable collection. Middle Township budgeted $424,500 for a trash removal contract and $335,500 for recyclable collection in 2008.
In 2008, the city of North Wildwood budgeted $590,000, 21 percent of the public works department’s budget, for this service through Waste Management, Inc. for once-a-week collection. That year, the city paid $305,000 for tipping fees.
Salary and wages totaled $1,545,170 for North Wildwood’s public works department in 2008, 56 percent of the total departmental budget of $2,742,870.
“There to provide service regardless of time, weather and situation,” is the motto of this department, overseen by Superintendent Harry Wozunk. The department also maintains streets, city buildings, sewer, storm water system, beaches, vehicle fleet and special events.
The city has a facility at 511 West Oak Ave. to collect household trash and recyclables, as well as electronics for recycling by the county, for North Wildwood residents only.
The department has three administration employees, 22 full-time employees total in public works and fleet maintenance, three full-time employees in building and grounds, four full-time employees in parks department and 18 seasonal employees.
“Generally speaking, the public works department is self-sufficient, having the equipment and facilities we need. However, there are occasions when we reach out to neighboring municipalities. For instance, when a piece of our equipment is being serviced, we might borrow a replacement from others. Or in the case of large equipment that we rarely use, instead of buying it, we borrow it as needed. In addition, we reach out to help other communities as well, like storing rock salt for West Wildwood,” Wozunk said in an e-mail correspondence.
Ocean City contracts out its trash and recycling collection, too. Trash here is collected by Blue Diamond Disposal in Woodbine, which won a contract for $924,000 in 2008. The city contracted out its container service to Earth Tech in Greenfield, N.J. for an additional $146,000. Recycling in Ocean City is done through a contract with the Atlantic County Utilities Authority for $524,818 in 2008.
Jim Rutala, business administrator for Ocean City, said that in 2007, when original bids for trash services came in almost $900,000 above the previous year’s price, the city looked into the cost of providing its own trash collection services. The city rebid and found that they received lower bids than originally obtained.
Rutala said the cost of purchasing, storing and maintaining the trucks and the labor for the jobs was not a financial savings to the city over awarding contracts.
“We also, at the same time, looked at what the cost would be if we provided those services in-house. Obviously, then you have to buy trucks. There are capital costs, as well as operating costs. We found that contracting out was less expensive for Ocean City,” he said.
Size of the municipality is a factor for almost any service provided, and trash collection is no exception. In Ocean City, where there are nearly 23,000 homes and varying populations based on the time of the year, the service level is high. Trash and recycling is collected twice a week in the summer and once a week in the winter.
“Solid waste and recycling costs are among the highest costs in any municipal budget. It’s an expensive service,” Rutala said.
He said the reason for that is that the collection service is very labor intensive and the equipment that is used is expensive. On top of that, there are also fees for disposal of waste at landfills, known as tipping fees.
“The other element in this, which is important, is Ocean City, by having a very aggressive recycling collection, we have seen a continuing increase in the recycling rate and a continuing decrease in the trash rate in the city, which also creates another savings because you pay per ton for trash disposal,” Rutala said.
Tipping fees for the city in 2008 were $630,957.
According to Ocean City’s website, “The department of public works is responsible for the construction, operation and maintenance of public facilities, infrastructure and assets.”
The city’s adopted budget in 2008 was $60,097,230. Public works salaries and wages were as follows: administration, $381,645; operations, $983,070; facility maintenance, $917,730; fleet maintenance, $413,820; field operations $1,062,270. In total, salary and wages were $3,758,535. Other expenses totaled $3,204,630, making the total public works budget $6,963,165, the largest in the county. The department budget was 11.5 percent of the municipal budget for 2008. Salaries and wages are 54 percent of the department budget and 6 percent of the municipal budget.
In Lower Township, trash and recyclable collection is done in-house. Pete Bitting, assistant superintendent of public works, said that the township owns nine trash trucks and six recycling trucks, which are run by 22 workers. Once the trash and recycling are collected, the trucks travel to the Cape May County Transfer Station in Middle Township. Within the 2008 budget, $974,300 was budgeted for sanitary landfill expenses.
Bitting said that he believes collecting trash in house saves money for the township. Administratively, there is Bitting, Superintendent of Public Works Gary Douglass and two secretaries.
In addition to trash collection, the Lower Township Public Works Department also performs a variety of maintenance services.
“We do sweeping, we do the roads, patch roads, storm drain, asphalt. We do it all,” Bitting said.
There is also a public works garage.
In 2008, the township adopted a budget of $23,197,601. The public works department’s total budget in 2008 was $4,094,102. That is broken down into $2,591,332 in salary and wages; $974,300 for sanitary landfill; $305,150 in miscellaneous expenses and $223,320 for public buildings and grounds. Salaries make up 63 percent of the public works budget and 11 percent of the total budget for 2008.
Dennis Township also takes care of its own recycling and trash. Chief Financial Officer Glenn Clarke said the township owns trucks which take the collection directly to the Cape May County Sanitary Landfill in Woodbine. In 2008, the township paid $172,500 in landfill disposal costs, or tipping fees.
The Dennis Township Public Works Department appropriated $630,000 for salary and wages in 2008, and $140,000 in other expenses. The public buildings and grounds cost $55,000 to maintain. The entire public works budget was $825,000 in 2008. About 76 percent of the public works budget was made up of salary and wages.
Of the 2008 township budget, salary and wages for public works was just over 12 percent. Dennis Township budgeted $172,500 for gasoline in 2008, which it buys in bulk. Tipping fees and gasoline are listed in a separate part of the budget.
In Cape May, residents must individually contract with a trash collection agency. Cape May budgeted $35,000 for recycling salary and wages and $406,725 for other recycling expenses, a total of $341,725 for the recycling line item. Joe Picard, assistant superintendent for the Cape May Public Works Department, said that recycling is contracted out to Blue Diamond through a bid process and gets collected once a week. The city’s sanitary landfill contract totaled $32,000 in 2008.
The Cape May Public Works Department includes administrative office, buildings and grounds department, streets and roads department, traffic maintenance department, and recycling. The department oversees the care and maintenance of streets, public buildings, lands, parks, playgrounds, beaches, the Washington Street Mall, the promenade and boardwalk, storm sewer systems, motor vehicles, etc.
Cape May budgeted $35,000 for recycling salary and wages and $406,725 for other recycling expenses, a total of $441,725 for the recycling line item. The salary and wages for recycling are for the recycling drop off station, said Robert Smith, Cape May Public Works Superintendent.
“We provide a convenience drop-off station and it has to be manned. Often times the seashore resorts provide this service,” Smith said. The facility is open to residents and visitors to drop off recycling items if they choose.
The 2008 city budget of $14.1 million included $1,068,800 in public works salaries and wages, 52 percent of the public works total budget ($2,049,025) and about 7 percent of the city’s total budget in 2008.  
Other expenses for road repair and maintenance, recycling, public buildings and ground, the Shade Tree Commission, sanitary landfill and property maintenance enforcement totaled $980,225. The city’s sanitary landfill contract totaled $32,000 in 2008.
West Cape May budgeted $140,000 for the borough’s contract with Waste Management. The borough provides its own recycling collection once a week. Salary and wages for recycling totaled $29,000 and other expenses were budgeted at $4,000.
The total department budget is $261,800 and also includes parks and playgrounds, Shade Tree Commission, Environmental Commission, and expenses for recycling and garbage and trash removal, recreation, engineering, road repairs and maintenance, public buildings and grounds and the director’s office. Salaries and wages total $82,000 for public works, 31 percent of the department budget, and almost 4 percent of the municipal budget.
Cape May Point contracts Blue Diamond Disposal Inc. of Woodbine for recyclables and Waste Management of South Jersey for trash collection. The 2008 trash removal budget was $59,500 and the recycling budget was $22,250. In Cape May Point, the borough has a Department of Public Works, Parks and Public Property under the direction of Commissioner Joe Nietubicz. The department includes the public works employees, the borough engineer, recycling and trash collection and beach restoration.
The total public works budget was $221,850 in 2008. The total budgeted salary and wages was $71,600, 32.2 percent of the public works budget and 4.6 percent of the total budget. Contracts for trash and recycling make up almost 37 percent of the public works budget for 2008.
Wildwood, which has three municipal departments divided by three commissioners, had the second largest public works budget in the county at $4,985,900, 18.2 percent of the total municipal budget for 2008. Salaries and wages totaled $3,453,500, or 69 percent of the department’s budget, and include the commissioner of the department, Mayor Ernie Troiano, superintendent Kevin Verity, Supervisor of Sanitation Robert Anderson and employees of building maintenance and repair, the redevelopment agency, boardwalk facility and construction, parks, street maintenance, traffic marking, seasonal comfort station, seasonal boardwalk and mall cleaning, recreation, environmental maintenance, fleet maintenance, recycling, trash, Land Use Administration and Urban Enterprise Zone. Other expenses in this department totaled $1,532,400 in 2008, and included $440,000 in tipping fees.
In West Wildwood, the municipal budget passed in 2008 was $2,271,384, and the Department of Public Works, also one of three municipal departments, had a budget of $226,432. Salary and wages totaled $117,112, or 51 percent of the department’s budget. Commissioner Gerard McNamara oversees West Wildwood Public Works Department; the supervisor is Fran Pellegrino.
Wildwood Crest also has three commissioners, and the Department of Public Works here includes public works, beach cleaning, sanitation, parks and buildings, sewerage and fleet maintenance. It also includes tourism, Recreation Commission and recreation buildings and the contribution to the Urban Enterprise Zone. Without the aforementioned items, the total department budget was $2,125,201 in 2008. Salaries and wages totaled $1,351,551, or 63.5 percent of the department budget. Other expenses totaled $773,650. The total municipal budget for 2008 in Wildwood Crest was $18,615,768.
Sea Isle City spent 79 percent, or $2,057,919, of its public works budget on salary and wages in 2008. The public works department salaries and wages included administration, road repairs and maintenance, street cleaning, solid waste management, garbage and trash removal, public buildings and grounds and shore protection.
Other expenses totaled $538,631 and included contractual expenses for garbage and trash removal and miscellaneous expenses, American with Disabilities Act and the Historical Commission. The total public works budget was $2,596,550 in 2008. The municipal budget for that year was $17,413,341.
Stone Harbor’s public works department budget in 2008 was broken up into 74 percent salary and wages, 10.5 percent solid waste collection expenses, 7.5 percent public buildings and grounds, 2.5 percent Natural Resources Committee and 5.5 percent other expenses. The total department budget was $1,779,069. Salaries and wages included $784,613 for general public works and $533,629 for solid waste collection.
In Upper Township in 2008, salaries and wages for road repairs and maintenance was $625,000; for recycling $625,000; for garbage and trash $480,000; and for public buildings and grounds $79,000. Total salary and wages was $1,809,000, or 67 percent of the department budget of $2,692,800. Other expenses totaled $883,800, $390,000 of which was tipping fees.