West Chester Borough Will Not Privatize Trash

voted 5-2 Wednesday night to reject all bids to privatize trash service.  The borough considered eliminating the public trash service as a way to save $85,000 to close part of a $600,000 budget deficit for 2012.

"My fear in privatizing is that after three years our employees will be gone; our trucks will be gone, and down the road costs are going to go up," said council member Tom Paxson.  "We could be in a worse spot five years from now."

The bid from A.J. Blosenski, Inc. was for a three-year contract, and several members of council expressed concerns about what would happen to costs once the contracts expired.

Council member John Manion argued that cutting the trash service was necessary for the borough's long-term financial health.

"We have guys here with kids and wives," Manion said.  "This one tears me up inside.  But these are hard dollar costs, and we need a solution that's not a band-aid."

Council member Jim Jones said that cutting the trash department won't fix the borough's future budget woes, and that the borough shouldn't cut a service people like.

"I hear a lot of fear about future budgets," Jones said.  "But those costs don't belong to the trash department.  The goal is to not cut a service that people like, but to fix the problem next year with contract negotiations."

Next year, the labor contract for all the borough's public employees are up for negotiations, and the borough hopes it can alleviate some of its costs through concessions made by the unions.

"The real meat of the issue is liability and pension costs," Manion said.  "They are the root causes of our problems."

West Chester resident John Hutchinson said that he's happy with the way trash service is.

"I think we should raise taxes to keep trash as is," Hutchinson said.  "If 100 percent of the residents are happy, why go against that?"

Council president Holly Brown added, "We can balance the budget this year, and see what happens with negotiations next year.  But I want to make a point that we need to take our long-term costs seriously."

Manion and Brown were the two council members who voted in favor of privatizing trash.