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The paver work being performed at the municipal building is part of a capital project that was approved in 2015, according to Ben Young.
Young is the township committee liaison to the public works department.
“It’s all part of a capital project approved in 2015,” Young said. “Because the trees were old and limbs were coming down out front of the municipal building, we decided to tackle relandscaping.”
“It’s the municipal building, police department and public works. The project was approved between the $30,000-$40,000 range. We have done the landscaping at public works. We are now wrapping up the landscaping at the police department and the municipal building.”
The only items the township did not handle during the project were irrigation work and the pavers being installed around the flag poles and memorial.
“First of all, we’re shorthanded most of the time anyway,” Young said. “We’re 1/3 of the size we were 10 years ago. We had 24 or 25 people back in 2006. Now we have 18. The project itself was done by public works outside of a couple of items. We bought the materials and our guys planted them.”
“Our size incorporates us to do three or four things really well. We snow plow the town without outside contractors. We do our own leaf pickup, brush pickup and paving in the summertime.”
The township approved another capital project that will allow them to update the paving around the buildings.
“We did the modifications to the curbs this summer,” Young said. “It was done by a third party because it was part of our annual ADA curb project.”
The township requested quotes for the paver project at the municipal building.
“When you’re under $7,000 or $8,000 you can request quotes,” Young said. “Bailey Landscaping gave us the best price. Most people don’t want to do township work, surprisingly enough. We solicit local bids all the time, but there’s paperwork involved and most don’t want to do the paperwork.”
Young mentioned the money the township saves by paving its own roads.
“We do our street paving for 1/3 the cost of other towns because we do it in-house. We’ve been getting it better and better every year because we’ve changed our methods for prepping, we’ve changed our asphalt mix and we’ve spent a lot more effort now making sure the grades work.”
Young acknowledged how much work the public works department did on the capital project.
“We did 90 percent of the work in-house and we contracted the little bit out where we don’t have the expertise.”
“Here’s an example; if we get a storm sewer that’s more than 6-8 feet in the ground, we contract the repair out. We contract it out because we don’t have the equipment. Why would we own equipment that just sits around and that we don’t use everyday? We own loaders and backhoes that are used everyday. When you go down in the ground more than four or five feet, everyone would have to be trained in confined space. For the number of times per year we face that problem, it makes no sense. You have to be more efficient with your time allocation.”
Young mentioned the storm drain work that was recently completed on New Albany Road as another example.
“We just did a storm drain job on New Albany Road. We put that out to bid and it was done by someone from either Southampton or Shamong. If we did that project, we wouldn’t be able to pick up the leaves or the brush because our guys would’ve been committed on that job.”
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