Cranbury Committee Approves $47K Public Works Upgrade, Plans Tree Planting

[Guest]

The township will upgrade the waste removal system this year to reduce future costs on the maintenance of its vehicles.

The Township Committee unanimously approved a $47,105 bid Tuesday to revamp the waste removal system at the public works facility. The main upgrade is to create a sanitary sewer lateral line extending from the building to a sewer across the street. An oil/water separator will also be installed in the facility so that runoff from the cleaning of public works vehicles doesn’t disrupt the sewer lines.

A major feature of this new plan is to allow public works vehicles to be cleaned more regularly by the township. Currently, the township hires an outside company to occasionally come to Cranbury to power-wash the vehicles. Township Engineer William Tanner, who presented this proposal to the committee, said while the current system might seem more cost-effective, updating the facility will ultimately save the township money.

“It’s almost like a ‘pay me now or pay me later’ type of thing,” Tanner said. “In the short run–for the next five or six years–[what we’re doing now] is the better deal,” he continued, but beyond that it won’t be.

Committeeman Jay Taylor agreed with Tanner that public utility trucks should be maintained more consistently. Taylor cited a $10,950 expense last month for what he described as a “total rebuild of the fuel system on one of the trucks.” When salt from roadways kicks up underneath the trucks and then isn’t properly cleaned, damage such as this can occur over time.

http://eastwindsor.patch.com/articles/cranbury-committee-approves-47k-public-works-upgrade-plans-tree-planting

[Guest]

Here is something interesting in the article.

In other news, Taylor announced the results of a study done to determine how often the township’s fire and rescue sirens went off in the last month. Out of the 102 total fire or first aid calls, the siren only sounded 19 times in the month. Taylor called the sirens, which arose as a source of resident complaints at a December meeting, “not a significant issue, at least from my point of view right now.”

Seems to me that the siren being silent on about 80% of the calls is fine with me since they are day time and day weekend times.