Controversial Waste Hauling Contract Finalized By Board Of Education

By Eliza Hallabeck

The Board of Education awarded the waste hauling contract in the district to Sandy Hook-based Associated Refuse Haulers during its special meeting on Tuesday, July 14.

Prior to July 1, when the district’s contract with the Danbury firm Automated Waste Disposal (AWD) expired, the firm publicly questioned its failure to secure the contract. AWD has held the contract for garbage hauling in the school district for five years.

According to the bid results for the refuse contract, four companies submitted prices for the three-year contract. For the first year of the contract, AWD bid $54,258, which would stay flat for the full three years of the contract; All American Waste submitted increasing rates over the three-year term starting at $85,662. LoPresti and Sons also submitted increasing rates starting at $83,662. Associated Refuse Haulers submitted increasing rates starting at $80,200, which is shown as a discounted rate from $85,000.

Dr Robinson said the contract that expired had been paying AWD $92,000 a year, and all of the submitted proposals would have saved the district money from what it had been paying. Initial reports from AWD specified a savings from its contract of $85,000 over the three-year term of the contract, but Dr Robinson said when other costs are added the difference is much lower.

At the school board’s meeting, Dr Robinson said AWD had incorrectly specified tonnage for the district, and, as calculated by Mr Faiella, that yearly cost would add $16,000 to the contract. Dr Robinson also said during the meeting the costs for the contract could also include further expenses.

Ms McClure read from letters written at Dr Robinson’s and Director of Facilities Gino Faiella’s request on July 1 from head custodians, and Buildings & Grounds Secretary Karen Dugan.

“I would repeatedly get calls from head custodians at 10 am to 11 am in the morning stating the garbage had never been picked up and lunch wave was starting with full dumpsters,” wrote Ms Dugan. “When I called [AWD] they would always say that they were ‘short handed’ or ‘drivers called in sick’ which was why pick ups were delayed.”

Later in the letter she wrote, “After frustrating conversations with random ‘dispatch’ people there over the years I was give the contact name of Paul Cipolla whenever I had problems. He would ultimately be the one I would always call with the compacter problems. I have spoken to him on many many occasions, but as I understand it he is no longer with their company.”

“I really wish we had someone here from AWD,” Ms McClure said, after reading a letter from Middle Gate Elementary School’s Head Custodian Dennis Petty, who wrote the school had been written up for its dumpster and rodents can be seen coming and going.

“This same dumpster will not hold any liquid I dispose of such as milk and other food substances,” Mr Petty wrote. “On many occasions I need to go out and pick up whatever they spill out of the container when they pick up the refuse. Some days I need to follow the trail they leave on the way out back to Route 25.”

Dr Robinson said no representative was asked for from AWD, but Sandy Hook’s Associated Refuse Haulers’ President and Founder Pat Caruso was present after reading about the school board’s scheduled special meeting in the paper.

“If the equipment is correct and maintained properly, it should be a nonissue,” said Mr Caruso to the school board. “And that’s what we hope to achieve.”

Associated Refuse Haulers has been servicing the recycling in the district, and, since July 1, has been working in the district.

Mr Caruso also asked why AWD would bid much lower than the amount of money they were being paid already by the district.

“Something’s wrong here, and why would a company do that?” he asked. “Speaking as a taxpayer, speaking as a businessman, because the other bids were all close.”

He told the board he wants them to understand that Associated Refuse Haulers wants to have a good relationship with the district.

Board member Richard Gaines moved to accept Associated Refuse Haulers as the new company for the district, and the motion pass unanimously.

Capital Improvement Plan

In other business, the school board discussed its Capital Improvement Plan, which will be presented to the Board of Finance on August 10, as Dr Robinson said, topics included work on the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system at Hawley Elementary School.

“I feel that we should probably take a serious look at it after next year,” Ms Fetchick said, adding that getting more recent information on the project could be necessary. “I think that we should go back and look at the project, since it has been delayed so much.”

Board member David Nanavaty said the Hawley HVAC system first came before the board roughly in the fall of 2003 or the spring of 2004, when he began on the board, and added that the speculations for the project are done. The project just needs to go out to bid, he said.

The Capital Improvement Plan passed the school board with only David Nanavaty voting against it. School board Chair Elaine McClure, Ms Fetchick, and Richard Gaines voted for it.