Nesquehoning council looks into sanitation contract

Nesquehoning is working on its sanitation contract.

Last week, borough council said that the sanitation committee is figuring out the specifications and will be putting it out to bid by July. The current sanitation contract with Tamaqua Transfer expires Sept. 30.

Councilwoman Rosemary Porembo said that council is looking at writing a recycling option into the specs at the requests of borough residents, but said that because recycling profits are down, council isn’t sure if any vendors will bid on that portion of the contract.

“We listened to our residents and are trying to get a portion for recycling, but we don’t know if it will happen,” she said.

Nesquehoning’s recycling program ended Sept. 29, 2017, after Solomon Containers terminated the contract because they stopped serving the area.

Since then, residents have been putting their recycling in with their weekly trash, and council had been weighing its options about if recycling should return, but with little success, noting that any quotes the borough received were at least triple what it had been paying for the service with Solomon.

Council now hopes to approve a new sanitation contract for the borough by the end of September.

In other matters, council acted on or discussed the following items.

• Approved extra police officers and crossing guards during the borough’s Memorial Day weekend activities, including the Nesquehoning UVO’s ceremonies at the outlying cemeteries on May 26; and the Memorial Day parade on May 27.

• Announced that there are openings on the recreation commission, and if anyone is interested in serving on the commission to send a letter of interest to the borough.

• Accepted the resignation of officer Derek Marouchoc, effective April 16. Marouchoc was hired as a full-time police officer in November.