Welcome to the board OntheBlvd.
Perhaps I can clear things up regarding the garbage. There are three parts to it, the Ordinance the Contract, and the Bid.
The supervisors can change or remove the Ordinance whenever they feel like it.
The Contract is for Five years and it is somewhat binding on the parties being the Township and Waste Management but that contract is full of holes.
The contract refers to the Bid and the Bid states the amount of money that waste management will receive per dwelling.
The annual rate beginning January 1, of each year per dwelling including recycling follows:
2004: $229.44
2005: $236.40
2006: $243.48
2007: $255.72
2008: $268.56
That is the reason for the increase. It is built into the contract.
The discounts that some people are receiving are not in the contract or the Bid so I do not think that it is binding on WM. In fact, the amount of money that WM is to receive for each year is totaled based on 958 dwellings. So If WM does not receive all of the money because of discounts, WM could sue that township and the taxpayers are stuck again. On the other hand, waste WM could simply stop giving the discounts and the seniors and disabled would get hit.
Anyway it is just part of the sloppy legal work that is done by the Township Lawyer. The contract looks like it was some sort of fill in the blank contract. He didn’t even bother to take out the word Borough. On the first page it says Three contract years, later it says Five.
Hmm… Need I say any more.
I have copies of all three documents and I will try to put them on this website.