Preview: March 5 Town Council meeting

A sewer-assessment hike of $65*, or 35 percent, renewal of contracts retaining the communications director and grant writer, and approval of a $135,000 outsourcing contract for landscaping head the agenda of the March 5, 2013, Town Council meeting.

The meeting agendas and related materials are here.

The administration is asking the council to approve changing the sewer ordinance to raise the sewer fee to $250 from $185, citing increasing costs to maintain the service and infrastructure. The new fee, which would take effect in 2013, was last changed in 2006. The ordinance is up for approval on the first of two readings.

The administration is requesting renewal of annual contracts for the town’s director of communications/public information officer for $38,000 and the grant writer for $28,000.

The administration is also requesting council approval to renew an annual contract for $135,000 to D’Onofrio & Son for turf maintenance, litter and debris collection, weed control and leaf collection. The contract received four competitive bids, and D’Onofrio was the least expensive in the town’s structuring of the multi-service specifications.

Other agenda items include:

- Request for approval of the annual ordinance setting fees at the town’s Ginny Duenkel Pool.

- An executive session to discuss a legal matter relating to the huge Passaic River pollution lawsuit that’s pulled many New Jersey municipalities, including West Orange, into what’s known as the Occidental Chemical litigation. For more information, please see a recent Star-Ledger story http://bit.ly/XH8xq1.

- Approval of a request to purchase clothing for 14 new firefighters for $44,285 under state contracts.

I’m a West Orange Township councilman since 2010 and can be reached at jkrakoviak@westorange.org. A former financial journalist, I am a business communications consultant in my spare time.

*Changed from $70, originally posted.