Road and Drainage Projects Discussed During Budget Process

In the latest round of budget discussions in Jefferson, the council approved a resolution for the township’s two fire departments to buy eight new air packs now before the price goes up.

“The air pack is the most important piece of equipment that the guys carry into a fire with them,” said Ed Mangold, Jefferson’s head of the OEM. “The length of service for air packs is regulated by OSHA. We have some that will go out of service this year.”

The air packs cost between $4,000 and $5,000, Mangold said, and by purchasing them now, the township was able to avoid a price increase, and get a free air bottle with each air pack.

The council also perused the DPW budget requests for 2011, after discussion with DPW head Jeff Elam.

“While we have made a lot of progress, we still have a lot of catching up to do on drainage projects and catch basin work,” Elam said. “Part of the proposed budget will go toward that work.”

The budget proposal also calls for upgrading snow removal equipment, and adding data logging systems to the trucks.

“We would be able to track where the trucks go, which will help if we get complaints from residents,” Elam said. “We can track exactly when the truck was last at the site of a complaint.”

The DPW would also consider adding data logging transmitters to contractors’ snow removal trucks.

“I think these would help, because we had to let two contractors go this year because of performance issues,” Elam said.

Elam said that he would also like to see repairs to some of the snow plows, and the upgrade of material spreaders.

The DPW would also like to obtain a new sweeper and vacuum truck, and is looking into an EPA grant that would match 55% of the cost.

“We really need to upgrade the sweeper truck, as the one we have now is very old, and won’t work for the work we have planned for it this season,” Elam said. “We won’t get rid of it, though. We will use the old one to remove sludge from the sewerage plant.”

Finally, Elam said that the DPW has budgeted $25,000 to contractors for catch basin and inlet repairs.

“Using contractors will allow us to be more timely on these repairs,” he said. “We can get about 100 basins done for $25,000.”