Public Works director calls to privatize trash collection

MIDDLEBORO – The Department of Public Works director wants to privatize Middleboro’s curbside trash and recycling collection.

Director of Public Works Christopher Peck sent a letter to the Middleboro Select Board on Aug. 26 calling for the change.

The private company would complete weekly trash pickup and bi-weekly recycling pickup. The town would still be responsible for billing residents and delivering trash and recycling containers.

Only the people collecting the trash would change, Peck said. Trash would still be collected on Tuesdays and Fridays.

He said that the cost of trash collection would go up, but that it would increase about the same amount if the town did not hire a private company.

In the letter, Peck said that the Department of Public Works has been unable to “fill vacant sanitation driver positions.” Highway Department staff have had to fill in at the Sanitation Department, he wrote, which has made it hard for those staff to do their jobs.

Peck told Nemasket Week that staffers’ responsibilities change daily, but that the Sanitation Department always has at least one shortage. 

Trash collection is always the priority, he said. But this means that Highway Department staffers can’t do as much as they would like on their own projects since they have to fill in on collections. 

Peck also said that four of the seven trucks in the town’s fleet need to be replaced. He described these four, which were built in 2015, as being “past their prime.”

“They’re held together with duct tape at this point,” he said.

Replacing the four trucks would cost the town around $2 million, according to the letter. A new truck would take a year to build, Peck said.

If the town does not privatize collection, Peck said, it would have to raise wages to attract new truck drivers and mechanics. The Department of Public Works pays drivers a starting wage of $25.60 per hour, while more experienced drivers make $32.43 per hour. Private companies start at around $30 per hour, Peck said.

If the town were to increase the starting wage, they could only increase it so much. Peck said that union rules put a cap on how high a starting wage can get. 

“It’s very hard to attract somebody to this job,” he said. “That’s why we’re down that many positions.”

The town needs to perform an analysis to figure out which option will cost more. But the costs will go up regardless of who is driving the truck, Peck said. 

“Whether we keep it and do it internally, or we privatize, the rates have to go up because the costs are going up,” he said. “That’s just the nature of the business, unfortunately. Diesel costs are up. Employee rates are going to go up at some point. Insurance costs are up.”

The benefit of a contract with a private company, Peck said, is that the town knows what it has to pay over a certain period.

Peck has been in conversation with two companies, but has not chosen a finalist to recommend to the Select Board.

Peck has been trying to form a solution for this problem for two years, but he felt that the Select Board had dragged its feet on the issue.

Select Board member Brian Giovanoni said that trash collection has not been on the forefront of people’s radars over the past year because of the town’s budget issues.

“It should’ve been done a year ago or six months ago,” Giovanoni said.

Giovanoni said that the town should look at all of its options, but that he wants to continue having trash picked up instead of having people bring their trash to the town’s landfill themselves. He said he supports Peck’s plan of privatizing only collections and having the town manage the rest of the process.

Whatever the solution is, he said it should be made sooner rather than later.

Peck spoke about the proposal at a Sept. 2 Water and Sewer Commission meeting. He is scheduled to speak to the Middleboro Select Board at its Sept. 21 meeting.