New Garbage Contracts To Save Smithtown Taxpayers $500,000 a Year

Smithtown Town officials approved new townwide garbage contracts on Tuesday that should save the taxpayers money and help pickup the town. 

Smithtown Town Board voted unanimously on Thursday morning to award 7 new residential garbage collection contracts to four different carters worth a total of $30 million. The new contracts take effect Jan. 1, 2014. 

Supervisor Patrick Vecchio said the new contracts will save the town approximately $500,000 a year in collection fees for the next 7 years. 

This savings primarily comes from the town's requirement that all garbage carters use trucks that operate using natural gas - one of the first Suffolk townships to do so since 2007. 

"They are now able to buy the equipment quicker and cheaper," Vecchio said. 

The town will also save roughly $150,000 a year as a new provision in the contract makes carters responsible for collecting old furniture and mattresses place curbside instead of the town's park department. 

"For me, it was never about the money but it was about the unsightliness of the town," Vecchio  said. "I hope this brings it to an end." 

Vecchio said many residents would drag their old furniture or mattress to the side of the street, but never call the Parks Department. It left the furniture sitting roadside for weeks.  

The new contracts will also bring an end to the town's carting contract with Medford-based Jody Enterprises, whose two employees are accused of running a recycling scheme that involved collecting Smithtown homeowners' recyclable cardboard and paper to sell it to West Babylon-based DeMatteo Salvage for a personal profit. 

The recycling scheme is estimate to have cost the Town of Smithtown more than $200,000. 

Vecchio said to his knowledge Jody Enterprises did not even submit a bid to continue its garbage collection for the town. 

The new garbage carters by district are: 

• Brother's Waste Services - Districts 1 and 3
• Garafolo - Districts 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12 and Incorporated Villages
• Quick Waste - Districts 4 and 7
• Total Collection - Districts 8 and 9