A sign indicating how to sign up for the “Savvy Citizen” app stands outside North Wales Borough Hall on Tuesday, July 25 2023. Photo by Dan Sokil | The Reporter.
Council could fund formal study in upcoming budget
As North Wales takes up talks on their 2026 budget and goals, a hot topic could be back on the agenda.
“It’s been on the parking lot, or old business report: to look at a single trash hauler. We’ve talked about this for 25 years or more,” said Borough Manager Christine Hart.
“I’ve done a ton of research, there’s pros and cons. I could talk for two hours about it,” she said.
In fall 2024 council and its planning commission sent out a resident survey asking for feedback on an update to the ‘North Wales 2040’ comprehensive plan adopted in 2018 after a series of public input meetings over the prior two years.
Since the 2040 plan was finalized, the council and the planning commission have taken up several of its recommendations, and in February council discussed those survey results, hearing that a look at a single trash hauler was among the top priorities from residents who ranked their sustainability goals. Over the summer, the council held talks on formalizing a ‘parking lot’ of ideas up for long-term discussion, and new council members were appointed in August and September, with two more newcomers running unopposed for election in November.
During a lengthy presentation on the proposed 2026 budget on Oct. 14, Hart said one of the big questions for council to consider will be the trash hauler topic and whether to fund a formal study.
“If council is serious about having me do that, it’s something that I personally will not be doing. It will be a consultant, because it’s a full-time job, to go out and do the bidding, to put together the legal documents,” she said.
“It’s a binding contract. Once you stop, you’re not going back. It’s a very serious consultant contract, and I kind of need to know if we’re going to be putting that (cost) in the budget,” Hart said.
Lansdale Borough held similar talks over the past decade, with the most intense discussion in 2015-17 when that council sought bids from several private haulers to perform trash pickup for the entire town, and compared those costs to those for setting up a municipal department to do so. Lansdale’s council ultimately rejected all but one bid due to incomplete applications; their public works committee recommended accepting it, but then the full council voted against based on resident outcry and requests to continue being able to choose their own company.
Acting North Wales council president Mark Tarlecki said he’s been on that town’s council since the early 2000s and heard the topic discussed often, but with no definitive answer.
“I think, and I would think everybody would agree, we have to get the dollar amount on the consulting costs, but I think everybody would agree we should move forward on that, and make that a priority for next year when we seat the new council,” he said.
He then asked if the manager had an estimate of the costs for the engineer to perform the study, and Hart said she’d put out inquiries to nearby municipalities that have had similar talks to get their estimates. Council VP Wendy McClure added that she recently read coverage of Ambler Borough discussing their trash hauler, and suggested that they be a point of contact.
“I’m sure they’ve done a lot of the homework,” McClure said.
Talks on the 2026 budget are slated to continue over the next two months before a final budget is adopted in December, and once that budget is finalized and new council members sworn in, that group could take up detailed talks in the new year.
“We’ll put it on the back burner, but let’s look into it,” Tarlecki said.
North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 28 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street; for more information, visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.
