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Joint pricing consortium a great venture
Administrators in the
Pascack
Valley should be commended for the effort they are putting forth to save taxpayer money through economy of scale.
For some time now, the administrators have held regular meetings to discuss their towns, their similarities and differences. This year, the administrators are putting that knowledge to good use, as they are preparing joint bids for projects such as road resurfacing, leaf removal, and quality of life issues, such as goose abatement.
Not only are they looking into cooperative pricing, each administrator is taking the lead on specific projects, in some cases leading to further reduction in costs. Looking at the roads, Woodcliff Lake Administrator Ed Sandve, a professional engineer, is preparing the specs, which will save an estimated $90,000 in engineering fees.
With taxes climbing every year faster than towns and many taxpayers can keep pace with, it’s going to take extraordinary efforts like this – it’s going to require sharing of equipment and knowledge, and one day, personnel – to make a budget viable for the taxpayers supporting it.
Without these efforts, without cooperation and forward thinking, residents will be forced to cope with a reduction in services, and, one day, towns may be forced to deal with trying to replace many of the men and women who help make the Pascack Valley what it is as they move to other, more affordable places.
On behalf of its readers, Community Life thanks the administrators for their work and the towns for supporting them as they pass the resolutions for the consortium in the coming weeks.
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