Garbage deal smells good for village

Garbage trucks in Malverne now have a new route: they head out to West Babylon, instead of Westbury, after trash pick-ups are completed.

The village recently signed a five-year contract with Omni Recycling of Babylon, Inc., marking the end of a roughly three-year process to find a more cost-effective and environment-friendly way for the village to dispose of its trash. The village's 20-year garbage contract with the Town of Hempstead and Covanta, a facility that converts waste into energy, expired on Aug. 18.

"This whole process shows that elected officials can work together to find the best way to save the taxpayers' money while continuing a great quality of service for the village," said Malverne Trustee Joseph Hennessy, who spearheaded efforts to find the village a new contract. "We wanted to find ways to cut costs and that's what we did."

The town first offered the village a new 25-year contract towards the closing of 2007, under which, the village would have been charged $88 per ton for its garbage disposal. Then the town decreased its price in early 2008 to $74 a ton, but Hennessy said he still believed that the village could find a less costly alternative. In February 2008, seven villages — including Malverne, Rockville Centre and East Rockaway — agreed to conduct a study to find a cheaper deal.

After reviewing Request for Proposals from four garbage bidders — Omni, Covanta, Waste Management and Royal — in the fall of last year, Hennessy said, village officials carefully reviewed the expenses, contract terms, savings, and benefits of each proposal.

And although Omni's location is farther than Covanta's site in Westbury when considering the total distance to and from Malverne, the village still chose to go into an agreement with Omni. Hennessy noted that the savings and flexibility with Omni's contract, among other reasons, made Omni's deal the best one for the village.

Omni is charging the village $69.75 a ton with no minimum amount of garbage, $50 a ton for yard waste, $12 a ton for recycling and the contract is renewable three more times after the current five-year deal expires. Each renewed contract, village officials said, would also be a five-year agreement.

"The way the deal works is the Village of Malverne and Omni have the option of getting out of the contract after every five years," Hennessy explained. "We're pleased with the Omni deal and what it offers for this village."

The village also opted to drive its garbage to the Omni site in West Babylon instead of using a neighboring transfer station in Rockville Centre or Valley Stream, a possibility that was mentioned at several Board of Trustees meetings earlier this year. The transfer station option, however, is still something that village officials may consider looking into in the near future.

Malverne Mayor Patricia McDonald, along with Rockville Centre Mayor Mary Bossart and East Rockaway Mayor Ed Sieban, each signed a solid waste disposal contract with Omni for their villages at Malverne Village Hall on Sept 14.

And so far, village officials said, the new route to and from West Babylon has been running smoothly. Paul Jessup, the superintendent of the village's Department of Public Works, said the trip to Omni takes anywhere between 40 minutes to a hour on a normal day.

"With the new route, our trucks actually get back to the village close to the same time as when they went to Covanta in Westbury because they had to wait on a line at Covanta," Jessup explained. "At Omni, there's no waiting. We get there, we make our drop off and we're right out of there, so the new route is working out really well."

Comments about this story? DWilliams@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205.