$2M Contract Awarded for Automated Recycling Trucks

The township council unanimously awarded a contract to a Pennsylvania company to deliver eight automated recycling collection trucks to Brick.

The council awarded a $2,064,120 contract for the trucks to Gran Turk Company of Bridgeport, Pa.

The contract calls for the trucks – Peterbilt models – to be delivered within 180 days, though Public Works Director Glenn Campbell has said the trucks may be delivered as early as April.

The township will eventually purchase 95 gallon cans which will be compatible with the trucks, with each household in town being issued one. Recycling collection, once the program is in place, will shift to once every other week instead of a once per week schedule.

The move to automated recycling is expected to generate additional revenue for the township, as Brick receives grant funding in return for higher recycling participation, as well as a savings on tipping fees that would be paid to landfills when recyclable items are discarded as trash.

There was one objector to the award of the contract, attorney Michael Wenning of the Bradley Beach-based law firm of Keith, Winters and Wenning.

Wenning said he represented one of the losing bidders, Detcon, of Farmingdale.

Wenning said his client bid based on specifications that called for 8 gauge steel resistant to 100,000psi of pressure, while the winning bid was awarded to a company that had proposed thinner, 12 gauge steel resistant to 80,000psi of pressure.

If his client had bid based on the specification that was actually awarded, the price would have been "substatially lower," said Wenning.

Dennis Kelly, an attorney with Gilmore and Monahan representing the township, advised the council the award of the bid could go forward.

"At this point, the bid, as awarded … was done appropriately," said Kelly.

Wenning said his client intends to "pursue this issue."