In Effort to Save Money, Borough DPW Will Look to Hire Seasonal Employees

The borough's Department of Public Works will look to hire seasonal employees in an effort to save money while keeping essential services intact.

The employees would do things such as help keep the department's water plant running and pick up trash. Those are the types of things that are harder to maintain when the fall approaches, according to department director Bob Venezia.

The employees would likely start work toward the end of October and would remain on hand through mid-December, when leaf collection grinds to a halt.

"(We're) just trying to keep the essential services going while most of our crew is working on leaf collection," Venezia said.

It's been easier to find those types of seasonal employees recently. That's because the economy has caused some former department of public works employees to be laid off from various departments. Others have retired.

In short, the borough department has high hopes it will be able to find such employees for the fall.

There is one vacancy in the department, and one DPW employee is out with a long-term injury. The department also lost a grass contract earlier this year, meaning the department is essentially down three men, or 120 man hours.

Venezia said he will post advertisements in the newspaper in an effort to find the seasonal employees.

There had been some discussion about the borough's leaf collection schedule being reduced or modified because of the vacancies. But Venezia said the department is now planning to maintain the same schedule it had last year. Last year, the department had three vacuums going around town at any given moment, and all the leaves were picked up by early December.

He said the seasonal employees, since they are cheaper to hire (they are not given benefits), will allow that to happen.

"They would supplement the hours that we need," Venezia said.

Venezia said the department could also hire seasonal employees in the spring if there is a need to do so.