Pennington Council will hold public hearings on two bond ordinances for the acquisition of a diesel garbage truck and electric garbage truck.
A bond ordinance, which would appropriate $300,000 for the acquisition of a diesel garbage truck, and second bond ordinance appropriating $500,000 for an electric garbage truck, electrical chargers and required electrical improvements for an electrical vehicle garbage truck are on the agenda for a public hearing at the council’s regular meeting on Nov. 2.
“As it stands right now both of our trucks are in pretty rough shape. They are both showing age. They are both down for different reasons,” Superintendent of Public Works Rick Smith said earlier this month in at council Oct. regular meeting.
“At least one has a $30,000 repair unless we decide to pivot and do something with a replacement. We have put an awful lot of money into these trucks over the years. They have seen a lot. A lot of weather, a lot of salt. They are in rough shape.”
Smith’s recommendation is to buy a replacement Leach 20-yard rear loader traditional diesel truck while preparing to move forward with an EV (electric vehicle) garbage truck through a second purchase down the road.
“In a nutshell, diesel in the short term to bridge the gap while planning to move forward and take advantage of the grant program that has been offered to us (electric vehicle garbage truck),” he said.
The diesel garbage will give the borough time to continue the electrical and site work examination at Public Works to determine the future of an electrical vehicle garbage truck and the electrical infrastructure needed to move ahead with electric.
“This starts the path back to a dependable collection service without committing Pennington to an electric vehicle before charging infrastructure, site cost, winter route performance, battery support and backup capacity are established. If an EV is added later, retain the diesel as dependable operational backup,” Smith wrote in his report.
The electrical vehicle and site work examination will be separate readiness project for the next fleet, according to Smith’s report.
“There is quite a bit of preliminary work the borough and I need to focus on to make sure this goes well if we do switch over to EV. If we are going to move forward on some of this stuff, we have to plan now and plan for the money now,” Smith said to council.
“Many times, when I find myself in a position either because of schedule or circumstances to replace vehicles the EV conversation comes up. We are just never quite prepared and I think this outlines how we can prepare for the next step in evolution rather than saying we are going to do it, talk about doing it, let’s take this first step as part of the complete comprehensive look at how we do trash and other collections.”
The borough will be able to use state grant funds to cover costs of the acquisition of electrical vehicle. Borough Administrator Gian-Paolo Caminiti noted that the borough has at least until mid-2028 for the funds that have been earmarked for Pennington, which was initially $1.06 million.
“Right now, this is a very cautious approach to providing stable services going forward. What we don’t want to have is the situation where we have now. Where we have two trucks neither of which is capable of doing the job and maintaining the service,” Caminiti said.
“By having the diesel in place, it allows us to open the door and look at the utility value of the electric. We start small. We walk before we run. If that thing turns out to really work out well. There is nothing preventing us from saying well…let us see if we can resell [the diesel garbage truck] on the used market and then take advantage of a second EV truck if we decide to that.”
Caminiti added that Pennington needs to make sure they have the infrastructure in place for an electrical vehicle garbage truck.
The borough would need to have not only the charging station but the electrical service in the Public Works building able to accommodate the change and would also need a 400-amp dedicated sub panel to do electric.
“Those are electrical changes that need to be done inside the building, but that presupposes that we have enough power on the circuit coming from the pole of PSEG. That needs to be researched,” he said.
“Not that [PSEG] come to us and say oh by the way we wanted a transformer upgrade and that is going to cost you another $100,000. These are not things we want to set ourselves up for. We want to be cautious and prudent. Once we have those markers in place we can move forward.”
