Trying to save taxpayer bucks: Bernards Twp. municipal engineers pitch in to help school district
The Bernards Township's municipal engineering department has begun pitching in to plan and oversee some projects in local schools as the result of an agreement between the township and the school district that will save thousands of taxpayer dollars in the coming year, officials said.
"It's a good shared service,'' said Nick Markarian, school business administrator. He said the agreement, given final Township Committee approval on Tuesday, will save the school district an architect's fee of approximately 10 percent on the proposed $300,000 repaving of
the Cedar Hill elementary school parking lot later this summer.
The school district also expects to save on fees for the preparation and oversight of a proposed $120,000 job to repair sidewalks, curbing and to improve drainage in local schools, Markarian said.
The township committee last Tuesday night awarded a contract for the $120,000 worth of improvements along with the agreement to provide engineering services to the school district. The school district will reimburse the township for the contract amount, said Township Administrator Bruce McArthur.
Mayor Scott Spitzer and members of the township committee said the agreement is a good way to reduce overall costs for local taxpayers.
The state's vote last week to place a 2 percent budget cap on local municipal and school budgets next year makes it even more important than before for the municipality to cooperate with the Board of Education to reduce costs, said Township Committeeman John Malay. "We are all in the same boat at this point,'' Malay said.
Markarian said the school board already has authorized the agreement. McArthur said the agreement specifies that the municipal engineering department will prepare specifications for bids on contracts for the school. The department will follow up with construction management for the projects, he said. However, both administrators said the municipal engineers will not handle school additions or similar construction projects.
Earlier this year, the school district had settled with Aramark Corp. of Philadelphia after a former employee of that company was accused of bilking township schools of $2.1 million to manage similar projects during a five-year period. Markarian said Aramark, which reimbursed
the district for those funds, continues to provide routine maintenance in local schools. However, he said Aramark has not been in charge of managing larger projects such as repaving since July 2009.
Markarian said he expects similar agreements between school systems and towns to become more common as the state's municipalities search for ways to save tax dollars in the coming years.