Whitetail Disposal reported a 99.86% success rate in its first month of operation in Salisbury Township.

The statistic is contained in a January report presented by Paul Brady, president & CEO, Whitetail Disposal, who attended the Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners’ Feb. 22 meeting.

Township commissioners approved a three-year, $6-million municipal solid waste and recycling contract Dec. 14, 2023, with Whitetail Disposal, Perkiomenville, Montgomery County.

Residents and township officials at the Feb. 22 meeting and at recent township meetings have praised Whitetail.

“I’m impressed with the service, the responsiveness and the communication,” Salisbury Township Manager Cathy Bonaskiewich said to a reporter for The Press after the Feb. 22 meeting.

During the meeting, two residents voiced concern about moving the new township-provided 95-gallon garbage containers and 65-gallon recycling containers down long, sloping driveways to the curb and back again at their residences.

A township ordinance requires empty garbage and recycling containers to not be left at the curb in front of a residence.

“We have a draft ready to go” [to change the ordinance],” Salisbury Township Assistant Manager, Director, Community Development Sandy Nicolo said during the meeting. ”We’re not enforcing it,” Nicolo said of the ordinance.

“We’re allowing residents to leave containers at the end of driveways,” Commissioner Alex Karol said.

“On our part, we’d be willing to work with you,” Brady said to the two residents at the meeting.

“We do have a special route where we have a follow-up crew. And we can change routes,” Brady said.

“We just have to have a procedure in place,” board of commissioners President Debra Brinton said.

In his Service Overview Salisbury January report, copies of which were provided to township officials and obtained by The Press, Brady said the 99.86% success rate by Whitetail Disposal is based on 50,025 pickups and 68 service challenges.

Of the 68 confirmed service challenges of 50,025 pickups identified by Whitetail, two were resolved before a resident outreach and 39 reported service challenges were determined to be resident error.

Residential outreach totaled 1,086, according to the January report. Of these, 68 percent or 734 were phone calls, 31 percent or 343 were emails and 1% or nine were live chats.

Total tonnage collected in January was 461.11 tons. There was 348.71 tons of trash and 112.40 tons of recycling. There were 197 bulk items scheduled and 247 bulk items collected.

Brady said contributing factors were the speed of the startup of Whitetail operations in the township and snowstorms.

“Thank you very much for the report. This is a first,” Brinton said to Brady.

In other business at the Feb. 22 meeting, commissioners voted 4-0 with one commissioner absent to approve a motion accepting a time extension to Aug. 31 for the land development at 2638 W. Rock Road, which is Adventure Place at Mountain Home. The project by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania is west of the Interstate 78 interchange at Summit Lawn on South Mountain.

“The reason [for the extension] is that we’ve received approval for the sewer module from DEP [Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection]. We want to go before the [township] planning commission,” Attorney Kendra L. Eden, Fitzpatrick Lentz Bubba Attorneys at Law, representing the Girl Scouts, said at the Feb. 22 meeting.

“The DEP has approved the planning module,” Attorney Jason A. Ulrich, partner, Gross McGinley, Attorneys at Law, LLP, Salisbury Township solicitor, said at the meeting. “The letter was issued for final approval,” Ulrich said.

Township commissioners voted 5-0 at the Sept. 14, 2023, meeting to approve revisions to the project’s sewer module.

The Girl Scouts have owned the 15.21-acre site and operated it as a private recreation area since 1952.

The Girl Scouts submitted a sketch plan for Adventure Place to the township planning commission at its Dec. 10, 2019, meeting.

The Salisbury Township Zoning Hearing Board voted March 9, 2020, to approve the Girl Scouts’ appeal to build an approximate 7,000-square-foot building that would be heated; have bathrooms with showers, sinks and flush toilets; activities rooms; staff office; trading post for purchase of Girl Scouts items and paved parking area for 15 vehicles.

The township planning commission is next scheduled to meet 7 p.m. Feb. 28. The Girl Scouts project is not expected to be on the agenda.

In other business at the Feb. 22 meeting, commissioners voted 4-0 to adopt a mobile food vending ordinance. The six-page ordinance can be read under the agenda of the Feb. 22 meeting on the township website. “I can see there was a lot of work put into this,” Brinton said. “I’d like to thank Kerry [Rabold, Salisbury Township Planning and Zoning Officer],” Nicolo said.

Also, commissioners voted 4-0 to approve a motion authorizing the contract extension with Bracalente Construction for road equipment rental with operators’ contract.

In reports to the commissioners, Salisbury Township Director, Public Works Jim Levernier, said, “We did finally get our bucket truck. It took 18 months. The guys are trained on it. We actually took a tree down at Laubach [Park].”

Levernier added, “The guys did a great job with snow removal.”

Salisbury Township Director of Finance Paul Ziegenfus, in his report, said requests for proposals have been put out for an auditor. “I’ve budgeted $20,000. It will be a bit more,” Ziegenfus said.

Ziegenfus said the township is purchasing software for an online reservation system for township parks use and the summer playground program.

“They can still do it [registration] the old-fashioned way,” Ziegenfus said.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners is next scheduled to meet 7 p.m. March 14 in the meeting room of the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.