The Plandome Heights Board of Trustees unanimously approved a $1.407 million sanitation contract with Dejana Industries on Monday that will last seven years with an option for three additional years.
“This was a decisively good bid,” Mayor Kenneth Riscica said. “The sanitation contract is one of four or five very large items on this year’s agenda.”
The contract will cost $955,000 for the first seven years, and will total $1.407 million if the village chooses to continue the contract for the final three years.
The agreement includes a 3 percent reduction from the current yearly sanitation rate over the first year, and a 2 percent increase in each of the remaining years.
“It’s a very good price,” said Arlene Drucker, the village clerk/treasurer.
The projected cost estimate factors in the current cost of the tipping fee, a charge imposed by the Town of North Hempstead for disposal at a town landfill.
Dejana Industries is the current garbage removal provider for Plandome Heights.
Mayor Riscica said residents are satisfied with sanitation services and would have been disappointed if the village chose a new provider.
The second highest bid, from Jamaica Ash & Rubbish Removal, was less than 1 percent more expensive than the Dejana Industries bid.
Trustee Daniel Cataldo did not attend the meeting but participated over speaker phone. He voiced his approval for the contract, though he was not permitted to vote remotely.
The village also gave permission for continued construction of a Manhasset Bay home, which received a one-year building extension in December that requires monthly renewal.
The homeowner, Andy Cheung, has been building the property at 200 The Tideway for about three years. His building permit would have expired on Dec. 15 if not for a one-year extension granted by the board, which mandates that Cheung abide by monthly progress goals. Before pursuing the one-year extension, Cheung hired a new general contractor, Lin Cheung.
“The building report indicates that he is ahead of schedule,” Riscica said.
Drucker said Andy Cheung received a violation for conducting construction outside of work hours permitted by the village.
“The job took forever to get where it is and now they are working too hard,” Riscica joked.
“They have to abide by work hours,” he added.
