Equipment-sharing agreement may ease workload and costs

The Milford Borough Council showed interest in sharing equipment owned by Matamoras, including a street sweeper and a smaller leaf truck that will make removing the leaves from the borough’s narrow alleys easier.

Borough Council President Frank Tarquinio on March 16 said Matamoras was given a street sweeper by the city of Port Jervis, N.Y., and is in the process of fixing it up. He said Matamoras officials have asked the borough if it wants to split the $4,500 cost and use the sweeper half the time.

The two municipalities also share a garbage truck.

“We haven’t had the streets cleaned, and you can see the pebbles and everything,” Tarquinio said.

He said Port Jervis also gave Matamoras new brushes and other equipment for the sweeper. He said that while the sweeper is old and won’t last forever, it would probably cost more than $1,000 to bring an outside company in to sweep the streets.

Councilman Rob Ciervo said Port Jervis helped sweep the streets one year, but it has been difficult getting anyone into Milford to do the job.

“At this point we don’t have a concrete proposal, but I think it’s worth pursuing,” Tarquinio said. “You can see the streets now, and they really do look different.”

Matamoras is also looking at getting a smaller leaf truck and asked Milford if the borough wanted to apply for a joint grant.

The smaller truck would be able to get into alleys the larger truck can’t fit through. The borough has received complaints from residents who live on the alleys that, although they pay the same taxes, their leaves don’t get picked up as readily.

Tarquinio said two municipalities joining forces on the grant makes the application more appealing.

“It’s worth looking at if it doesn’t cost us money,” he said.