Council Approves Purchase of New Garbage Truck

The days of frantic phone calls to other municipalities for emergency help with garbage pickup will hopefully be a thing of the past in Hellertown, following Borough Council's unanimous July 16 decision to approve the purchase of a new sanitation truck for the Public Works Department.

Council president Phil Weber said the money for the purchase had previously been budgeted, so the motion to approve it was essentially a formality.

The decision, however, may have taken on greater urgency, in light of the recent "borough garbage crisis of 2012," when both of the borough's trucks suffered mechanical failures and became inoperable at the same time.

In that situation, .

One of the two borough trucks that broke down will be gotten rid of, so public works will still have a total of two garbage trucks following the purchase of the new truck, Weber said.

Weber also asked Public Works Director Tom Henshaw about whether a special coating could be applied to the underside of the new truck, to help protect it from corrosion.

"If we can spray the underneath with something to protect it...I just think it would be smart," Weber said.