Wantage. Wantage Township may consider forming its own construction department after coming up short on its obligation to Hardyston Township on a shared services contract.
According to the agreement, Wantage is obligated to generate $180,000 in revenue to Hardyston Township’s construction department or pay Hardyston the difference. Mayor Jon Morris said at a recent meeting the township came up about $15,000 short.
“We’ve talked about it before,” Morris said. “Does it pay to have our own construction department, or does it pay to continue with Hardyston? If we’re going to end up paying them every year, maybe it’s time to do an analysis.”
Another option brought up was the possibility of renegotiating with Hardyston, but the township wasn’t interested in renegotiating the contract the last time it was brought up.
“We said last year we would take a snapshot of 2020 and see what we could have made if we had our own department,” Bassani said.
Committeeman Bill Gaechter said there is a lot that goes into running a construction department and it must be self-liquidating.
“It has to generate at least $1 over the budgeted amount,” he said.