New London public works takes stock of its unused equipment
New London — There are five police cruisers with blown engines. The last use for the 45-foot-long flatbed trailer was as a performance stage five years ago. The 1998 Blue Bird school bus that used to be used by the Senior Center is unlikely to pass another safety inspection.
The list is just a sampling of the unused equipment and vehicles that turned up during a recent cleanup at the city’s public works complex and solid waste transfer station off Lewis Street. There are also 17 Dumpsters of varying sizes, a rotted truck cab and body of a dump truck, a van with a bad transmission and a leaky former fire department boat, among other items.
Public Works Director Brian Sear said the cleanup and inventory of the equipment was inspired by site work that began last month on a new private waste management and recycling facility at 45 Fourth St., a portion of which is adjacent to city property.
Sear said a survey of the property boundaries by the new owners, Connecticut Waste Processing Materials LLC, revealed the city was storing some of its old equipment outside its borders — up to 45 feet into the neighbor’s property in one spot.
Sear said the city has since moved the equipment and he instituted an overall cleanup of the property.
“We kind of took inventory and developed a game plan,” Sear said. “For me it was an opportunity to say, 'Wow, we have this extra stuff.' Much of it we cannot use. It’s scattered around our property. The bottom line is we’re so busy day to day. We kind of worked around this stuff.”
Sear said the city’s head mechanic came up with a list of unfixable equipment and items that hadn’t been used in years and were likely things the city could do without. He said not only is the stuff an eyesore but poses real safety hazards and “it’s just good housekeeping,” considering the facility is regularly inspected by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The City Council voted 7-0 to authorize the disposal of the surplus property pursuant to city ordinance. Sear said he expects an auction but the exact mechanism of disposal will be determined by the city’s Finance Department.
Other items include: a 1995 Jeep Cherokee with engine and rot issues, a 38-foot rotted garbage pushout trailer from the 1980s, two garbage trucks, a dump truck body, spreaders, plows and an engine hoist.
Meanwhile, site work on the new waste facility is in its beginning stages.
Jason Manafort, the principal of Connecticut Waste Processing Materials LLC and Generation Four Realty LLC, won approval for a 26,382-square-foot facility on a three-acre parcel at 45 Fourth St. that used to be a railroad maintenance yard.
The facility is expected to be used to receive solid waste and recyclable materials and Manafort plans to construct a railroad spur to allow materials to be shipped out by rail car. He runs a similar rail haul facility in Berlin.
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