By August, the board of supervisors at Antis Township hope a massive tire dump along Dan Beck Road will be a thing of the past.
At last night’s meeting, supervisors opened bids from three individuals willing to remove an estimated 5,000 tires from the site which has caused an eyesore in the community for years.
According to Vice-Chairman supervisor Ray Amato, the state Department of Environmental Protection has up to $20,000 to be used for the clean-up; however, the work must be completed by August or the grant will be lost.
Casting the lowest bid was Earthmovers Unlimited from Kylertown. Earthmovers claims it will remove the tire at a cost of $167.50 per ton, which it calculated to about $8,375 for the entire project. Other bids included $190 per ton by Carbon Services Corp. and $237.39 per ton by Environmental Restoration.
According to township secretary Linda Kimmen, the township must give the preliminary approval for the awarding of the contract. Afterwards, DEP must investigate the potential company to ensure it is permitted to do such work.
Supervisors questioned what would happen if the costs would run over DEP’s $20,000 grant allotment. They fear if the costs would rise above that threshold, the township would be held responsible for footing the rest of the bill.
“I think it’s very important to our community to get rid of these tires,” said Chairman supervisor Leo Matuszewski. “With the threat of the West Nile Virus looming in the stagnant waters that rests in these tires, we really need to think about getting them out. DEP is going to help, so it won’t be a burden on the township’s budget.”
According to Amato, DEP has already reviewed the site and believes there are about 5,000 old tires on the site and it would take two days and two truckloads to remove all of them.
