Neighborly help saves borough nearly $15K

SUSSEX - After sections of Wantage Township were damaged by a tornado in July, the Sussex Borough Department of Public Works lent a hand with the cleanup. Wantage Township recently returned the favor and it’s saving Sussex Borough taxpayers over $14,000. Over the summer, a backhoe that’s used by the Sussex Borough DPW became damaged. The borough received a quote from G&H Service in Newton to repair the backhoe for $7,000. After spending $1,200 on parts for the machine, Sussex Borough DPW Supervisor Jeff Card determined that the department didn’t have the skills in-house to repair the machine itself, said Sussex Borough Councilman Ed Meyer. Before contracting the work out to G&H, the borough reached out to Wantage Township’s DPW department to see if they could fix it. Bob Wagner, Wantage Township’s DPW chief, evaluated the machine and informed Sussex Borough that his organization could repair it for no cost. Once the repair work began, Wagner and his crew also discovered a damaged axle that required repairing. It would have cost Sussex Borough another $8,770 for G&H to repair the axle, said Meyer. Instead, Wantage Township welded it for free. In the end, repair work that would have cost Sussex Borough taxpayers $15,770 wound up costing just $1,200 in parts, said Meyer.