Moorestown Residents Question Casworth Enterprise Reps Over Sanitation

Casworth Enterprises takes over trash collection in Moorestown on March 31, and on Wednesday night, two representatives from the company attempted to alleviate residents’ concerns during a Q&A session at the high school.

The most contentious question President John Casciano and Frank Hozworth had to answer concerned background checks for their employees. Casworth Enterprises employs 47 workers, including nine that come to the company through a temp agency.

Casworth Enterprises requires background checks for its full-time employees. However, the temp agency that provides some of its workers doesn’t require background checks. Casworth Enterprises isn’t in a position to force the agency to require background checks.

“You’re concerned about people you don’t know coming into your town,” Casciano said. “From our perspective, we could bring a guy in and workman’s comp becomes the biggest issue.”

Casciano referenced one worker who came to the company and was on workman’s comp within three weeks because he said he sustained a knee injury. He also said the company recently changed its temp agency in part because the previous agency was beginning to produce a high number of workers who ended up on workman’s comp.

Casworth has used two temp agencies in the last 17 years.

“You can’t guarantee anything,” Casciano said. “Something bad can come from anybody.”

He said the temporary workers can become full-time, but not until after they’ve been with the company for at least a year. None of the temporary workers drive trucks, and not every full-time employee is licensed to drive a truck.

Residents began to show concern over the fact that not all of Casworth’s employees will get background checks following a council meeting in late February.

A poll recently posted on Moorestown Patch asking if residents support outsourcing trash collection shows the township is split on the issue, with about 48 percent of respondents saying they are in favor of outsourcing and about 45 percent saying they are against it.

According to Township Manager Scott Carew, the township’s attorney is in the process of drawing up a contract for the side to agree upon. Council has already approved allowing the township to enter into a three-year contract with Casworth Enterprises.

The company’s bid called for the township to pay $425,732.80 the first year; $427,350.80 the second year; and $428,968.96 the third year, according to the township’s website.

Currently, the township spends about $1.3 million on trash collection.

All the township’s current trash collectors will be reassigned within the Department of Public Works. There will be no layoffs, Carew said.

The company has 29 trucks, and most trucks have two workers assigned to them: a driver and a worker on the back of the track who collects the trash. Some trucks are equipped with automated trash pickup.

Casworth Enterprises, founded in 1986 and based out of Gloucester County, collects trash for 14 towns in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Salem counties, including Riverside and Medford.

It collects for towns comparable in size to Moorestown, as well as Washington Township, whose population is about 10,000, compared to 6,800 for Moorestown.

The same two workers are assigned to a specific town, although every new worker begins in Deptford so the company can supervise them until they feel they are ready to move to another town.

“You get to know a guy pretty quickly,” Casciano said.

He said is workers take six holidays off a year, while the average trash collection employees get between 10 and 13 days off. In the case of a holiday or a snow day, the trash collection schedule is pushed back one day.

There are no restrictions on how much trash they will pick up, and all guidelines are set by the township.

Recycling will still be handled by the county.