Princeton Council slated to axe cleaning service staffed by developmentally disabled people

Princeton officials are slated tonight to hire a new company to clean municipal offices and stop using workers from ARC Mercer, a nonprofit organization that trains and employs people with developmental disabilities. The council’s public meeting will take place tonight at 7 p.m. at the municipal building at 400 Witherspoon Street.

A resolution approving the change is listed on the council agenda. Town officials want to hire CNS Cleaning Co., Inc., for $134,460, about $36,000 less than the current contract. Sources said some officials at town hall have not been happy with the job the ARC employees have been doing. Officials also want to use the cheaper company.

Representatives for the ARC have said several inspections of the ARC employees’ work were conducted and the workers met or exceeded industry standards.

The council will also vote on an ordinance that would reduce some of the parking meter limits on University Place to three hours. Some people who work in town and park at the long-term meters all day have objected to the change, which is being made at the request of the owner of the new restaurants at the former Dinky station. The station properties are owned by Princeton University. The three-hour metered parking zone will be located on the east side of University Place between College Road and the Berlind Theatre crosswalk.

The council is slated to approve a bond ordinance for capital improvements totaling $6.5 million. The council will also consider a request to buy five police vehicles for $131.257. Princeton will also enter into a shared services agreement with Montgomery Township to improve a portion ofย  Cherry Valley Road for $2.3 million.

You can read the full agenda for the council meeting and supporting documents here (the full packet is slow to load).

 

Avatar of Krystal Knapp

Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.

5 Comments

  1. When, not if, the new contract results in the same complaints, will council acknowledge it is them that have developmental disabilities?

  2. The Council will also try to sneak in an ordinance specifically designed to stuff McMansions and affordable housing onto the last three 75-acre-plus undeveloped parcels in town: the wild and rocky Lanwin tract off Herrontown Road (a property utterly inappropriate for development) and also Springdale Golf Course and Jasna Polana. For shame! At least the last two are flat, and in wealthy, built-out areas. The Princeton Ridge acreage borders Autumn Hill Reservation and Herrontown Woods, and to chop up our last precious expanse of greenspace just to enrich the Bryce Thompson family is an absolute crime. The Lanwin Tract, at least, should become much-needed open space for citizen recreation, as the Master Plan has specified for decades.

  3. There was a time in Princeton when new businesses had to show adequate available parking. When the Post Office was to be redeveloped for Triumph Brewery there was a move that it didn’t need any additional parking for it’s 200 plus patrons. Now that the Dinky and Cargo will be open and under the umbrella of a university project, I’m sure parking spaces will magically become available. If a liquor license can be found so can spaces.

  4. Questions: (1) Did Princeton have the right to continue under the State contract with ARC? If yes, did Princeton choose not to do so and instead to put the work out to bid. If so, why? (2) What, if any, discussions took place with ARC concerning perceived deficiencies in the services being provided? Was ARC given an opportunity to address/correct?

  5. classic liberal elite behavior, throwing around the buzzwords of inclusion and diversity, but at the end of the day worried that some disabled person might get paid an extra dollar per hour. shameful.

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