Is the County shredding your money?

Plainfielders may wonder what all the huffing and puffing is about with the County's paper-shredding program.

As usual, after putting up the blogs yesterday, I sat down with my final cup of coffee for the day and read the (physical) papers.

The story on Union County's paper-shredding program piqued my interest. I remember that they previously had a stop in Plainfield, and was curious to find out how it is going.

I am a sucker for these 'green' ideas, but when the taxpayer's dollars at are at work, it pays to cast a baleful eye. Though the project is said to be funded by a DEP grant and not out of the County budget directly, it seems it's only PARTLY funded by the grant.

Ledger reporter Bob Misseck did his duty and pulled some numbers from Union County spokesperson Sebastian D'Elia -- so far this year the program has cost $3,386 and the County has been rebated $735, or about 22% of the cost.

With these miniscule dollar amounts, it sounds like the main beneficiary has been Freeholder Bette Jane Kowalski, who champions the program, and is rumored to be headed to Trenton once Linda Stender is safely ensconced in the 7th Congressional District seat.

Sounds like what is needed is more promotion of the benefits of having your documents shredded for free.

Maybe someone should tell the pols that Chris Christie is looking into.

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• "Mobile shredder program grows"
• "Safe Shredding, LLC" -- The firm running UC's and many other County programs.

-- Dan Damon

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