Middle Audits Albrecht and Heun Benefit Pact

COURT HOUSE –– Middle Township has a contract with a local company to receive payment for hosting its recycling facility and some residents from this community want an accounting of the benefit agreement.
Residents have suggested that records relating to the agreement were poorly kept and that the township and its taxpayers were losing money out of the deal.
In an effort to answer these concerns, Middle Township Committee June 16 awarded a contract to accounting firm Ford, Scott and Associates to audit the Host Community Benefit program the township has with Albrecht and Heun and its subsidiary Future Mining and Recycling.
Future Mining operates a mining and Class-B recycling facility at 560 Goshen Road in Court House. A 1990 township resolution granted the company a recycling permit with the condition that it pay the township $1 per ton of recycled material. The company had proposed to process 23,750 tons annually for a potential yearly benefit of nearly $24,000 for the township.
Committee members on the advice of counsel did not comment on the matter at the June 16 meeting except to say that host community benefits have not been included in the township’s annual budget process and that the audit had already begun.
In a press release dated June 20, township committee, however, reported that despite a 1995 accounting mix up between the recycling company and the township – Albrecht and Heun had been calculating the benefit by the amount of material taken out of the site when the agreement specified material taken into the site – the benefit records were complete and the computations and tonnage reports were accurate.
“The township and Albrecht and Heun have had a running account with one another,” the release stated. “Albrecht and Heun owed the township the host community benefit. The township purchased items from Albrecht and Heun. One would offset the other.”
“What exact effect this will have on the running tally awaits the final report.”
According to the release, the final audit report by township Auditor Glen Ortman’s firm, will be finished in approximately one to two weeks. Payments for the audit service are not to exceed $4,500 the committee’s resolution stated.
The host community benefit issue came to light last November when residents Ralph and Lois Shuman brought up the question at a township committee meeting.
The Shumans, who belong to a group that opposes Future Mining’s application to open a similar mining and recycling operation on a 253-acre parcel of land off Indian Trail Road in Burleigh, asked where the money was that had been collected from the host community benefit.
“We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars here,” Ralph Shuman said.
At the November meeting, township Administrator James Alexis said the agreement was on an exchange basis and that the township had extensive records to indicate that. Mayor F. Nathan Doughty agreed saying the exchange involved Albrecht and Heun taking at no cost the fallen leaves the township brings for recycling.
Immediately following that meeting, Lois Shuman told the Herald she requested to see the host community benefit records through the state Open Public Records Act. She said her request was granted by Administrator James Alexis in February this year.
According to Shuman, the records consisted of copies of inbound tare receipts, which measure the amount of recyclable material dropped off by municipal trucks at the Goshen Road site, as well as documents from the company summarizing the yearly numbers.
Shuman said the records were stuffed into boxes in no discernable order.
“I don’t know how they could possibly keep track of it,” she said. “The township cannot be getting its fair share from the host community benefit agreement.”
The host community benefit issue is also part of a lawsuit originally entered in May of last year and amended in November. The action was filed by Joseph Ravitz, the township tax assessor, who owns a property on Indian Trail Road adjacent to the proposed mining and recycling site. Ravitz opposes the project and challenges the April 2007 issuance of its mining license.
Defendants in the lawsuit include the township, township committee, the mining company and other unnamed individuals.
In the lawsuit, Ravitz argues that because the township handles the host community benefits outside of the treasurer’s office it has “failed to exercise proper monitoring, supervision and control over the amounts due.”
The lawsuit also says the arrangement to accept township recyclables in lieu of payments was “not discussed publicly, nor were they the subject of appropriate resolutions.”
The township has one other similar host community benefit agreement. That contract is with the Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) for the solid waste transfer station in Burleigh.
Under that agreement, the township receives a per-ton benefit for waste accepted at the transfer station. In 2003 the amount was $ l.58 per ton and was scheduled to increase by 2 percent each year through 2013.
The economic benefits paid to the township are credited to its MUA solid waste account on a quarterly basis reducing the tipping fees it has to pay by more than $100,000 annually.
Forthcoming audit results should determine if the agreement with Albrecht and Heun has been managed similarly.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com