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Essex County extends county vehicle car‑wash contracts; public commenter suggests in‑house program using jail labor
Summary
The board approved a two‑year extension to county vehicle washing/detailing contracts with local car washes. A public commenter urged the county to consider running the service in‑house using corrections facility residents to reduce costs and provide job skills.
The Essex County Board of County Commissioners voted to extend county car‑wash and detailing services for two years with Livingston Circle Car Wash and Frankie's Finish Line, a county Department of Public Works presentation said, with an aggregate expected expenditure of more than $200,000.
"This is the exercising of a 2 year extension to the existing contracts of Livingston Circle Car Wash in Livingston, and Frankie's Finish Line number 2 car wash in Bloomfield, to provide car washes and detailing of county vehicles in an amount that should exceed $200,000 in the cumulative and aggregate," David Antonio of the Department of Public Works said when presenting the item.
During the public comment portion earlier in the meeting, Adam Kramer of West Orange urged the county to consider an in‑house model. "It would make a lot more sense for them to be washing cars or doing something productive," Kramer said, arguing that detention‑center residents awaiting trial or serving sentences under a year could perform vehicle washing to gain work experience and some pay.
Kramer framed his suggestion as both a cost‑saving and rehabilitative measure: "If we had it done, quote, unquote, in house via the Department of Corrections, I think it would be a win win for the county and it goes for our, residents of our jail, and that they would be doing something productive, have a chance to earn a little money as opposed to just sitting around wasting time." He also said the county would benefit from "clean fleet of cars." The board took no separate action on that idea during the meeting.
The professional services extensions were adopted as part of the consent agenda; staff noted the extension does not increase unit item costs. The motion to extend the car‑wash contracts passed on a roll call vote as part of the grouped Public Works items.
