NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. - The City of North Wildwood has terminated its contract with its waste removal company amid threats from the company saying they'd leave trash in the streets, city officials allege.
According to a press release from the city, the contract with Gold Medal Environmental New Jersey, Inc. (GME) was terminated.
The city says GME is a "subsidiary of the multibillion-dollar private equity firm Kinderhook Industries, headquartered in New York City." According to the city, GME's CEO showed up at the North Wildwood Public Works Building on March 8 insisting that the city pay GME two to three times the agreed upon contract amount or the company would "leave the trash in the streets." According to a legal document sent to GME's leaders, in an email sent on April 25, GME's CEO said: "My message hasn't changed: trash (or recycling or yard waste, etc) will start being left on the streets May 1 (whatever we cannot afford to pick up at current contract prices) if we are not back in good faith negotiations to address this emergency situation as other towns have already, and your offices will choose both where this starts and ends.
I gave a reprieve until the 15th for those of you who had meeting schedules that would not allow this to be completed by May 1, but all of that depended on appropriate progress." ___MORE LOCAL HEADLINESThe legal document also alleges that GME CEO said "we are not picking up weekly trash and recycling at $5.78 a unit/month under these emergency circumstances.