The township is planning to open its own impound lot, a move the mayor says will put $200,000 a year into the municipality’s coffers but that local towers fear will mean heavy losses to their businesses. The proposal would require all cars seized by police, whether because they were abandoned or involved in fatal accidents, to be stored at the municipal lot, which most likely will be at the Public Works complex off Cedar Bridge Avenue. That means a loss of a large chunk of income for about a dozen private towing companies in Lakewood that rely heavily on their own impound lots.
Joe Barina, owner of Barina Auto Body on Ocean Avenue, estimates he’ll lose up to $20,000 a year in storage fees. The township would charge $25 a day for each vehicle at its lot, according to the ordinance. Read full story in APP.
great idea! how come on the agenda we are still only seeing block and lot numbers and NOT what Bob promised us that he would make them start putting addresses so that everone can realize what is going on in this town.
Why on heaven’s earth should I give a flip about the towing companies losses?!?! A town should be run like a business,your bottom line is always the focus. And especially these unscrupulous towing companies that have long been accused of having under the table deals with PD. They definitely never cared about our money! These places are closed literally like a third of the week but of course they charge you for that time!
#1
Can you explain please?
So is the township taking on their own police tow trucks too or is that going to stay with the contract wrecker companies and have them tow to the lot when they are duty? Who will control the yard?
I don’t think the wrecker companies will be around then..only a choice few will stay..the auto body shops will have to charge more for your repairs..I can see this is going to be a BIG Headache. If it works …GREAT!! if it doesn’t well Great
About time Lakewood got smart. This is the way it is with the nypd.
Well this is the first outside the box idea that actually makes financial sense. As far as towing companies go they all have lucrative businesses and if they decide not to tow for the town here are plenty of towing companies who would jump on the gravy train and tow for the township. I applaud the township committee on their continuing mission to develop revenue for the township economy.
we are going to save money, how? now we have to buy tow trucks, hire drivers, hire clerks to process the vehicles and guards to watch the vehicles. don’t forget the liability for the vehicles. the old system we had no liability for the vehicles and no payroll with benefits. the tow trucks were “on call”. we will have to hire 3 shifts to replace the on call service. who are we going to hire for the new jobs, i guess friends of steve and bob.
You took money out of the EMS employees pockets!! Know you want want to create an impound lot. Why don’t you give the money back that they are earning. Hey MAYOR, are you out all night running calles to help the community—NOT.
what the township committee failed to tell u it’s going to cost twice that amount to have Police officers run the thing. this was not a very thought out program, just a knee jerk reaction to get vehicles back to the public and wave the impound fees for friends of the Twp committee. The towing co.’s repeatedly refused to wave fees, that is why they are loosing this income.
to run the inound will cist the taxpayers $200,000 a year in salaries and hiring workers to run it. one less fixture at the first energy stadium will save more for the township coffers. it should rather be outbid to the LOWEST bidder.or capped at not more then $25 a day for storage .
#7 and the rest of you the empty lot thats going to be used is already costing tax payers money just being empty. Now start using it to generate income how is that a bad thing. As far as having someone take care of it thats a no brainer its at DPW and theres always someone at DPW and they are already on the clock. No issue.
Well this move by our mayor ( Langert ) is another classic example of how not to do things. Does he not know that no one wants to be involved in this kind of messy business. Most of the cars that are impounded are done so due to damage and being on the road illegally. Having numerous towing companies helps spread the junkers all over town into many storage yards. Now PW is going to look like a junk yard. Many people just leave them there as they have no paperwork to get them back. Now another problem is hiring people to work at the yard, 24 hours a day 7 days a week to inventory, and release cars. DPW closes at 330pm for the weekend, you have never tried to get someone to respond from their day off, have you # 8. That folks means salaries, benefits, training, and some place to do it. Wait maybe we can get John Franklin to come back and take care of this. Another costly can of worms opened up by our mayor.
this is a PR move by the mayor to win back votes by touching on an issue that many had a bad experience with. yet it will not save but actually cost the taxpayers more by the township taking over.they should renegotiate all contracts with the impound lots and set rules that protect consumers from outrageous fees.
We need more info on this please. Who is going to be doing the towing? Township is only doing the storage? Will i be able to tell the tow truck driver to take the car to my house or will it have to go to the impound yard? How do I apply for a job driving a tow truck?
amazing how so many of you spout authoritatively about how this will be managed, what it will/won’t produce, and who is to blame. First check it out, attend a meeting, ask a question. L’chol hapochus, take off the robe and put on some clothes, step outside and do something not involving a keyboard and your “issues”.
Any time a business has to close, or cut back, causes employees to be let go and its income lessened. Less money in the private sector means less money going out to other businesses. A Township lot may generate $200,000 but has the potential to do much more damage to taxpayers; employees who get paid ‘Government Style’, with benefits and pensions that last for all eternity hurt all of us tax payers – for all eternity.
This is good. In a chat like this with people expressing concerns that another person may not have thought of is not a bad thing. I think this kind of posting is actually helpful. Now maybe the people of the town can go to meetings and have a good set of questions to ask. Good job!!! I would have never thought of half the points raised in this chat.
# 15
your talking like a commiteeman
are you one of them?
So if my car get towed after 430 on a Friday nite I will have to wait until Monday morning (after 8) to pick it or have someone else tow it for me does not sound fair
as stated before, now they will have to buy tow trucks, hire drivers, hire people to watch the secure lot 24 hr. Now don’t forget the trucks have to be fully insured, they have to have fuel, and they will undoubtedly need maintenance at some time. Like some one else already said also this would most likely be a way to waive the towing and storage fees for certain friends of the township.
first , kudos to #15.
2nd, this is the best move i heard the twp. do for the following reasons….
#1 anyone who knows the whole system and plan would see how profitable it would be for the twp. #2 it will cut out the main chunk of corruption in this towns police towing. ( perhaps those who oppose are quite involved, fear the loss of their joyride). #3 the community will benefit as well since it will be under direct twp control, and scrutiny.
summary = twp gains public gains and tow companies lose. very very good idea. and if that tow company needs a job he can fill out an application at the twps mgr desk for a job. the twp never promised them any minimum how much they will make.
the township will just be losing more money
i in the beginning thought that a township impound lot was a bad idea but, at least for now i have switch my positon i own a Auto body shop in lakewood for the most part was i tow a car to impound lot my duties are free no more going back to my yard at 2am to help someone get personal belongs or no more charging a 1.00 an hr for storage the first 24hrs NOW THE TOWN EXPECTS 25.00 PER DAY WITH NO EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE SO IF YOUR CAR IS THERE FOR 1 HR BECAUSE YOU FORGOT TO REG YOUR CAR AND YOU COME BACK FOR IT NOW YOU WILL PAY 25 PLUS TOW FEES TO GET YOUR CAR BACK SO GREAT FOR THE COMMUNITY I HAD PROPOSED LAST YEAR THAT WE REDUCE SOME OF THE FEES ONE BEING IF CAR IS THERE FOR DAY THAT WE DONT CHARGE FOR THAT DAY I GUESS STEVE FEELS DIFFERENT YOU TELL ME HOW THEY ARE GOING TO MAKE 200K WHEN NOW YOU HAVE TO HIRE PEOPLE AND EQUIPMENT TO OPERATE A YARD
And when was the last time our township had a profitable venture??
Im glad you all have a forum to vent. (BUT PLEASE LEARN TO SPELL ) Actually I think this is a fine idea. From my perspective this is a very messy part of the towing business and to have it run undper pd auspices would make sense, and apparently dollars to. As to the comments about the Town having to get into the towing business, Do not fear. The towing companies make a bundle without the storage charges. Don’t worry they arent going anywhere.
(and yes, I checked my spelling)
how much will a towing truck cost, and will lakewood only have on, the insurance and a driver or two drivers, will they tow at accident scenes and clean up/ GIVE AN ESTIMATE OF HOW MUCH IT WILL COST FOR GOING INTO THE BUSINESS, THE COST OF THE TRUCK, AND IS THIS BUDGETED FOR?
jUST REMEMBER, HOW MUCH MONEY did we make from the Airport, How much return did we get back from the ballpark? How much Land did we sell off, when will Public works be paid off,
GREAT IDEAS, NOW CAN ANYONE COME UP WITH A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEMS AS TO WHY THIS TOWN CANNOT MAKE MONEY AND LOWER OUR TAXES,?
to Mr joe B its amazing to hear how you are concerned for both the community and the twp. You claim that you will be losing 20,000 a year? is that a typo? or is that what you file on your taxes? the police towing brings in about 10,000. a week and you are on police tow how many weeks a year?
so who you kidding?
to all those geniuses trying to figure out how the twp gonna make money? #1 they never said they will buy any tow trucks nor will they have to hire any new employees. read first then do your best to understand what you are reading and no need for assumptions.
TO oilfen ganuv brent dus hitel the figure of 20,000.00 dolars is amount of mones made from storing impounded vechicles not for all services that we do as a tower for the township lets remember as a private business we charge 1.00 an hr for the first 24hrs not 25.00 per day it will cost the town to a lot operate this yard, but i am willing to give it a try just wait to see all the junk cars the township is going to sell if not junk you might get a couple of cars to make some money it does cost a lot to run a tow yard for everyones info a flatbed cost about 60k tow truck cost 50k now the people to operate them health insurance etc so how much money is their really to be made.