Shared Municipal Services
I was just reading an article about a consultant who recommended reducing the local town budget by sharing maintenance services between the town and the local school system. Although I don’t know how much sharing is possible based on needs, timing, and equipment/ material demands, it’s worth considering. For example, snow and leaf removal, grounds maintenance, and some building maintenance would appear to have common needs. Also, the ability to reduce costs by combining cleaning services and supplies also appear feasible. However, the realization of benefits requires an integrated approach to requesting, processing and executing requests that spans the different environments and jurisdictions of the municipal and educational systems. Web based service request management can provide the vehicle for linking these environments but the hard work of agreeing on services, processes, responsibilities and ”who pays for what” still remains. From my perspective, the hard work is justified. The savings appear to be large and, done appropriately, service can improve for both our children and our towns.
