Hundreds of borough residents packed the high school auditorium Monday night to hear the governing body present a controversial plan to outsource the municipality's garbage pickup.

Nearly every seat in the 628-person capacity auditorium was filled, and people lined the perimeter as residents attacked the administration's proposal. Critics blasted the plan, saying it would reduce the level of service and cost several residents their jobs.

The contentious meeting was filled with boos, jeers and interruptions as borough officials unveiled the plan, which was presented as a way to save the borough more than $3 million over five years.

Despite a plan to minimize job losses — sanitation workers would be offered jobs with the private contractors or moved to other borough departments — residents still took issue with the proposal.

"These guys do what they have to do and they do it fantastic," said Rex Place resident Robert Kotora. "And you're saying you're going to privatize it. . . . If you go without them, shame on you."

Such comments drew loud applause, and on several occasions standing ovations, as did allegations that Mayor Raymond Eppinger and the Borough Council were not looking out for the residents.

"I would love to see headlines in the paper that say they're working for the people of the town, not against," said Sally Dlugozimsky, a Brentice Avenue resident.

Eppinger and Business Administrator Andrew Salerno portrayed the proposal as a result of fiscal pressure on the borough from state government. They said it was part of the borough's five-year plan to stabilize taxes.

Under the plan, South River would contract with Central Jersey Waste to handle collection for the entire borough, a decision settled after a two-month bidding process that ended on April 1. Residents would not be required to procure their own services.

The borough would save more than $3 million over the next five years by privatizing the service, Salerno said before Monday night's meeting. That amounts to about 14 tax points, or $605,865, per year, starting in 2009.

He said garbage pickup costs the borough about $171 per stop under the current municipal-operated service. That cost would drop to about $54 under the contract with the lowest private bidder.

Addressing the issue of potential job losses, Salerno said the lowest bidding company had agreed to absorb about five sanitation workers from the borough. The remainder of the trash collection crew — about five or six employees — would be shifted to other borough departments and continue to have full-time jobs with benefits.

Pointing to a pledge made by the administration when it introduced its 2008 municipal budget, Salerno said privatizing certain services was a matter of weighing priorities.

"This gives the borough a very good opportunity to actually look at reallocation of resources," Salerno said. "We have some very serious infrastructure needs. We need to have the flexibility to address them."

He said the contract would still be supervised by the director of the Public Works Department and private trash haulers would still be accountable to the borough.

The Borough Council is expected to hold a special meeting Monday to vote on the new contract. If approved, the new trash-collection system would take effect July 1 for most of the borough. For the portion of the town where collection is already private, the services would change on May 1.