SOUTH RIVER — Since 2,329 telephone poles were inventoried last spring, the borough has collected $528,000 in unpaid rental bills from AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Wawa.

It all started with an inquiry by borough Business Administrator Andrew Salerno last spring.

"He was looking into how much collection in power costs the borough was receiving, whether or not these companies paid the borough the correct amount or not paid the borough anything at all," Eppinger said.

The borough hired six college students during last summer to take inventory of the telephone poles in the borough. Richard Dudas, revenue collector for the borough, said the total number of poles counted was 2,329.

"Some were municipal poles, totaling 1,611, and some were Verizon telephone poles, totaling 718," he said.

As a result of the inventory, the borough has collected $367,000 from Comcast, $31,000 from Verizon, $100,000 from Wawa and $30,000 from AT&T. It is awaiting payment of $100,000 from AT&T, Mayor Raymond T. Eppinger said.

South River is one of eight towns including Lavallette, Milltown, Seaside Heights and others that operate an electric utility as part of a co-op Public Power Association.

"The money collected will go into the general revenue utilities fund," said Eppinger, who added that as the budget process begins for the 2009 year, the funds will be factored in.

Since the telephone pole project is considered to be a success, the town has developed another project for this summer, he said.

"We will gather a group of college students who are interested, to inventory every building in the borough and make sure they have electric and water meters," Eppinger said. "It will depend on how large the project is to see how many students we will hire."

The mayor said nothing in particular caused the borough to act on the project.

"We don't know what else is out there … The telephone pole project was a complete success," he said. "We want to make sure people are paying for their electric and water service."