An Alabama vendor pitched the idea of the city buying its own garbage trucks during Columbus City Council’s Thursday work session.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones and Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco were physically present along with Mayor Keith Gaskin, and Ward 4 Councilman Pierre Beard attended by Zoom.
Jeff Barton and Eric Smith from Ingram Equipment Company in Pelham, Alabama, briefed the council about a possible garbage truck purchase, should the city choose to take waste services back in house.
Gaskin explained Thursday’s pitch did not have anything to do with the city’s recent request for proposals to outsource garbage collection, and the council made no decisions during the work session.
The council approved an RFP for solid waste collection last month. The city is currently served by Golden Triangle Waste Services, which has been struggling with mechanical issues and replacing aging trucks. As a result, garbage collection is lagging.
That contract expires in September.
Barton explained the city had two options with his company: rear-loading or side-loading trucks. Rear-loading trucks are the more “traditional” trucks.
“Those are trucks with a driver and a crew riding on the back,” he said. “They jump off and grab the garbage and load it into the compactor. The alternative is the automated side-loader. That’s a driver with an arm that reaches out and grabs the cans and dumps it and sets it back down.”
There are advantages and disadvantages to both, he said. The rear-loading truck is less expensive and can pack in a little more garbage than a side-loader. It does come with more personnel costs, though.
“Labor is a huge problem for everyone nowadays,” Barton said.
The side-loader is one driver per truck, but citizens must have a specific type of container and no additional trash bags on the ground, he said.
“It’s got to be in the can, (and) it’s got to be the right can,” Barton said. “One of the things you have to have with that side-loader is the specific can. That can is an additional purchase. It is a little more expensive on the front end, and also has a little more maintenance required.”
The extra maintenance is typically offset by the labor expense, he said.
Barton estimated the cost of a rear-loading truck at about $225,000 to $300,000, and $275,000 to $375,000 apiece for side-loading trucks.
The cans for the side-loading truck tended to run $60 to $70 each, he said, and they typically come with a 10-year warranty.
Gaskin asked how many trucks the city would need.
IEC sales representative Eric Smith said Oxford runs a fleet of about 10 trucks, picking up garbage twice a week, with a combination of rear- and side-loaders.
Jones asked how side-loading trucks would handle pickups downtown, where there is a lot of on-street parking.
“You might have a mixed fleet and run side-loaders for all the neighborhoods and have a small rear-loader that handles downtown,” Barton said.
Public Information Officer Joe Dillon asked how long it took to get new trucks.
Barton estimated that it would take a year to get them.
“We’ve all heard about the supply chain, but the reality is it’s a problem and it has been for over two years,” Barton said. “Every manufacturer we deal with on the chassis side has struggled for two years to produce trucks. They all use the same transmissions, engines, chips and things like that.”
Police radios
On Jan. 18, the council approved lease-purchasing 60 portable Motorola radios and six base stations for the Columbus Police Department on state contract. Since then, Columbus-based business Teletec Communications contacted the city and asked to make a presentation about their products instead.
Wes Golden of Teletec told the council Thursday his business could supply Kenwood handheld radios at a significantly lower price. His proposal, which was also for 60 radios and six base stations, came to a total of $179,000.
Motorola’s offering, which the council approved on Jan. 18, was for $264,905.
The city has about $160,000 in state funds available to put towards the purchase. Three dollars from every ticket written by CPD goes into a state fund that is specifically for buying communications equipment.
The plan approved by the council last month was for a lease-purchase with a total yearly payment of $62,543 for five years.
Chief Financial Officer James Brigham told The Dispatch on Thursday that he had not had time to look at lease terms for the Teletec radios.
Golden said Teletec’s radios offered the same functionality with the state Mississippi Wireless Information Network as the more expensive Motorolas.
Columbus Fire and Rescue and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office both use Kenwoods, he said.
Motorola representative Kenny Jones, for his part, told the council the state network was built on a Motorola backbone and that the Motorola radios were widely used across the state.
“Every single statewide agency uses a Motorola radio,” he said. “They’re not the same just like the car you got in here to come here today is not the same.”
Police Chief Joseph Daughtry told the council that he preferred using the Motorola radios because he was used to them.
“I feel comfortable putting stuff in my officers’ hands that I know is proven and that I have worked with,” Daughtry said. “… I want to make sure my guys are safe, and that in the next five, six, eight years we don’t have to purchase new stuff over again.”
CPD is currently using Motorola radios on loan from the state, Gaskin said.
“I wish we had done this process beforehand,” Gaskin said of hearing Teletec’s proposal. “It was my goal to get those radios in (officers’) hands as quickly as possible. That’s where my thoughts were. Any time someone comes to me with information we need to reconsider on a vote we’ve already taken, we need to do that.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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