Residential garbage customers in Columbus may soon see a monthly price hike but with service reduced to one pickup a week.
At a Thursday special-call meeting, city CFO James Brigham recommended Columbus City Council award its garbage collection bid to Abbeville, Alabama-based Arrow Disposal Service.
The newest round of proposals included one trash pickup per week and providing customers with a bin. Prices ranged from Arrow’s low bid of $11.97 to $17.24 monthly per customer. That does not include any city surcharges added to customer bills.
“Arrow has about 135,000 customers now,” Brigham said. “… I checked with the Mississippi Better Business Bureau to see how they respond to complaints. They only had 17 complaints, and each one of them was addressed by the company and appropriate compensation was made to the customers.”
At least one councilman was concerned with the reduced number of pickups. Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens said he had been getting a lot of calls about cutting pickups.
“We’re making a decision but we’re not talking to the people it’s going to affect,” Mickens said. “(Brigham) may be alright with one pickup, but some houses have five, six, seven kids. The bin will be full before that one time. I would have to look at my constituents and what they tell me.”
It comes down to money, Brigham said.
“The issue is are there more (people) concerned with the one pickup or more concerned about going from $17.50 now to almost $30 a month,” Brigham said.
“That’ll cut some of them down right there,” Mickens replied.
Under the current contract with Golden Triangle Waste Services, which expires in September, the city pays GTWS $10.50 monthly per customer to pick up garbage and charges customers $17.50. That extra $7 goes to pay landfill fees and other expenses. With the $7 included, cost for two pickups a week would conceivably be around $30. With the surcharge staying the same, once a week pickup would cost the customer $18.97 per month.
GTWS had been struggling with mechanical issues and replacing aging trucks, leading to delays in garbage pickup. It began receiving new trucks in late February.
Complaints generated by those delays led the city to put out a request for proposals earlier this year. The city received four proposals, ranging from $18.45 to $24.19 per household per month with GTWS as the low bidder.
Those prices were considerably higher than what the city pays to GTWS now, and negotiations have been underway to cut that figure down to something more manageable. That sparked the second round of proposals, which saw GTWS, at $13.95, as the second lowest bidder behind Arrow.
Jimmie Moore, vice president of governmental and public affairs at Arrow, told the council his company would use a truck with an automated arm to pick up the bins, rather than having loaders riding along with the truck.
“That arm shows up to work every day,” Moore said. “… In five years, you won’t see a rear-loader (truck). The problem is the labor pool. It is hard to find people. It’s hard work.”
Waste Pro, at $16.55, and Waste Management, at $17.24, also submitted proposals.
Mayor Keith Gaskin asked the council to weigh the proposals and plan on making a decision in the near future.
Brigham said the companies had asked for 90 days notice to buy equipment and hire employees.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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