After reviewing bids from three different companies for trash service in the City of Petal, the Petal Board of Aldermen has decided to extend its contract with current provider WastePro to fulfill that service.
Mayor Tony Ducker said the city has entered into an Agreement in Principle with the company. Officials are working to finalize details on the contract, which is expected to be voted on some time in September.
“Everything should run seamlessly starting in October,” Ducker said. “Something we did different this time, we are going to set it up as a two-year contract, with two four-year extensions. There are obviously hooks in there where, for (lack of) performance, you can get out of the contract at other times.
“But that’s basically how we set it up, so it will have to be voted on again in two years. We’re trying to have it coinciding with the way our (mayoral and aldermen) terms run, basically – if you had a new group come in, then they would be able to come in and assess the situation.”
The city privatized with WastePro in 2013. Since then, that company has provided all trash services within the city limits, taking that service over from the city’s Public Works Department.
Ducker said residents should see minimal impact from the continued contract.
“If you pay sewer, water and trash with (the city), you shouldn’t see a rate increase,” he said. “If you just pay trash with us, you could see a little bit of a difference.
“We were able to soften the blow from that, but the cost of doing business in that line of work has been astronomical. So it’s been good to be able to soften that blow, but we kind of knew this was coming.”
City officials began to send out Requests for Proposals in June, as the contract with WastePro was set to expire on September 30. The RFPs allowed other companies, including WastePro, to place bids on that service.
The three bids were opened at an August 12 special-called board meeting, where aldermen picked WastePro as the best and lowest bidder. Ducker and Ward 5 Alderman Drew Brickson – who are members of a recommendation team on the matter, along with City Clerk Melissa Martin – then negotiated a contract with which to enter discussions.
The prices on the bids were based on approximately 4,000 trash customers per month in the city. Some companies bid on the trash service with debris pickup, while some bid without that service.
The bids on the service – which were submitted by WastePro, Clearwater Solutions and Waste Management – were as follows.
WASTEPRO
WastePro bid $29.16 per month with debris disposal using a rear-loading truck and $27.80 with debris disposal using an automated side load truck. Without debris removal, the company bid $19.50 per month with a RL truck and $18.22 per month with an ASL truck.
For debris removal only, the company bid $13.33 per month.
Under WastePro, an extra trash can will cost $8.75 per month without debris disposal and $9 per month with debris disposal.
Waste Management
Waste Management bid $26.84 per month without debris disposal with an ASL truck and $29.95 per month with debris disposal with an ASL truck.
The company also bid $185 per month for the Parks and Recreation Department, $565 per month for the Street Department, $185 per month for Petal Civic Center. An extra trash can would cost $17.45 per month without debris disposal and $19.47 per month with debris disposal.
Clearwater Solutions
Clearwater bid $36,000 annually for debris pickup only. The company did not submit bid for the other aforementioned services.
“The one difference is that we’ll get (WastePro) to run two trucks on the debris instead of one,” Ducker said. “At one point, we had looked at us paying the disposal (fee), but we’re going end up having them pay the disposal, which is basically the way it works now.
“And we’re going to continue with the rear loader; there was an option to go with the automatic side lift, and ultimately that may be where we end up. We’re basically going to continue to service as it has been, with the exception of adding a truck to the debris service.”
Pickup routes and times should remain the same after the extended contract kicks in.
“We may look at doing a re-route at some point; we’ve just a lot going on right now,” Ducker said. “I know you need to be really focused, because for a few weeks it does cause disruption to the service as customers and the contractor learns the routes, so we may look at that at some point.”
