Summit County’s current trash-hauling contract doesn’t expire for nearly two years.
But the economic factors of the trash industry mean that the county has to start preparing now. They’re working to put out a new contract for bid.
Summit County Landfill Superintendent Tim Loveday said the current contract with Republic Services runs out at the end of June 2022. He’s already been working with the county’s legal staff to draft a new contract.
“We’re trying to come up with a better contract that would better serve the county, better serve the residents, and be more fair to the contractor as well. We also have the issue that, there’s a lead time on getting garbage trucks right now. It takes about a year to get a garbage truck. So if we want to have a shot at anyone else winning that contract and to be fair in bidding, we need to have that thing awarded a year in advance at minimum. So that means we’re looking at somewhere July, August of next year, we need to make a contract award.”
For a time, the county considered doing the trash service in-house, but ultimately decided against that option.
“The real scary thing right now, in trying to implement our own program, aside from cost, cause it’s very expensive up front to do that. We believe after about seven years, we could’ve saved the county money. But we simply cannot get employees.”
Loveday said he will take the proposed contract to the County Council in October for their comments, and hopes to advertise for bids by early next year.
He said that likely there will only four firms competing for the contract.
Meanwhile, another change for garbage service is that the trash fee per residence increased from $36 to $40. Loveday said waste collection operates as two programs.
“The landfill and collections actually, manages two different sets of books. The landfills are an Enterprise Fund. And by being an Enterprise Fund, we run those like a business. The intent is for those to break even each year, not to make a profit, but not to lose money either. We’re about there right now. We’ve actually been in the black the last couple of years, not by much, but at least it’s not losing money. Fee has been going towards collection. That contract runs now about $3.2 million a year. The fees that we get, that’s running somewhere around $750,000. So there’s still a huge subsidy going for curbside collection.”
He said the collection of the fee, which is done by Republic Services, has gone fairly well. One particular group is a problem.
“Most of the problems we’re incurring this year are people who own second homes here. And so they suspend their mail until they come back in the summer, or winter, whichever season they decide to use their homes. So those are being returned. So we’re trying to get second addresses for those, but that’s a very difficult process for us.”
Summit County Landfill Superintendent Tim Loveday.
