Polk County commissioners knew they would be paying between $90,000 and $97,000 more for garbage service this year, but now they have to add another $26,400 to the annual price tag.
At their meeting December 15, 2022, commissioners had accepted a bid from Priority Waste Management as the county’s new garbage contractor.
At the time, County Executive Robby Hatcher estimated Priority’s bid would cost the county the additional $90,000 to $97,000 a year. But it was lower than the bid from the current provider at the time, Universal Waste, which Hatcher estimated would raise the expense $150,000 a year.
At their meeting last Thursday night, commissioners learned Priority has been bought out and wants out of their contract as of September 1. Hatcher said Priority did not receive the Polk County contract until January 29 from County Attorney Eric Brooks, the day before they sold out.
Since a duly executed contract was not in place between Priority Waste and Polk County, the hauler decided they will not honor the contract due to the contract taking too long to get back to them, Hatcher said.
The situation leaves Universal Waste as the county’s only option for garbage service.
Hatcher presented a bid from Universal that will increase the county’s cost approximately $26,400 per year, which is not included in the new budget just adopted by the county.
Universal Waste’s bid was the only one received by the county. It offers a one year agreement per pull by county convenience center for: $375 from Benton Convenience Center , $375 from the South Polk Convenience Center, $400 from the Linsdale Convenience Center, $425 from the Reliance Convenience Center, $995 from the Grassy Creek Center, and $995 from the Farner Convenience Center.
The price for these pulls will increase by 3% every year as the contract goes forward.
Hatcher said Todd Walker, owner of Universal Waste, has said that as long as the two 3% increases are understood, that going forward with an addendum to that agreement, that he would look at pulling 3% off the table. In addition to these increases, a 10% fuel surcharge will be added when fuel prices exceed $5 per gallon.
Previously, rental on open top containers for these convenience centers sat at roughly $125 a month. With this new bid, this would increase to $250 a month for rental on an open top.
Hatcher said that this past July the county spent $30,754.55 on hauling waste. At this new rate, with the same amount of waste-pulls, the county will spend $32,830, a $2000 a month increase. Hatcher says that in June, the county spent $36,302 on this issue, whereas with the new company, it would have costed $38, 005.20- a $2,200 increase.
Essentially, Polk County is looking at a roughly $2,200 increase each month for solid waste disposal. A motion to approve the Universal proposal was approved Commissioner Kelley Morgan voting against the deal.