Rogers extends trash contract

ROGERS -- City officials will start contract discussions with Inland Waste Solutions after the City Council decided to extend a trash contract with the company for five years.

The council approved the extension Tuesday. City officials will review contract details by the end of the year, Mayor Greg Hines said. Changes will be minimal, he said.

The city first entered into a five-year contract with Inland on Jan. 1, 2006. It was extended in 2010 for five years, said Chris Griffin, Rogers staff attorney. The 2010 contract included an option to extend for another five years, he said.

Griffin said the extension allows the city to renew the contract without going out to bid. That option will not be included in the next contract that ends Dec. 31, 2020, he said.

Hines said the 2010 option allowed for the extension if Inland did a "good job" of providing service. The company has provided quality service in recent years, he said.

"They have been responsive to shifts in the industry and issues," Hines said.

Providing large recycling carts since the 2010 contract approval is one example, said Hines. Customers previously used small rectangular boxes, he said.

Steve Julian, area manager, said the company sold about three years ago.

Hines said there has been a noticeable difference in service with the new owners.

"Since that time they have been very customer friendly and very responsive," Hines said.

It isn't uncommon for residents to be concerned about trash service in any city, Hines said. Any call that comes to the city about trash service is fielded through his office, he said.

"It probably went from seven or eight complaints a day to seven or a eight a month with the new owners," Hines said.

Bidding a contract for trash service along with changing providers isn't easy, Hines said.

"It takes a good six to eight months for a new operation to prepare to take over," Hines said. "They have to have trucks, hire people, get a computer system for mapping and billing."

The complexity of changing services is why contracts with trash providers are lengthy, Hines said.

It also takes time for city officials to plan for a change, Hines said. He said the trash industry is changing and research is needed before a contract can be prepared.

Hines said Inland approached the city about using compressed natural gas trucks. He said the company asked for a 10-year contract if it replaced its fleet with the new trucks.

"We are looking at the possibility of putting a fueling station here," Julian said.

Hines said the city is interested in the concept but couldn't include it in the contract extension. "It works well, the trucks perform well and it is better for the environment," Hines said.

Hines said, "It was the opinion of the drafter, Jim Clark, that we couldn't do that," Hines said. "He said it wouldn't be an extension but a new contract."

Clark is the city attorney for Rogers. He worked in the city attorney's office when the original contract was drafted.

Hines said the City Council was notified a year ago and in the spring the contract would be up for renewal.

"I didn't receive any overwhelming interest in changing the contract," Hines said.

Julian said Inland services more than 19,000 customers in Rogers.

Households that have a 96-gallon trash container and one 64-gallon recycling container spend about $14.45 a month for service in Rogers.

"It cost less than $20 per household on a monthly basis to make sure that someone shows up once a week and takes everything you don't want," Hines said. "That is pretty impressive. It could be a major household problem but we just have to set it at the edge of the curb and a trash service takes it."

NW News on 11/28/2015

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