MINDEMOYA – With municipal staff having been able to negotiate a much lower cost increase on a bid on a waste and recycling contract, council passed a motion to accept the tender from Green For Life.
At its regular meeting last week, council considered a motion from its water, waste and education committee, “that we recommend that council accepts the five-year waste and recycling tender from GFL (Green For Life), in the amount of $275,000 (plus HST) for 2020 with a two percent per year escalation for the remainder of the contract.”
“I want to thank (municipal clerk) Ruth (Frawley) and staff for negotiating this proposed contract. Originally the contract was for an increase of 44 percent,” stated Councillor Derek Stephens. “I can handle a two percent increase, but 44 percent would have been nasty.”
“I agree,” stated Councillor Al Tribinevicius. “And staff had gone through what it would have cost us (the municipality) if we would have had to do this on our own to keep the service going. There is very little difference between what it would have cost the municipality, and the bid we received for the service, so this is the right decision.”
Mayor Richard Stephens agreed with the opinion of the two councillors, “it did take the good effort of the municipal staff, and the costs are pretty close to being even steven.”
It was explained by Councillor Steve Shaffer that “the contract stays status quo except for the point that as of January 1, (2020), glass will not be accepted in the blue boxes. This is something that needs to be communicated to members of the public.”
It was noted by Mayor Stephens that representatives of GFL had indicated that glass is a pretty small portion of what is picked up.
“Because glass is not being accepted in the blue boxes, there may be some people uncomfortable throwing it in the municipal garbage. We will have to look at options,” said Councillor Angela Johnston.
Councillor Stephens said one option could be running glass through a grinder that could be used for cover of the municipal landfill, so it can still be used for something.
