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PARKERSBURG — The city administration is negotiating a possible contract with a sanitation provider that would have to be approved by Parkersburg City Council before it could go into effect.

The city opened bids from Rumpke and Waste Management in early October to provide residential solid waste and recycling services after a joint council committee voted in June to seek requests for proposals.

“We are in the process of trying to negotiate a contract with one of the two providers,” Mayor Tom Joyce said, noting he cannot disclose which provider because of the ongoing process. “Once that contract is finalized, then it will be up to council to either approve, reject or amend … said contract.”

Joyce said that will likely happen sometime in December.

Bids

Both companies submitted proposals to provide residential trash pickup and recycling for five years, with their per-unit charge remaining the same for the first two, then increasing in years three through five.

Waste Management’s bid would charge $22 per unit (residence) for weekly solid waste collection and bi-weekly recycling the first two years. The rate rises to $23.54 a month in the third year, $25.19 in the fourth and $26.95 in the fifth.

Rumpke’s bids included weekly and bi-weekly recycling. For bi-weekly recycling, the per unit price is $19.76 the first two years, rising to $22.03, $23.24 and $24.52. With weekly recycling, the monthly rates are $22.50, $25.09, $26.47 and $27.92.

According to its proposal, Waste Management would provide residential customers with a 96-gallon container for weekly trash pickup and a 96-gallon container for recycling every other week. Residents would be allowed pickup of two bulky items per month, on a week agreed upon between the city and the company. A charge of $3 per bag would apply to extra bags of solid waste.

Rumpke’s proposal offers one 95-gallon cart each for trash and recycling, with additional carts available for $6.50 a month. It allows for two bulky items per week at no additional charge, though residents are required to schedule that 24 hours in advance. There was no bid for additional bags.

Finance Director Eric Jiles said both companies agreed to offer jobs to qualified city sanitation employees.

The request for proposals also sought bids for the city’s sanitation vehicles, but Jiles said it’s been determined that that equipment would have to be sold separately, via auction.

The proposal did not address the city-owned recycling facility at 100 24th St.

The bids were reviewed by a committee made up of four representatives of the administration and Councilmen Roger Brown and Andrew Borkowski. The bid documents themselves are public records. Once the process is concluded, the scoring documents will be a matter of public record as well, Jiles said.

Sanitation fee

The per-unit cost is what the city will pay the company, if selected. It is not the rate that customers will be billed.

“We will bill, and then we’ll pay the vendor,” Jiles said. “We have to bill a higher amount. As people are well aware, not everyone pays their bills. So if they’re out there picking up 12,000 locations and only 10,000 of them are paying us, we have to bill at a higher rate to cover it.”

The city will also have overhead for things like statements, billing, postage and personnel, he said.

During the budget process this spring, council approved a raise for medium equipment operators in Sanitation and other departments on top of an across-the-board 4.2% cost-of-living adjustment. That brought the raise for those employees to $2 an hour, Jiles said.

Council also approved a $4-a-month increase in the sanitation fee, but Joyce warned the additional pay would necessitate another rate increase in the near future.

Public input

The city suspended curbside recycling in May, citing staffing issues due to vacancies and increased call-offs. Before that, residents and some sanitation employees had been calling on council to increase pay for workers in the department.

Residents have been asking about the potential change to private service, and some council members attempted to place the topic on a council agenda in August as a discussion-only item. Others objected, since the bids had not been received, and one member withdrew their sponsorship. That, in part, prompted a change in council rules to require four sponsors instead of three for discussion-only items.

Usually, once funds have been budgeted, the administration procures and executes contracts, Jiles said. But because this is a multi-year contract, like the pool management agreement approved earlier this year with the YMCA of Parkersburg, it must be approved as an ordinance by council.

That means it will be on the agenda for at least two readings, and people can comment on it during the public forums at those meetings, council President Mike Reynolds said. If a majority of council does not vote for it, the contract won’t be adopted, he said.

While no decision has been made, Reynolds said he thinks many council members want to discuss the proposal as the Committee of the Whole, which includes all nine members, as well.

“I know that everybody in council is anxiously awaiting the information from the administration,” he said. “We want to act on it as soon as possible.”

Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl noted Committee of the Whole meetings don’t include a public forum but people could get information about the proposal there.

“I would like to have a public hearing to listen to the public, as long as they come to us with factual information, not rumors,” she said.

If people want to preserve the city’s Sanitation Department, there needs to be a source of continuing revenue, Kuhl said.

Councilwoman Wendy Tuck said a discussion with the public is overdue.

“There hasn’t been any question about, ‘Hey, Parkersburg, what are you willing to pay for good sanitation services?'” she said. “This is a decision that’s going to affect every single person.”

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com