County awards bid on garbage
The Marshall County Board of Supervisors recently opened bids on collection of household garbage. Four companies submitted proposals with Team Waste awarded the contract.
The bids were for monthly collection with all new equipment (containers, trucks, etc).
Waste Connections of Walnut, the current provider, bid $12.58 per month for either residential or small commercial pickup and disposal. Waste Connection offered an alternate bid of $11.04 per month if the company can use its current garbage containers and equipment.
ADST (Arrow Disposal Service) from Alabama bid $13.65 per month for residential and $17.95 for small commercial containers.
Waste Pro of Southaven bid $11.62 monthly for residential and for small commercial containers.
Team Waste bid $12.84 monthly for residential and for small commercial.
County supervisors took the proposals under advisement. They came back and interviewed providers, and supervisors individually rated each one. Afterward, the bid from Team Waste was accepted as the best plan.
Supervisors awarded a three-year contract to Team Waste, in business five years and in business in Marshall County three years as a part of All American Disposal.
The proposal included picking up solid waste from residential and small commercial sites in all areas of the county that are not incorporated as a municipality. The proposal calls for 100 percent participation of both customer types and billing and collection for all accounts.
Chris Carter with Team Waste said his company will put out all new containers and has purchased four Mac trucks for this account. The trucks will be tagged in Marshall County.
The rates to customers can be adjusted in the second and third year of the contract based upon the Consumer Price Index. Prices are adjusted for inflation once a year, he said. There is no fuel cost escalator in the contract.
The waste will be disposed of at Walnut.
Carter said Waste Connections will end its contract with the county September 1 and Team Waste begins pickup September 5, the day after Labor Day.
He said his company has an office in the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park area (in the northwestern portion of Marshall County).
Waste Connection had the contract for the last six years.
Representatives with Waste Pro, in business since 2001 with service locations in the Mississippi Delta and Memphis, Tenn., area, emphasized their lower bid for the work plus the company’s credentials and experience.
Roland Joyner with Waste Pro appeared before the Marshall County Board of Supervisors to object to the awarding of the contract to another company.
“Over the period of the contract, their bids are $1.2 million higher than our bid,” he said.
“Then they have three contracts in the state and we have over 50. We feel like the package (Waste Pro’s package) was a fair rate.”
Board attorney Kent Smith said all interviews were good and the representatives with the companies answered questions well. He said the rating was the reason the contract was negotiated.
“It is a proposal, not a bid,” Smith said.
“With our experience and serviceablilty…it is a little tough to swallow,” said Joyner, who is regional vice president. “We didn’t understand their low service rating.”
With Joyner was Lori Cate, municipal market director at the Southern office for eight Southern states.
The scores for each RFP are as follows:
• Waste Pro - 85.2 average, and 426 total score
• Waste Connections - 89.6 average and 448 total score
• Team Waste - 94.8 average and 474 total score.