Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

During their Jan. 9 meeting, the Marengo County Commission agreed to begin preparing and mailing requests for proposals (RFPs) for residential solid waste collection. The County’s current agreement’s expiration date is still several months away, but Commissioners want to get a head start on finding companies in that line of work.

The current contract doesn’t expire until November, Paige Smith said the Solid Waste Enforcement office wants to have a bid deadline in April so the process can be completed by July 1. The deadline would allow them the required 90 days to notify the current provider.

Prices for garbage were supposed to have increased in November 2023, but the provider waited until January to increase the price by $5. The current contract allows the provider to make adjustments that are connected to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI measures the change in prices paid by consumers for goods and services.

“That is what they can legally do every year. They can up the prices by the Consumer Price Index,” said Smith. “They took it to the max.”

Smith said that six companies are on the RFP list including Waste Management, and that Solid Waste Officer Denny Baynham has contact information for two of the six companies. The RFP has not been mailed out to any of the possible bidders yet.