The city of Warrenton is hiring Grace Hauling to take over trash collection in the city beginning in January. The new contract will also include the return of weekly recycling pickup, along with …
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The city of Warrenton is hiring Grace Hauling to take over trash collection in the city beginning in January. The new contract will also include the return of weekly recycling pickup, along with twice-yearly bulky trash pickup.
Warrenton residents will see a sizable hike to their trash bills, partly because of the added services and partly because of general price increase. Grace Hauling was the low bidder out of just two companies that offered their services.
Warrenton residents are currently charged a monthly fee of $9.70 per household for weekly trash pickup, according to the city’s website. For the equivalent service from Grace Hauling, residents would pay $12.25 per month.
The city asked haulers to submit optional bids for the extra services of recycling and bulky trash. With weekly recycling, Grace Hauling’s bid increased to $16 per month, and twice-yearly bulky trash pickup brought it up to $16.50.
The Warrenton Board of Aldermen voted 5-0 Oct. 19 to accept the $16.50 bid offering from Grace. It’s an increase of $6.80 per month for each household in the city.
City Administrator Brandie Walters said she recommended selecting that option for trash service after receiving survey responses from more than 300 residents.
“A majority of those people wanted recycling, they wanted bulk pickups,” Walters said.
The agreement with Grace Hauling is for a two-year contract, with the option to extend the contract for an additional two years.
Warrenton’s current trash hauler, Meridian Waste, was the only competitor for the contract. Meridian’s contract in Warrenton expires at the end of the year.
Meridian had previously notified the city that it did not intend to renew its current contract, which provides weekly trash pickup for a monthly fee of $9.70 per household. Instead, Meridian submitted bids for a new contract, which would have charged $12.77 per month for the basic, trash-only service.
With the addition of recycling and bulky item pickup days, Meridian would have charged $21.37 per household each month. Although Meridian was close to Grace for the cost of basic trash service, the inclusion of recycling made Meridian’s bid about 30 percent more costly than Grace’s.
Walters said the trash haulers also submitted separate bids for large dumpsters to be placed at apartment complexes. Although Warrenton has included this service in previous contracts, Walters advocated for the city to drop that service and allow apartment owners to negotiate independent contracts with trash haulers. That would put them in line with other businesses that already arrange for their own dumpsters, she said.
The aldermen agreed to leave large apartment dumpsters out of the city contract, with Ward 1 Alderman Larry Corder commenting that it will be beneficial for apartment owners to be able to negotiate services that best fit their needs.
