City, county considering buying trucks
Marion County wants to take back its garbage service from a contractor and the city of Columbia may soon follow suit.
During discussions at meetings earlier this week, both entities discussed purchasing garbage trucks and taking over services that were privatized nearly five years ago.
The city and county both began contracting with Red River Waste Solutions in 2013 because the municipalities’ aging equipment was driving up costs, but there have been complaints about spotty service and price increases. In 2016, Red River was replaced by Waste Pro. City and county officials raised fees last year to $15 per house per month to accommodate rising expenses.
On Monday, county officials met with Ingram Equipment of Theodore, Ala., and Pelham, Ala., and heard presentations on Heil equipment. On Tuesday, Jay Callaway of Truckworx presented specifications for Kenworth equipment.
“We’d like to get something in place by July 1,” District 2 Supervisor Terry Broome said. “We’re looking at a lease purchase with terms over four years.”
Callaway showed the Board photos of several types of trucks.
“We have a variety of garbage trucks, dump trucks and chipper trucks,” he said. “We will have stock trucks on the yard. We’re slated to take delivery of some in April. We focus on governments and municipalities.”
Mayor Justin McKenzie said he discussed the situation with county officials before the city’s meeting Tuesday.
“They said that they were looking at getting out of their contract with Waste Pro,” he said. “Waste Pro has apparently agreed to be a wash and let them walk away from the contract as well. There won’t be a buyout or any breech of contract or anything like that. They told the board that they were not making any money in Marion County. They were barely breaking even or losing money some months. They also said they were not going to leave them high and dry and give them time to look at what they want to do and let them do research on equipment.”
After speaking to county officials, the people from Ingram stopped to see McKenzie and discussed some options. They got a house count and sent some estimates on trucks.
“He had a recommendation for a side-arm loader. Instead of employing three people on a truck and putting one driving and two hopping, you can use the sidearm and only have a driver. The control arm will go out and pick up the can and dump it,” McKenzie said. “Lamar County recently purchased a side-arm truck and it is estimated to save eight seconds per stop.”
McKenzie said the current cans that the city has work with the side-arm trucks.
“I’ve seen it used on a couple of different types of cans,” he said. “It’s a band inside it that molds to whatever the can is. It would just have to be positioned out there near the road. The way the ordinance reads, they are supposed to be now. It will still pick it up if it is sideways because it will be above the truck and it’s going to hang freely.”
McKenzie told the Board that a sidearm truck would cost about $199,000 versus $142,000 for a traditional garbage truck.
The turnaround on a truck purchase would be two or two and half months, according to McKenzie.
“It’s pretty good,” he said. “We would probably need two trucks and the county would need three.”
City Attorney Lawrence Hahn suggested the city and county take bids at the same time to help the bidding and bid prices.
“These companies know that there is an opportunity for at least four and maybe five trucks,” McKenzie said.
McKenzie said Waste Pro was willing to work with the city and county on the timeline. City officials said they would like to have the conversion completed in September or October.
Discussions at both the city and county level will continue at upcoming meetings about opening the bid process and about taking over collections from the private firm. No official action has been taken as the entities research the costs.
