City Manager Randy Bridge informed city council that the contract with Waste Management is due to expire. He said that he has been in negotiations with them regarding prices.

The tentative figures from Waste Management are $20.50 per month for full service users and $16.50 per month for low volume users.

Full service users would have a 96 gallon container; low volume users would have a 64-gallon container.

He asked WM what the rates would be if the city continued with the current service. The prices would have been $22.50 per month flat rate, or $16.00 per bag.

“I wanted to get away from the bags,” said Bridge. He said the city office is the only place that sells them and WM suffered a loss on them.

The rates take into account a $3 franchise fee per customer per month. “That fee was originally supposed to go into the street repair fund,” said Bridge. Council Member Rick Lowrey said that the franchise fee was originally to help offset the wear and tear to the city’s streets from trash trucks.

“We have done some research and found that the franchise fee has not been put into the street repair fund,” said Bridge. He could not give a reason why because that was done before he became City Manager, but he said that in the future, the funds would go to the proper fund.

Council members Ethan Reynolds and William Lindsey both asked why the contract was not submitted for open bids. “People aren’t going to like their trash bill going up $20 a quarter,” said Lindsey.

Bridge replied that Waste Management has the capability to serve the city well. He said that there have been some complaints from residents about WM, but Bridge said that most of those were from people who hadn’t paid their bill.

Bridge said that he would contact other companies to get bids from them.