Atlas Twp.-On Monday night the board of trustees voted 4-0 to extend the garbage collection and recycling contract for five years with Emterra. Township Treasurer Ann Marie Moore was absent from the meeting.
The cost per household is $8.45 per month or about $101 per year in addition to an adjustable surcharge due to the fluctuations in fuel costs. The new agreement, a continuation of the same cost from 2012, takes effect on Jan. 1, 2016 and continues through Dec. 31, 2021. There were no other bids considered by the township.
‘If some other company was going to bid on our contract they would have done it by now,? said Shirley Kautman-Jones, township supervisor. ‘We looked at what other communities were paying and this is a great price. I really don’t see how anyone is going to beat this (price).?
The township refuse contract was acquired in November 2012 by Burlington, Ontario-based Emterra Environmental USA, after purchasing contracts from bankrupt Richfield Landfill, Inc. According to news sources, Halton Recycling of Ontario agreed to pay $5 million for several pieces of property that were owned by Richfield, as well as a dozen waste hauling contracts, which included the township in the Genesee County area.
The new contract includes an extension of an additional five years through 2026.
In April 2014 the township board of trustees voted 6-0 to OK a special assessment for $114 for improved lots for a total of $254,676 for garbage collection and recycling from all occupied properties in the township. Residents were paying $107 annual for the service. Township Supervisor Shirley Kautman-Jones was absent from that vote. Township officials said the adjustment was due to an increase in fuel prices.
Other communities including Groveland and Brandon townships do not have a contract with a single carrier; rather, each resident decides which waste hauler they contract. Both communities have grappled with the idea.
In 2009 a survey of Groveland Township residents found that about 75 percent of 324 respondents were open to the idea of a single hauler in the township. In Brandon Township, the same survey found 285 respondents split? with 46.6 percent opposed to the township coordinating services and 53.4 percent in favor of a township-coordinated contract for trash and recycling services.
Groveland Township Supervisor Bob DePalma said while there are no immediate plans to reopen the single hauler plan it’s still a possibility.