Wausau City Hall. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The Wausau Public Health and Safety Committee has approved a Request For Proposals for the city’s residential garbage and recycling contract as the current ten-year deal with Harter’s ends next year.
City Finance Director MaryAnn Groat noted that the current deal is extremely favorable for the city. Struck in 2015 with a monthly fee of $155,000 for garbage and recycling, the deal included 2% annual increases and a city option for a seven-year extension. Groat says since the increases haven’t kept up with inflation, exercising the extension could backfire.
“Harter’s has been very reliable,” said Groat. “I don’t know that it would be in the city’s best interest to exercise the seven-year extension if it puts the hauler at risk of terminating the contract.”
While the seven-year extension looks favorable for the city, it also includes a termination clause on Harter’s end should they be operating at a loss. “It’s not our goal to force people to operate at a loss,” said Committee Chair Lisa Rasmussen.
Groat says Harter’s would prefer the city go out for bids, but they’ve also indicated they would keep themselves in the running. Alder Lou Larson says he would hate to see Harter’s exit the city entirely.
“I would hate to see the city get thrust into a situation where [we] think the grass is greener on the other side, but it’s not. If we put an RFP out there, we may not get [the level of] service we have been,” said Larson.
Rasmussen noted that the city would have the option to bypass other proposals and continue with Harter’s if the additional proposals don’t look favorable. “We wouldn’t be required to pick any of those, like with any RFP.”
Committee members also agreed that the proposals should include all residential garbage and recycling plus curbside yard waste and Christmas Tree pickup. The deal would also include pickup at all city-owned buildings. They also requested all garbage and recycling containers remain the property of the hauler.
Monday’s vote was unanimous. City Staff is expected to expedite the minutes of the discussion to allow the item to go to the full City Council next Tuesday, which would allow the RFP to be posted immediately. If required, the committee will meet in a special session with the Finance Committee to review the proposals in March.
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