The Tracy City Council on Monday voted to continue the City’s relationship with Southwest Sanitation for its garbage and recycling collection.
The City’s partnership with Southwest Sanitation dates back to 2006.
Both Southwest Sanitation and the other bidder, Sweetman Sanitation, showed annual price increases over the next five years. The Southwest Sanitation bids did come in higher than Sweetman Sanitation, but the council could find no reason to make a change.
“Number one, we’re very fortunate to have two very competitive bids from two very qualified companies,” councilmember Seth Schmidt said. “Overall, I think it’s in the best interest of the City to continue with Southwest Sanitation. I can’t think of anyone who has complained — maybe there has been, but I’ve never heard of it.”
COLLECTION
continued on page 2 Another difference in the two companies is the scheduled pick-up time. Sweetman Sanitation would make its rounds starting at 6 a.m., while Southwest Sanitation starts its pick-up at 3 a.m.
“We don’t have traffic issues, there are no school busses at that time,” said Dan Ritter, vice president of Southwest Sanitation.
Southwest Sanitation has two trucks in town to pick up refuse in residential areas. Both use GPS tracking. There are 167 35-gallon containers, 503 65-gallon containers and 160 95-gallon containers, plus 10 1-1/2 yard containers in Tracy.
The charge per customer for a 35-gallon container in the first year of the contract is $8.90 — that increases to $9.09 for the next two years, $9.24 for the fourth year and $9.34 for year five.
The price difference between the two companies for the most common sized container (65 gallons) is 70 cents.
“To me, that is almost an inconsequential difference,” said Schmidt. “When you’ve got something that ’s working well like we do now — not to say that Sweetman wouldn’t do a fine job, too — if you’ve got something that works … it’s not worth the risk of changing. Southwest has earned our continued trust.”
Schmidt asked both companies about their policies concerning overflowing containers. Both said the garbage will be picked up if a lid is open.
“Our guys will get out and throw an extra bag in (the truck); they’re not afraid to do that,” Ritter said. “They also know of the consistency of the abuse. But if we can get it up … if something falls out, they’ll go out and pick it up.”
Both companies also provide port-a-potties for events like National Night Out and Box Car Days. It was also noted that Southwest Sanitation worked well during the City’s past infrastructure projects.
The City’s contract with Southwest Sanitation expired on July 1, when a 60-day window approved by the company opened for a decision to be made.
In other news from Monday …
• The council approved a resolution for permanent offsite gambling from the Tracy Eagles Club for The Gutter Sports Bar and Burgers.
• The council approved a deferred assessment for Joan Deslauriers.
