Trash is a hot commodity these days.
During a Jan. 2 Osceola City Council meeting, Ty Wheeler, Osceola City Administrator/Clerk, said he'd recently received a phone call from Jim's Trucking of Creston.
"Basically, the intent of his call was to say, "Hey, Waste Management is not the only game in town. I want to a chance to bid on this. Please don't extend the contract,'" Wheeler said.
Current contract
During an Oct. 2 Osceola City Council meeting, the council denied entering into a five-year contract with Waste Management that incorporates single-stream recycling.
The city currently has a contract with Waste Management until September 2013.
Councilman David Walkup said he supported sending contract bids out between Jim's Trucking and Waste Management.
Councilwoman Sarah Truitt asked about a smaller business doing single-stream recycling.
"According to Jim today, they can do that," Wheeler said. "They can do everything that Waste Management offers."
Walkup said, "There's no question about it, we want single-stream."
Work session
A decision was made about hashing out the details of what the city wants with waste clean-up and recycling during the city council's work session Jan. 8.
"If you're going to want them to bid apples to apples … let's just give it a quick five, 10 minutes … hammer out what we want in the bid process," said Councilman Chris Dorsey.
Frustrations
Walkup said he's frustrated because the council has sat down in a work session before with a Waste Management official.
"They know what we want, but yet, they're going to do the same thing that they've always done," Walkup said. "I guess, my question is, if we wanted this, what would it cost? And then, we're the ones who determine whether or not we think that it's for our city. That's what I've been asking all this time and I'm frustrated with that."
Later in the meeting, Councilman Glenn Schaff said,"Waste Management thinks they've got us at the end of a gun. I just don't like to have the city (or) anybody think that they've got us at the end of a gun."