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Council wants to hear from residents about disposing of city garbage service
RANDOLPH – The Randolph City Council is considering outsourcing its residential and commercial trash services but want to hear from residents before making a decision.
At the council’s last meeting, representatives from S2 Roll-offs and Refuse, based in Fremont, presented information about their services. The company already services area communities of Laurel, Wayne, Norfolk and Pender, among others.
Currently, city crews provide the weekly garbage pickup and the city bills for the service.
The move from a city service to a private entity has come up numerous times over the years, but it’s a good time to look at it again with the age of the current garbage truck, said Interim City Administrator Josh Rayford.
“Our garbage truck’s about paid off which means it won’t be long before we need to look at purchasing a new one. We probably need to already start if we continue to do things the way we always have,” he said.
If the city chooses S2 as its trash vendor, the company is open to purchasing the city’s equipment and dumpsters as part of the transition. S2 can bill the city for its services and then the city in turn can bill its residents, or S2 can handle all of the billing.
“We don’t make much. We are set to come out a little ahead on our garbage, We have large expenditures that come up like last year, we had a lot of expenses with repairs with the garbage truck, that really puts it close. It’s not a money maker for us,” Rayford said. “Right now for this year, we’re profitable but we haven’t had the payment come out. It’s $26,000.”
Councilman Todd Greiner said outsourcing garbage services might save the city money in the long run if a vacant utilities position wouldn’t have to be filled.
Recycling is an option through S2 as well, although mixed recycling loads must be hauled to Omaha or LeMars, Iowa, currently.
“You want to recycle to be green and save the Earth but then we have to haul it 120 miles,” said S2 Owner Mitch Sawyer. “We’re working on some other options where we can drop locally and then load it on a semi trailer to get it out but that hasn’t happened yet.”
Ultimately, the council decided to table any action and set a public hearing for next month’s city council meeting on the topic.
“We need to give the public a chance to kind of speak to this. There are things we won’t think of that will come up. Based on the experience I have, it will be good to open it up and get some feedback,” Rayford said. “Our guys do a pretty good job and people are used to the way we’ve always done it. Transition is tricky sometimes.”
At its last meeting, the city council also discussed replacing the heating and cooling system at the city auditorium but did not make any decisions.
Currently, one heat pump unit is inoperable and another is operating at 50 percent capacity out of the four units at the auditorium.
Scott Wattier suggested it might be a good time to consider switching from an electric heat pump to gas.
“We’re too far north, our ambient temperatures during the winter time, drops far enough to where they’re (electric heat pump) not as efficient,” he said.
The city provides electricity wholesale and so has always found an advantage with going electric. It would be helpful if there was a way to do a comparison of electricity usage and translate that into a projected gas usage, Rayford said.
“We’re open either way,” he said, but asked Wattier to provide financial impacts for each option at the next meeting.
The city has budgeted to replace one unit this year.
“I know we need to do something because it’s no fun getting calls when the auditorium can’t stay cool or can’t stay warm for a big event,” Rayford said. “We had a couple of those last year.”
About a dozen people attended the meeting last week but no one gave public comment.
The council went into executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss sale conditions for downtown properties as well as the city administrator position. After exiting the session, the council approved Rayford as the interim city administrator. Sheila Korth-Focken was fired as the city administrator March 31.
