County committee OKs bid for waste collection at convenience centers

On Dec. 1, a new company will begin disposing of wastes collected in Dyer County's convenience centers.

Waste Management submitted a bid that will cut the county's costs in half - a bid that members of the Dyer County Commission's Local Government Committee thought was too good to ignore.

Barker Brothers Waste of Troy has been hauling the county's convenience center wastes for at least the last four years. The first three years, the county had a contract spelling out the charges for each service. The contract expired last year and no one - not even Barker Brothers - answered the county's request for bids, said Daniel Cobb, the Dyer County building inspector and convenience center manager. So, he said, the county continued working with Barker Brothers without a contract and prices kept rising.

This year, two companies submitted bids covering a three-year period. Using the county's estimated volumes of wastes, Barker Brothers quoted a price of $2,880.76 a month plus an unspecified fuel surcharge and state and Obion County taxes. Waste Management, from Jackson, quoted a price of $1,669 plus a 3 percent fuel surcharge and a state tax.

Cobb noted that Barker Brothers did not include the insurance documents or the references the county required in the bid specifications.

"In my opinion we need to change immediately because this is too much of a difference," County Mayor Richard Hill told committee members Thursday. "It's a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned."

Committee members agreed and they voted to accept the low bid.

The committee's decision will be reported to the full County Commission when it meets at 7 p.m. Dec. 14 in the courthouse.