Hall Commission approves county's own solid waste bid

GAINESVILLE - Hall County solid waste employees were relieved Thursday night when commissioners ended a two year process by closing the bids on a solid waste services operation contract and approved the county’s own bid.

Commissioner Billy Powell made the motion; the County was the only one out of six bidders that offered a comprehensive approach to solid waste operation.Powell urged continue looking for cost reduction opportunities and put department job uncertainty in the past.

Craig Lutz recalled making the motion nearly two years ago for request for proposals for solid waste.

“Here we are nearly two years later,” Lutz said. “Basically what the county has done is increase the assessment from $50 to $75, recycling is going to lose $350,000 a year, and today the minimum fee at the land fill has been increased to $12.50. The only thing that’s changed over the last two years is how much we charge for the service.”

Lutz told fellow commissioners the savings is in outsourcing solid waste, but Scott Gibbs disagreed.

“We have a landfill that has a 25 year life left on it that we control,” Gibbs said. “By giving that up to another company, I understand that we can lose that control.”

Public Works Director Ken Reardon said the county’s bid contained more changes and now that the county has won the bid those changes could be implemented.Reardon said the commission’s bid decision was a real morale booster for employees, several of whom were in the audience.

“We had a lot of people involved in this whose jobs were on the line,” Reardon said. “We were very excited; we’ve been going through this for two years.”