Miami Twp. seeks bids for waste collector
Miami Twp. is once again looking for a new company to take out the trash.
Township officials are seeking bids for refuse collection and disposal services onanexclusive contract basis for all private residential properties.
Rumpke provides those service and directly bills residents as part of a 3-year agreement set to expire at the end of this year, according to Kyle Hinkelman, the township’s deputy director ofcommunity development.
It bills residents $12.75 a month for trash pickup, Hinkelman said. If the township continues with Rumpke for option years of 2021 and 2022, that billing would increase an estimated 4 percent each year to a monthly bill of $13.26 and $13.79, he said.
The township is seeking different rate and bid specifications after residents logged complaints againstRumpke, a situation that also occurred with previous trash haulers, Hinkelman said.
Many of the complaints are the kind that can be addressedbyRumpkeincluding customer service, missed service and issues with specific quality of service, he said. Others, including pick up times, days of service, senior rates and sizes of containers, are part of Rumpke’s bid for service and cannot be altered, Hinkelman said.
Trustees, in looking for a new trash hauler, are seeking to keep the majority of the existing standards including unlimited trash collection and large-item pickup, he said.
Some of the larger items added to the standards include the township’s preference forweekly recycling, stretching contract length to three-and-a-half years and penalizing a trash hauler if they do not remove their trash toters from the community if township officials opt to change providers.
That last additionwas necessary because the last time the township changed providers, there were “a number of issues” with trash toters remaining in thecommunity, Hinkelman said.
AnAug. 20 Facebook post bythetownshipelicitedmore than adozencommentsfrom residents asking thatRumpke be replaced for various reasons including skipping trash cans and leaving trashdebris on the street.