You don’t have to pay extra, debris hauler informs cities

One of South Florida’s biggest debris-removal companies touted a price adjustment Wednesday it says could save cities millions of dollars in taxpayer money.

Randy Perkins, the founder and chairman of AshBritt Environmental Inc., said his Deerfield Beach-based company won’t collect extra fees from eight South Florida cities after all.

The cities had agreed to pay higher amounts in taxpayer money for cleanup service from AshBritt, concerned they were left with debris-strewn streets after Hurricane Irma left a mess. Perkins said he was forced to increase the fees to keep his subcontractors from leaving town for more lucrative jobs.

Those higher costs remain, but Perkins said he’ll eat the difference. He declined to say what that will be, only saying, “It is what it is.”

In Broward, among the cities that had agreed to pay more were:

Tamarac, whose debris hauling fees were estimated to rise from $3 million to $5.5 million.

Deerfield Beach, which was expecting an increase of anywhere from $800,000 to $1.2 million.

Pompano Beach, which was going to pay an extra $1,575,000.

Parkland, which was poised to pay an extra $697,000 more for debris hauling, up from an originally anticipated $1.4 million.

Palm Beach County cities that were set to pay the higher fees were Boca Raton and Delray Beach, and Miami-Dade cities, including Miami Beach and Key Biscayne.

AshBritt officials said it has 70 clients statewide; about two dozen of them are in the tri-county area. But only those eight cities were asked for higher fees “because they activated first,” or were the first to get the pickups, Perkins said.

Perkins told Parkland commissioners on Wednesday the