Hiring new trash hauler will cost more money

Township officials opened bids for trash removal and discovered they will have to pay more than anticipated.

DOUGLASS (MONT.) » The say you get what you pay for and getting rid of Keystone Disposal LLC for a new trash hauler may cost the township an additional $26,888 over the next two years.

Last month, the board of supervisors, tired of a year’s worth of complaints about poor service, exercised an option to terminate its contract with Skippack-based Keystone Disposal.

A total of five haulers bid on the remainder of the contract — which runs until February 2020.

The lowest bid was from Advanced Disposal for $530,649.02, according to information provided by Township Manager Peter Hiryak.

Coming in a very close second, for $1,800 more, was Whitetail Disposal at $532,450; followed by Waste Management at $589,872.

The final two bids were higher, with A.J. Blosenski bidding $603,506 and J.P. Mascaro at $923,952.

Hiryak said the staff has work to check references and other paper work since the bids were opened on Feb. 2.

The board of supervisors is expected to select the “lowest responsible bidder” at its meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 20, he said.

If Advanced Disposal is chosen, the monthly cost for collection would increase from $23,000 per month to $24,120 — an annual increase of $13,444.92 per year for two years — according to waste coordinator Andrew Duncan.

Advanced had been the township’s prior hauler when the supervisors awarded a three-year contract to Keystone in January 2017, at an annual price of an annual price of $278,333.33 per year.

At the time, the Keystone contract represented a $22,333 annual increase over Advanced’s previous price.