City considers service options

Waste, recycling fee hikes have leaders looking at consortium

The city of Avon is one step closer to joining a consortium of Lorain County communities for waste and recycling services.

On Sept. 10, Avon City Council Service Committee approved a motion recommending the Council to pay a $5,000 entry fee which would initiate the competitive bidding process through the Lorain County Solid Waste and Recycling Collection Consortium.

Avon is considering its options in the midst of concerns with present provider Republic Services following unannounced recycling rate increases in August prompting frustration from Council and Mayor Bryan Jensen due to the lack of communication. Jensen said the fee increases resulted in a number of residents contacting the city and electing to get rid of their recycling container.

“I think everybody on Council here knows that some of the frustration we have in terms of moving forward, and I think

that’s one of the things Council asked me to do is to ask what can we do for the residents and how can we change things,” he said.

“I think that’s when the Consortium kind of made sense to start looking at it.”

Exploring the Consortium could provide an opportunity to use the city’s collective power in order to help residents in providing good services at a reasonable cost, Jensen said.

Joining the Consortium could represent an annual savings of about $200,000 for a total savings of $1 million over the life of a fiveyear contract.

If Council approves the Service Committee’s recommendation, the $5,000 non-refundable entry fee will initiate the competitive bidding process with the Consortium requesting bids from up to four service providers, including Republic on the city’s behalf.

Should the city decide to reject the winning bid, Avon would have the option of pulling out.

The timeline for the change would see Avon going out to bid by Oct. 15 with service beginning on April 1, 2019.

The Consortium presently in its fifth year, consists of 11 communities: Avon Lake, Amherst Township, Brighton Township, Grafton Township, Huntington Township, Penfield Township, Pittsfield Township, Rochester Township, Rochester Village and Sheffield Township.

Elyria Township recently agreed to pay its $5,000 and is in the process of joining the Consortium.

Currently consisting of 48,000 people in nearly 20,000 households, the Consortium provides several benefits in providing leverage for communities to get better pricing on waste and recycling collection in jointly bidding on a solid waste contractor.

The Consortium ties fuel surcharges using a formula

and allows for different pricing depending on recycling/waste cart size.

In addition, the Consortium presently services municipal government buildings at no cost and provides a number of legal and consulting services along with a consortium committee.

“The townships were very concerned more than five years ago about the pricing and services that they were getting,” said Michael Greenberg of GT Environmental.

“In their areas, they were concerned about fuel surcharges that they were paying.”

Greenberg said a survey conducted of residents in Lorain County townships indicated many households were paying upwards of $100 per quarter for recycling and trash collection services.

The Service Committee will hold another meeting Sept. 17 where present waste and recycling collection contractor Republic Services are expected to make a presentation.