Lincoln seeks proposals for trash, recycle pickup

LINCOLN — The city of Lincoln is seeking proposals for an outside party to provide sanitation and recycling services for its residents.

Lincoln City Council on Sept. 19 voted to seek bids for a sanitation contract. Proposals for solid waste and recycling services are due to the city no later than Oct. 12, and the bids will be opened Oct. 24.

Mayor Doug Hutchens recommended the council vote to seek proposals, noting the city is having problems keeping trucks and employees on the road.

“We don’t have a deep enough bench with CDLs and all the other stuff going on in the Water Department,” Hutchens told council members.

If the council decided to continue providing sanitation services, Hutchens said the city was “coming down to the wire” where it would have to purchase new trucks. He said the city would need self-loading garbage trucks and carts for customers. He estimated that one truck and carts would cost the city $500,000$600,000.

The city could not continue to provide the service without significant increases to the residents, Hutchens said.

“I think we need to outsource it,” he added.

Any business submitting a proposal must have documentation to show it has all requisite state and federal licenses and permits for residential, commercial and industrial solid waste, documentation to show it has worker’s compensation insurance through the state and that it has general liability insurance of at least $1 million per occurrence.

The contractor would be responsible for billing customers. Trash pickup would be provided once per week and recycling, which would be optional, would be picked up every other week.

Items to be addressed in a proposal include the price per bin per month, collection days, holiday/ inclement weather adjustments, yard waste and pricing for commercial/industrial customers.

In other action, the council approved ordinances to increase fees for water meter deposits, street cuts and water connection fees. All ordinances were adopted at the meeting and the council approved an emergency clause for each one.

Deposits for water meters will increase from $150$200. This ordinance was last amended about 16 years ago, according to Hutchens. Deposits are fully refundable.

Fees for street cuts will increase from $10 to $35 per square foot for gravel street cuts and from $15 to $35 per square foot for paved street cuts.

The new fee schedule for water connection fees will apply to all taps, whether the water tap is inside or outside the city limits.

Hutchens said this fee schedule was last amended in 2017 and costs for labor and materials have increased substantially since then. The fee increases are to recover the increased costs, he said.

The new fee schedule: • 3/4-inch tap, from $900 to $1,200.

• 1-inch tap, from $1,200 to $1,600.

• 2-inch tap, $4,000. • irrigation 3.4-inch tap, $1,200.

Under committee reports, Hutchens said the Planning Commission has appointed a subcommittee to consider changes to the Unified Development Code.

As an example, he said the city only has requirements for large-scale developments but does not have separate standards for developments that are smaller in scale. Many of these requirements do not fit smaller businesses that want to move into Lincoln, he added.

Another example, Hutchens said, are the requirements for landscaping and irrigation. One recommendation is to reduce the amount of landscaping and eliminate the requirement for irrigation. Developments would be able to use more native plants that don’t need irrigation and that would help conserve water, he said.

City council member Mary West said she has talked to a lot of developers who do not have any complaints about the city’s UDC but the administrative part of the code.

“We have to be a little more flexible with it,” West told council members.

The problem, Hutchens said, is being able to fund the staff to facilitate the code.

“The planning commission is our boots on the ground to bring this to city council,” Hutchens said. “Some of these are my suggestions and some are from the planning commission.”

Hutchens said city council members are welcome to submit their own ideas for changes to the UDC.

In other action, the council:

• Approved a rezoning of 4.67 acres at 901 E. North St., from R-A (residential agriculture) to R-1, low density residential. Hutchens said this is to get it ready for a lot split. The lot split will come back to the city to be approved.

• Approved an ordinance for the establishment of a flood damage prevention program for the city. This was passed with an emergency clause.