The Board of Commissioners of Golden Triangle Waste Services sent a letter to the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors, requesting a meeting before any decision is made regarding bids on new waste management services.
The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in February to table a motion to select the bids it received.
In GTWS's letter, it pointed out the cost of its services for Oktibbeha County is only $8.12 per household each month for garbage collection, which is the lowest of all the bids the county received.
A question raised during the meetings related to the handling and replacement of garbage carts, which are free until additional or replacement carts are needed.
"Representatives from Oktibbeha County have taken it upon themselves to personally take carts-some of which were intended for Webster County residents-without any accountability or process by which to determine where the carts are being delivered or who should be billed for the carts," GTWS stated in its letter.
With this concern, GTWS board attorney Shane Tompkins said they are looking to alleviate the issue by providing its annual allotment for budgetary purposes for Oktibbeha County and write a check at the first of the year. He said that way, the board can choose whichever vendor it wants.
"We feel like a lot of the complications between (Oktibbeha County) and (GTWS) had been created by the cart situation and we're trying to work to alleviate that problem," Tompkins said. "That way we hopefully take that out of the equation, and any problems that's created in the past."
One problem stated in the letter is the complaint of communication issues by saying the two supervisors on the commission have not attended recent meetings making the communications and cooperation "impossible to achieve.”
Tompkins said they want to avoid having miscommunication by requesting a meeting to be scheduled to work through this issue.
"Hopefully we can set up a system that takes care of the communication issues moving forward," Tompkins said.
Tompkins said GTWS has served the county for 20 years and has not had any complaints until recently. He said GTWS can offer recycling options, but it was never something brought to them by the board.
In the contract with the board and GTWS, if a party decides to exit the cooperative, then it has to pay their budgetary responsibilities prorated for that year.
President of the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors Orlando Trainer said the letter supervisors received shows GTWS is definitely concerned, and would like to better its relationship moving forward.
"Anytime something like that could change, that gets the attention of everybody," Trainer said. "At the same time, you hate to get to this point, but I think all of this has gotten us to a point to where we can sit down and try to decide which route we want to go."
Trainer said as of right now, the county has proposals from other groups that are "comparable" or in some cases "greater" than its current services.
He said the county’s expectations have changed and although money is a conversation piece, the potential new companies will have all new cans and equipment for county residents.
"When you compare apples to apples, then that's really what you've got to focus on," Trainer said."It may not be that much different between the proposals."
Trainer said it's obvious there's been miscommunication between the supervisors and GTWS. He said they were at one time scheduled to be on the agenda, but had to reschedule and the meeting was never made up.
With the letter voicing concerns and desire to meet, Trainer said he hopes to get the situation resolved soon.
We're just trying to enhance the service and see if we can provide a better service," Trainer said."I think it's going to be a win-win for Oktibbeha County either way we go."
In February, supervisors received bid proposals from Arrow Disposal Services, Inc., Waste Management of Mississippi, Inc. and Waste Pro.
In December, the board unanimously approved a request for proposals (RFP) to advertise for a new service.
ADSI's rate per household totaled at $9.22. The bid for recycling was $1,800 per drop-off location a month.
Waste Management of Mississippi's rate per household totaled at $13.64, with recycling options not available.
Waste Pro's bid totaled at $13.72 per household with a $100 cost per haul for recycling. They would provide a 40 cubic yard roll off container at no charge.