PRIVATIZATION/Town expands trash collection contract
Roxboro, N.C., traditionally had provided waste removal services for its 8,900 residents. However, a growing population, combined with aging equipment and rising personnel costs were imposing a serious burden on the city budget. Mayor Lois McIver-Winstead, City Manager Jim Freeman, Assistant City Manager Tommy Warren and Finance Director Jimmy Overton began to research alternatives to municipal waste services.
“Like many cities, Roxboro had always provided waste removal services,” Mayor McIver-Winstead says. “We had acquired five trucks and had a seven-person crew to operate them. Our insurance costs were skyrocketing, and, worst of all, we were facing considerable capital equipment expenditures.” To solve the problem, the city began to explore privatization as a solution to its dilemma.
Raleigh, N.C.-based Waste Industries had managed the city’s curbside recycling program since 1999. Following the annexation of 440 homes, Roxboro expanded that contract to include all solid waste removal for the new residents.
The city had enjoyed a good relationship with the company. In fact, the city manager’s office had reported only one complaint in the three-year history of the contract. So it made sense to city leaders to broaden the scope of the contract.
Last December, a five-year contract providing for all residential solid waste removal, curbside recycling, and yard waste and bulk items removal for all the town’s 3,300 homes went into effect. The contract frees Roxboro from its waste collection duties and is expected eventually to result in considerable cost savings.
“We expect to break even during the first year, but, by the second to fifth years, we expect to realize significant financial savings,” Freeman says. “The ability to control our costs is a very attractive feature of the agreement. Plus, we avoid service reduction [and the possibility of] either increasing taxes or instituting a service collection fee.”
Under terms of the agreement, Roxboro residents will get new 90-gallon roll-away carts and new waste collection equipment. The company will buy surplus equipment at market value if efforts to sell the old trucks fail. The company also is providing one fully automated waste truck, a recycling truck and a yard waste truck.
Sensitive to employee concerns about their jobs, the city included all current waste removal service employees in the 2002 budget. During the transition period, displaced employees will be absorbed into other departments as openings occur. The company will provide compensation and benefits comparable to the city’s.