Service agency recycling contract to be let for bids

The company operating the local recycling recovery center would be able to decline recyclables or charge a fee for recyclables collected by a competitor outside the Jefferson County Service Agency area under a contract established Wednesday evening.

The Jefferson County Service Agency defined its area as the city of Fairfield and the unincorporated areas of Jefferson County while setting the terms of the contract that will be let for bids. The contract modifies a key paragraph that agency members struck during negotiations with Waste Management Inc. Nov. 11. Waste Management rejected that amended contract.

?In my mind, it defines what the service agency is and who can bring materials to the recycling center,? Jefferson County Supervisor Dick Reed said of the contract he proposed be used as a request for bids. He explained the contract would exclude free acceptance of recyclables collected from incorporated cities, such as Lockridge, Libertyville and Batavia.

?They do not put any dollars and cents into the money for this,? Reed said. ?My concern is that I have a place for the people in the county to take recyclables.?

?How is this new version ? different from the other contract because it sounds like to me that we?re able to charge companies that bring us recyclable materials, and if they win it, they?re going to be able to charge us for taking them recyclable materials?? asked Waste Management?s Jeremy Olsen. ?How is this different than what we previously had that we were trying to negotiate on the table at that point, which was not agreeable??

?At one point you could have charged any hauler that came in irrespective of where they came from,? answered Jefferson County Supervisor Lee Dimmitt. ?You can?t charge if they?re from the unincorporated areas of Jefferson County. You have to make the determination of where it came from.?

Jefferson County Attorney Tim Dille pointed out it would be unlikely that anyone would be hauling recyclables from an unincorporated area because there?s no city to contract for the service.

For the complete article, see the Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010, printed edition of The Fairfield Ledger.