THE SPECTATOR: MORE ANSWERS ABOUT TRASH
We have more answers now about the City of Brenham’s decision to outsource its residential trash collection…but not all of the answers. At last week’s Brenham City Council meeting, City Manager James Fisher and Public Works Director Dane Rau explained how the City got to this point of negotiating a contract with Brannon Industrial Group. During budget talks last summer, it was determined that the current way of collecting residential trash…using two trucks with guys riding on the back picking up trash bags…was no longer a sustainable model. For many, many years the City had used full-time employees in that position. Due to a variety of reasons including retirement, high workman’s comp claims, and difficulty in finding people willing to do that job, several years ago the City began using a temporary employment service to fill those spots. Then they added a second company to try to keep up. And whenever those temp workers didn’t show up, or walked off the job, employees from other City departments had to climb on the back of the trucks. With the City growing, a third truck was going to be needed, resulting in two more positions to be filled.
During those budget talks last summer, the City researched the cost of buying new automated trucks along with residential trash containers for everyone. And they calculated the cost of picking up everyone’s trash once a week, and twice a week. They quickly realized that the citizens would not want to pay twice as much as they are now just to continue twice a week pickup. At that point they asked for proposals from private companies that are in the waste management business. What they found was that they could outsource this service for about the same rate as what they would be charging citizens. And, for just a little bit more, they could add curbside recycling…something the City could not do.
They have chosen Brannon Industrial Group…a local Brenham company…to take over both the commercial and residential garbage pickup, and to lease and operate the Citizens Collection Station on Old Chappell Hill Road. That’s a great choice from where I’m sitting. Our money stays here. This company pays local taxes. And the Brannon family cares about this city, because they live here. I’ve seen people complain that it was a buddy, buddy deal. Would those same people have complained about the City not “shopping local” if the City had gone with an out of town company?
The bottom line is that this change can be a “win-win” for everyone. Yes, it will cost a little more….but you will now be able to recycle at your curb. Almost every city now uses trash containers…Bellville and Caldwell made the switch from bags recently. And almost no one gets their trashed picked up twice a week. The City did its homework on this one. Although there are still things to be worked out in the contracts, I believe this change is for the better. And…eventually… everyone will adapt. Nobody likes change.
And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.