My fellow Meridianites,

    I write to you in an effort to be open and forthcoming. There has been a lot said these past few weeks about solid waste collection and disposal, and what is the best value for the citizens of Meridian.

    I want to set the record straight.

    In accordance with Mississippi Code 31-7-13 (r), the City of Meridian employs the request for proposals (“RFP”) process when contracting for solid waste collection or disposal. Requests for services include collection, bulky waste, and recycling.

    For Fiscal Year 2011, which begins this coming October 1, Southern Waste has been recommended by a municipal team for solid waste collection. The choice was made based on interviews with the committee, positive professional recommendations, and the company’s ability to meet the requirements.

    Specifically, the City’s team determined that Southern Waste would, while providing the citizens of Meridian with the necessary solid waste services, save the taxpayer’s over $107,000 yearly compared to the other two proposals. That comes to a savings of more than $320,000 for the life of the three year contract.

    The savings would be generated from a charge of $8.88 per household for once a week cart service, rubbish and bulky waste pickup and every other week recycling. Most importantly, the savings would better assist the City meeting the current budget needs.

    The City Council voted against this recommendation 3-2, in favor of Waste Management. Waste Management would charge $9.57 per household, which would reduce the savings the committee had hoped to generate, by $107,035.56 per year. This would mean the City would spend an estimated $321,106.68 more over three years, and $642,213.36 over six years.

    Costs could be even more than this since Waste Management listed as one of four of the exceptions at the end of their contract to remove the cap on Consumer Price Index, which measures changes through time in the price level of services purchased by households. The current contract has a 2.5% cap on CPI increases.

    By comparison, Southern Waste listed no exceptions in their contract.

    Waste Management’s proposal stated they would phase-in new equipment. Southern Waste’s proposal included all new equipment to serve Meridian.

    The City of Meridian provides citizens with services for both solid waste collection and solid waste disposal. Each of these services are currently being fulfilled with Waste Management. Collection and disposal are provided in the form of two separate and distinct contracts.

    Collection service (garbage pickup) is a three year contract with three option years and is currently due to expire on September 30, 2010. Disposal service (landfill) is a 25 year contract which is currently in place and does not expire until 2015. The combined cost of both contracts for the City of Meridian is $16.57.

    In order to make up the difference between cost of collection and disposal, the City assesses a garbage tax of 1.6 mils. The City Administration is opposed to raising taxes. The Council shares in the task of maintaining the finances for the City of Meridian.

    Why vote to spend more of the citizen’s money, when there is a recommendation before them to spend less with a company that is capable of doing the job?

    Cheri Barry is serving in his first term as mayor of Meridian.