The Town of Purcellville contracts with American Disposal (AD) for the collection of refuse and recycling, within the corporate limits, for residential households only. Businesses and non-residential properties in Town are responsible for securing their refuse and recycling service.
November 2019, the staff met with representatives from AD to discuss the existing contract, changes in the refuse and recycling industry, as well as AD’s increasing expenses associated with the delivery of their service. At that time, it was mutually decided to engage in a joint service audit exercise to evaluate and verify the number of residential collection units to ensure accuracy for both parties and to ultimately confirm the Town was not paying for services at a greater cost than necessary. From an accounting perspective and to ensure fiscal responsibility, from time to time, it is important to review records to ensure accuracy. This is a process that should take place on a regular basis and will become an integral part of this contract in the future.
During the joint service audit exercise with AD, while verifying the residential status of the properties, it became apparent AD had erroneously been collecting refuse for a small number of non-residential properties, in various areas around the Town. As these properties were not residential, the Town was not paying for service to these locations.
Ultimately, this was an error by AD; however, in lieu of AD simply discontinuing the service, staff requested the opportunity to reach out, via letter, to the non-residential property owners and/or tenants to inform them of this error. Unfortunately, staff and AD had a disconnect with the coordination of the out-reach effort associated with this and they began contacting businesses before the letters were mailed January 24, 2020. This resulted in a bit of confusion for the non-residential property owners and/or tenants.
A total of fifty-six letters were forwarded to property owners and/or tenants believed to be in areas where erroneous collections by AD may have been taking place. Ultimately, it appears that approximately ten to fifteen non-residential properties were receiving the service in error. Unfortunately, a number of these non-residential property owners/tenants thought the Town was paying for their service and were not aware they were ultimately responsible.
At the February 25, 2020 Town Council worksession, Vice Mayor Stinnette requested staff contact AD to identify the cost to continue to provide service to the impacted property owners/tenants.
AD provided the following pricing information – per month for 1x/week service:
· $45/1st - 96 gallon refuse toter/cart; $10 each additional
· $35/1st - 96 gallon recycle toter/cart; $10 each additional
· $90/4-yard dumpster (refuse capacity is equal to
approximately 5 of the toters/carts)
The information we have at this time, related to the number of non-residential properties confirmed to have been receiving this service, a reasonable estimation for cost of service to these properties would be approximately $800-$1,000/month.
Staff recommends entering into a discussion with the successful bidder, from the Town Consortium joint RFP, to evaluate and negotiate preferential refuse and recycle service pricing for all non-residential properties and businesses within the Town limits.
The responses for joint RFP for refuse and recycling services, issued January 30, 2020 by the Town Consortium were due Friday, March 20, 2020 at 2:00 pm.