City extends trash, recycling contract with fee changes

Extending its current trash and recycling contract, the City of Greencastle expects to have a new agreement in place by February.

The Board of Works Tuesday approved an amendment to the current city contract with Republic Services of Indiana, providing an extension that runs through Feb. 28. Without the extension, the contract would have expired Nov. 30.

While city trash customers have gone without a fee increase for 15 years, paying $10 a month for trash and recycling services, that will change beginning Jan. 1. On that date, trash collection services per residence, per month will increase to $12.

Also on Jan. 1, recycling services will be available through Republic Services at an additional $3 per month, or $15 monthly to continue both trash and recycling services.

The contact extension will be in effect, City Attorney Laurie Hardwick advised, “while we’re in the process of reviewing bids.”

The lag in time will also allow the City Council to make necessary ordinance changes.

At the Nov. 18 bid opening, the city received new trash and recycling bids from Republic and Jack’s Trash.

Two other trash contractors were in the audience but did not submit a bid on the city contract.

The Board of Works did not disclose the monthly fee it expects to see in a new contract after February. However, City Clerk-Treasurer Lynda Dunbar said,”It doesn’t look too bad.”

In other business at the special meeting at City Hall, the board approved two expenditures relative to upgrades in accounting software for the city.

The board authorized a one-time transition cost of $37,125 to provide four-digit accounts via Incode 9, as now required by the State Board of Accounts, which wants all cities in the state on the same system. Greencastle previously was on a three-digit system for tracking accounts such as Motor Vehicle Highway Fund and grants like the OCRA money the city received, Dunbar noted.

The second expenditure approved is a $40,259 annual charge for licensing and maintenance software to connect city accounts to the Cloud. The city had been paying $30,000 annually for maintenance and hosting the accounts on its own server.

The money for both accounting expenditures through Tyler Technologies of Texas is available in the city budget, Dunbar assured.

Board members Mayor Bill Dory and Craig Tuggle were in attendance with fellow board member Trudy Selvia absent.