by Geoff Fox
In what could have been one of their shortest meetings to date, town officials agreed to award the contract to the company currently collecting residents’ trash.
During the April town meeting last Wednesday, April 12, officials awarded the contract to Burgmeier’s Hauling Inc. from Cumberland.
In a post on the town’s social media page, officials said they were able to secure a contract that would allow the town to keep sanitation rates the same through the end of 2025.
Officials reminded residents to place their trash along the curb no earlier than 5 p.m. on Tuesday evening.
Residents are encouraged to place their trash along the curb the evening before, not the morning of collection, officials said.
The trash must be placed at the curb because when the trash truck stops at a location and there is no trash to pick up, the area around the location is photographed.
Trash pick up will start every Wednesday at 5 a.m. with recycling continuing on the same bi-weekly schedule.
When collecting trash and recycling, Burgmeier’s trucks collect both the recycling and trash in the same truck, however they are loaded into different compartments.
There were five bids received for the trash collection contract – Burgmeier’s ($484,695, tipping fee included), Apple Valley ($634,360 no tipping fee), New Covenant ($420,000, tipping fee included), J&J Trash Service ($464,249, no tipping fee included), and Weaver’s Sanitation ($478,891, no tipping fee included).
“I don’t think we are bound by the charter to go with the lowest bid,” Faith said on Monday, April 17. “We can go with whatever bid we feel serves the citizens better.”
Councilman Roland Lanehart, Jr. made the motion and seconded by Councilman David Kerns. Officials made the unanimous vote for Burgmeier’s.
Kerns said the term of the contract would be three years and won’ t make the town raise rates over the next three years.
“Nobody’s going to have to worry about their trash bill going up,” Kerns said.
Lanehart added sanitation should remain the same.
Burgmeier’s has been covering trash collection in Hancock for the last three weeks while the bids were being collected.
New Covenant, which was the lowest bid, had been pick-
ing up trash while the town got bids, but they only collected one day and decided they weren’ t big enough to handle the job.
Faith said the company had submitted a bid and there was no request to withdrawal that bid, so it was opened alongside the rest of the bids.