Current Curbside Collection Cycle Will Remain

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Friday, 28 February 2020 08:59

Oxford County council will stay with the current five-day pickup cycle regarding garbage collection following a 6-4 vote in favor of it. They awarded a five-year contract to Emterra Environmental.

OXFORD COUNTY - Oxford County council has awarded a five-year contract to Emterra Environmental for curbside collection of garbage, recycling and large materials.

A six-day pickup was proposed with the contract, but council decided to stay with the current five-day pickup cycle.

Warden Larry Martin explains council's decision.

"Originally staff brought back a report earlier on, I think it was in November at the time, and said their contract was running out and they said to move forward we need to do this, this and this. And they said at that time in order to maintain the status quo, which was a five day pickup, which is what we have now, we got to do this in order for an RFP (Request For Proposal) to go out. And there was County council who instructed them at that time, 'don't just do the RFP, go ahead and do a five-day and six-day vote and that way we can compare when you come back.' It was quite obvious they weren't totally in agreement with the six-day cycle so we ended up with the five-day cycle similar to what we have and the numbers will be have to be reconfigured. The way they were presented it was an annual price and some of it is pro-rated and we haven't got all those numbers for the day-to-day figures so it will be coming back in the future with a staff report as far as what those day-to-day figures will be."

There was a split vote recorded earlier among councillors before the motions were passed 6-4 in favour of the five-day cycle.

Councillors David Mayberry, Marcus Ryan, Don McKay and Warden Martin pushed for the six-day cycle, which was recommended by staff. The debate among councillors lasted a couple hours before a decision was made.

Deputy Warden and Mayor of Tillsonburg Stephen Molnar was among those who were in favour of the current five day system.

"We've had a satisfaction with the five day collection system and I didn't see nor did the others who were reinforcing my education, both internally to our organization and residents in our community, that suggested moving to the six day based on at this particular point in time would be ultimately effective."

Warden Martin adds the numbers will have to be reconfigured for council's benefit, just to let them know how much it is going to cost and where the money is going to come from.

The contract includes an option for two additional one-year terms and it will be for an annual base price of $2,827,964.

Warden Martin says the five-day cycle is more consistent.

"If your garbage goes Tuesday this week, it will go Tuesday next week and Tuesday the following week. Where under a six-day cycle, it will go on Monday this week, Tuesday next week, Wednesday the next week. The worst that could happen is maybe you put your garbage out a day too soon and the only problem is though when you have a long weekend if you're a Monday pickup, I think once every six weeks you will end up with ten day laps under the proposal program that was rejected."

Council's report says an additional contract was awarded to Emterra on the same duration for over $703,091 to transfer and process recyclables for the County.

Warden Martin adds the current system won't impact Woodstock directly because they have a private contract until 2028.

He says South-West Oxford is on a six-day cycle of their own and both Ingersoll and Tillsonburg are on a five-day cycle, but it should continue on just the same with the only difference being a cost increase per household as far the pickup goes.

He says the cost increase per household will be County-wide.

You can view council's initial proposal and their full report here.

The contract is anticipated to start on May 4th, 2020.