All 4 firms tell the parish they can do the job for less than the current $13.38 monthly fee
St. John the Baptist Parish residents will pay less to have their garbage collected if the Parish Council accepts any of the four pickup proposals submitted by waste haulers on Friday.
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The current five-year contract with IESI/SWDI ended July 1 and cost $2.5 million a year to provide services to 15,000 homes and businesses.
All of the companies, including the current hauler, IESI/SWDI, told the parish that they could do the job for less than the current $13.38 monthly fee for pickup, plus disposal costs.
Ramelli Waste submitted the lowest proposal of $10.38 per month. The monthly prices proposed by other companies were Waste Pro, $10.78; IESI/SWDI, the parish's current hauler, at $11.28; and Waste Management, $13.17.
However, parish officials aren't bound by the price for twice-weekly collection, because garbage pickup is a professional service, which doesn't require that the contract be awarded to the lowest bidder.
The proposals will be rated by a committee formed by the parish administration, which will make recommendations to the Parish Council, which has the final say over the contract award.
The lowest proposed price is higher than the $9.74 per month fee accepted by the St. Charles Parish Council from SDT Waste and Debris Services last year after a similar process.
IESI, which lost the contract to SDT because of its lower price, recently purchased SDT.
St. John's rating scale gives a maximum of 40 points out of 100 for price, 20 points for past performance on jobs, 20 points for the size of the firm and 10 points each for qualifications, including the experience of key staff, and "accessibility," which the request for proposals defines as "work undertaken at a location readily accessible to St. John and having key staff "readily accessible" to parish staff with a minimum of travel time and cost.
The proposal also solicited prices for special refuse collection such as roadside dumps, the cost per mile of hauling garbage to landfills other than the River Birch site in Waggaman, the cost per month of renting a 15 cubic yard recycling container and the cost to haul the container to a recycling center.
Parish officials have not set a timetable for awarding the new contract, which must be adopted by Parish Council ordinance.
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Matt Scallan can be reached at mscallan@timespicayune.com or 985.652.0953.
