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YORKTOWN, N.Y. – Removing a few sentences from its bid specifications may end up saving Yorktown almost $1 million in garbage collection in the 2013 budget, said Supervisor Michael Grace.
“Having purged our previous bid document of language we thought was restrictive in terms of inviting possible start-up businesses from bidding on the garbage contract, we went out to bid, and we got two bids lower than our current contract,” Grace said.
Yorktown previously required 10 years of experience from its garbage crews, but the new bid will have no experience requirement. The change resulted in two bids that were about $500,000 and $800,000 less than the 2012 contract it has with C.R.P. Sanitation.
Competition Carting came in as the unofficial lowest bidder, at $2.49 million annually, and C.R.P was the unofficial second lowest bidder, at $3 million annually.
“So we’re going to be in the process of vetting the two lowest bidders, but the potential is that we can save $1 million in the cost of garbage collection services to the town beginning next year,” Grace said of the two unofficial bids. “So that is a huge savings.”
The sanitation budget for Yorktown in 2012 was $5.1 million, which was up from $4.5 million in 2011. The town had six-year contract with C.R.P. that expired on Dec. 31, 2011. C.R.P. was brought back for a one-year contract in 2012.
“It’s always good to re-bid these things,” said Council member Nick Bianco. “And thank God we had in our contract that we can do it on a yearly basis. We’ll vet the two winners on the bid and see which way we go.”
The board is also in the process of challenging a prevailing wage law, which is a rate set by the state Department of Labor for specific jobs and are tied to union wages. Bianco has said the law resulted in a large increase of the 2012 sanitation budget.
Comments (3)
the town is about to make a mistake of epic proportions if it decides to go with the lowest bid from Competion Carting! a quick rundown of there credentials. 1. they have been in business for 2 years! 2. the have zero experience doing residential garbage. they have no accounts with any towns. 3. they have no equipment or men to do the work. they own 1 garbage truck. look at there web page what you see is what you get there 1 truck!!!!!!!! 4. they are not even atrue sanitation company they subcontract for a garbage"broker" who is not even located in this area. stay with the company that's been doing it for 35 years. they also submitted a lower bid so it a win for everybody. in this case experience is ALL that matters PAY attention
It would be nice if the new contract allowed residents to use 45 gallon trash cans. I assume that is the reason why the instructions say that 32 gallons is the highest (although I have seen larger trash cans sitting in the street, so maybe they don't refuse to take them. I have really old trash containers and whenever I go to look for better ones, the 32 gallon variety look crappy, the 45 gallon look much sturdier.
Presumably this company is currently collecting trash for other towns and the town board can check on their reputation. And what's so great about the current company? They leave the containers in the street half the time. $800k is a pretty big price difference
Just wondering how many complaints the town received with the experienced company and how many they will be expecting from the newbie. Don't you think experience counts in this case? I really wonder about our town and its officials.