PLATTE CITY SIGNS DEAL WITH REDGATE DISPOSAL
Platte City residents will soon see Redgate Disposal trucks in their neighborhoods.
Redgate Disposal will take over trash and recycling collection for residents within the City of Platte City, as the city has signed a contract that gets the city out of the physical act of collecting refuse and recycling.
The city will still be involved in the billing and financial collection of the monthly refuse fees, under the agreement that takes effect on June 29.
The vote to make the change was unanimous among aldermen at a June 9 meeting.
“The city has been struggling to keep the service going. Our recycling truck has not been reliable for the last 18 months or so and has been completely out of service the last four to five months,” said Bryan Richison, city administrator for Platte City.
“Our trash truck is also having mechanical issues and probably does not have much life left in it. It would probably cost at least $400,00 to replace each truck,” Richison explained.
Staffing of labor has also been a concern.
“If one of the employees on the trash crew is out on vacation or sick, we have to pull an employee off water, sewer or streets to fill in. We don’t have any depth in equipment or manpower given our small size. More long-term, as more houses are built on the east side of the city along Hwy. 92 we will reach a point where our customer base grows too large for one set of trucks and one trash crew to handle, but won’t be large enough to financially support two sets of trucks and two crews,” the city administrator said.
“Where we really suffer is the lack of depth. When one of our trucks is down or if we have an employee out for an extended period of time we are scrambling to make things work,” he added.
“In the long-term, as I mentioned above, I am concerned that as we grow with more housing being built we are going to get stuck in a trap where we need more than one set of trucks and crews but we won’t have grown big enough to financially support expanding. This is where a private company will have a big advantage with their economies of scale and much bigger customer base,” Richison explained when discussing the reasons the city is making the move.
The big savings in the move will be not having to purchase replacements for the trash and recycling trucks.
“On an operational level, we are going to have some costs we need to absorb. In anticipation of contracting we did not replace a public works employee who retired late last summer. That still leaves us with two full-time employees who are currently paid for in the solid waste fund as well as a portion of a few employees’ salaries who handle the monthly billing along with their other duties. This totals around $180,000 per year.
“The city will continue to handle the billing and collection for the service, so there will be continued expenses for that. This is about $37,500 per year. The city is going to add on a $3 per month fee for the billing and collection, which will generate around $65,000 per year in revenue,” Richison told The Landmark.
“We have also eliminated a part-time seasonal position in public works in anticipation of this change. That saves us about $27,500. So, on net, we will have about $125,000 in costs we will need to absorb. Cutting additional full-time positions in public works was discussed, but that starts to cause problems with other services, such as snow plowing,” he said.
As for the monthly fees charged to residents, Richison said residents are currently paying $22 per month.
For year one of the agreement with Redgate, Redgate will charge the city at a rate of $20 per month and the city will add $3 when billing residents “to help with our billing and collection costs,” Richison remarked.
Redgate was one of five firms submitting proposals to the city, and its offer was deemed the best by city officials.
“I understand that at some point in the past the city provided both residential and commercial service for the entire city. Today, the city is mostly out of the commercial business, but there are still some remnants. We still provide service for nine commercial dumpsters. We will be working with those businesses to transition them to a private commercial service of their choice,” Richison commented.
“There are 51 businesses that use our standard trash container and place the containers curbside for collection. They are basically no different than a residence. These are all smaller businesses and most, if not all, would be hard pressed to find the space for a dumpster,” he stated.
“For these reasons, Redgate will continue to provide them service under our contract. They will pay the same rate as residences because there functionally is no difference between them. There are three apartment complexes with dumpsters that will continue to receive service through our contract with Redgate because each unit of the complex is individually metered and we can bill each unit the monthly trash fee,” he added.
Platte City will continue to operate its green waste disposal site by the sewer plant near Riverview Park. Residents can pay $20 per year to drop off yard waste at the site from March through November, Richison said.
Officials say the day of trash service will not be changing. Same day as it was under the city’s operation.
Residents are advised to have their cans to the curb by 7 a.m. on pickup day. All trash needs to be inside the containers provided by the city. If you need additional cans, call the city at 816-858-3046 for service options.
