County finalizes new contract to be delivered to WastePro

News

GILMER COUNTY, Ga. – The county has been very happy with the services of WastePro since the transition to them for solid waste haul off. It is one of the reasons the Board of Commissioners has stated that they want to be helpful in recent negotiations as WastePro has returned in the last two months seeking a change to their contract.

With inflation continuing and gas prices higher than normal, the company has sought to change the contract rates. During talks with the county, this has taken the form of a diesel fuel surcharge to be included in the contract. In a Special Called Meeting on August 4, 2022, the Board of Commissioners received calculations from WastePro and looked to establish a base price that the surcharge would use as an anchor point.

They way that County Attorney David Clark explained the surcharge in this meeting, the base rate of $4.29 unit price was established from an average in July. This $4.29 is before added taxes. Originally planning to use a higher price that included taxes, the board decided against it as Georgia’s State Government has a fuel tax suspension that is still in place and the county did not want to have an “artificial increase” when the suspension is lifted.

As such, this base rate will be used in comparison for future months, each month’s cost for fuel as the company hauls off full dumpsters will be calculated as it increases or decreases from this base rate. Then, a surcharge will be added to the county’s monthly fees based on a percentage of that increase or decrease, meaning that increases will charge more, but the county has included decreases in fees in the contract should the average price of diesel fuel for a month go below the $4.29 base rate. The contract still includes charges based on taxes paid, but they will be calculated separately according to Clark.

The contract change discussed in the meeting, they did discuss these changes specifically for the diesel fuel costs, it will not include regular gasoline as is contracted for maintenance vehicles and such that visit sites when needed rather than the continual hauls.

From here, the county will move into regular session next week, giving Clark the time to prepare the contract and write it, then an approval will be needed to allow the chairman to sign the contract. At that point, the BOC will send the contract to WastePro for their signature putting the final approval on the changes to the adjusted contract to be set for three years.

Those meetings will be held on Wednesday, August 10, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. for the Work Session and Thursday August 11, 2022, at 6:00 p.m. for the Regular Meeting.

1 Comment

  1. Rene Stover August 11, 2022 at 6:34 am

    In considering the cost to WastePro, or others that are feeling the increased cost of operation, the board should also consider that the cost to the Taxpayers has increased, but wages have not! How much more can we stand?

Leave a comment

Back to Top