Cedar Rapids Today

At its April 5 meeting, the Belle Plaine City Council heard from several companies that had put in bids for the City's next garbage service contract.

The councilmembers valued their past relationship with Republic Services, having no major complaints about the large-industry company. They felt they had always been good to work with and cared about providing quality service to the community. There were also impressed with the bid laid out by Serious Sanitation, as it was a great price from a small, local, Iowa-based company.

The council was also interested in an aspect of a bid from S&J that made a cart size option available to residents, so they could pick if they wanted a larger bin or smaller one based on their usage. Additionally, cost was another major factor in their discussion, as the cost of everything has been increasing in the past several months. The councilmembers asked the representatives from all the contractors to speak about their services and answer some questions so that they could make an informed decision.

"We have a number of good facts," Mayor Dave Fish said in the meeting. "I really think we have quite a few good companies here that we would be happy working with. But I leave that up to you. I think we have to have a company that's going to work with our older people, especially in the wintertime. I think if you go smaller-sized garbage can, you could have the council room full in July with residents who are not happy, because I remember how happy they were when we went to the bigger ones, and I think those are key things to keep in mind. And then, of course, cost has to be a key factor."

Serious Sanitation, a family-grown company, was started by a father and is now run by his son-in-law. They spoke about how they were dedicated to making long-standing relationships with the community. Serious additionally noted that they have recycling pickup twice a month, and they would be open to working with the City to make different size bins available as long as the City could provide them with some numbers to order the supplies.

After the other contractors spoke, the council voted in favor of awarding the five-year contract, which starts in the summer of 2023, to Serious Sanitation.