His successor, Mitch Johnson, picked up where Harris left off and contacted the county's four cities, holding meetings to see who would be interested in banning together to lower trash pickup prices. Johnson said there wasn't much interest.
Before Johnson resigned the court was considering a franchise with only the unincorporated areas of the county. Currently the customer has the say of which firm they wish to use.
The court asked Nelson recently to revisit the issue. Nelson told the court Tuesday she felt it was still a great approach to lowierng the pick-up price for the customers. It has been said that by allowing a bidding process the haulers will lower the price to obtain the contract.
One of the problems Nelson has heard is there are too many trash trucks on Logan County's roads, which over a period of time can cause wear and tear.
Nelson said she thought there would be at least four companies that would bid for the franchise. She said at worst it would bring the cost down a couple of dollars but felt it would go lower than that.
Waste Management, which owns and operates the landfill on the Coopertown Road, charges $49.14 per quarter with a $25 set-up fee to customers outside incorporated areas. Scott is currently charging Logan County customers $48 each quarter.
Nelson said she has talked to the cities in Logan County and a few of them are definitely interested. Auburn Council members showed interest in the concept Monday but didn't make a commitment. Nelson told them Adairville is definitely interested. She said Lewisburg wants to start taking bids immediately, either alone or as part of the larger group.
She said she didn't know if Russellville would participate because it's receiving a large franchise fee from its current provider, Waste Management. Russellville's customers currently pay $30.60 a quarter for their trash pickup.
Nelson said that even though all the cities may not participate, group bidding still could work. She said they could include the cities that want to participate and the unincorporated area of Logan County, and lower the price for those customers.
Magistrate Harris Dockins said there is a change going on in Logan County. He said that Scott Waste is doing very well in the county. Judge/Executive John Guion asked Nelson how soon this could take place. She said she thought they need to talk more to the cities and see what they need. The first of the year was mentioned as a startup date.
Nelson said some of the cities are coming up on their bid dates and although the process doesn't need to be hurried along they do need to begin pursue the plan now.
Magistrate Dickie Carter said he was in on some of the meetings when coordinator Johnson was working on the issue. He said nobody seemed to be interested, especially Russellville
Nelson was instructed to continue investigating the plan.
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