MONROE - The City of Monroe Common Council went back into discussion Tuesday, deliberating the use of an outside contractor for trash collection or purchasing the equipment needed to maintain the services through city employees.
A council vote in July on keeping trash collection services under the control of the city was deemed a failed passage at the meeting last night.
The resolution was originally considered passed, by a slim 5-4 vote on July 17, but last night council members were informed the motion needed a 2/3 majority to pass, because the resolution was a change to the 2012 budget. The resolution gave approval to implement an automated garbage collection service system and authorized the city to obtain trucks and trash bins for the system using up to $950,000 from the city's general fund. Aldermen Brooke Bauman, Michael Boyce, Tyler Schultz and Louis Armstrong had voted against the motion.
No action was taken at the meeting Tuesday. The council is preparing for another special meeting to convene after cash accounts are fully reconciled and the 2011 audit is finished, hopefully in early October. No date has been set yet.
"Once we get the numbers in, then we can look at the numbers and see where we are," said Mayor Bill Ross. "This is a very important decision that needs to be made. We'll have a special council meeting and lay it all out there."
At the special council meeting, aldermen are expected to look at new proposals from trash collection contractors and the Green County transfer station, as well as the resonating cost effects on city employees and transportation costs to haul the city's trash outside the county.
Timing will be important for the trash collection issue to make it into the 2013 budget, and it could be vying for money against the city's parking ramp sorely in need of repairs.
Council members noted that new trucks need to be ordered in October, for delivery in six months, if the city stays with providing the service itself. A contract with the local transfer station is due in the spring, but council members want the certainty of numbers to use in the budget now.
Multiple issues surrounding trash collection services were meted out by the aldermen and city administrator Phil Rath. Mixed into the discussion were the future relationship with the Green County transfer station and the city labor costs for displaced workers if the service is contracted out.
Some council members want the county's Solid Waste Management board to make the city an offer that would make using the station more feasible for the city.
The transfer station receives no funding through taxes, and operating expenses are distributed among user-members on a proportional usage basis. Monroe contributes about 42-54 percent of the usage, pays the same rate in expenses and owns the same percentage in the assets.
Some council members are also concerned that, without Monroe's trash, the station will not be operational, and the city would need to make other arrangements for trash dumping in Madison or Janesville.
The transfer station saw a 70 percent decrease in trash dumping in late 2011, when Veolia Environmental Services, a private waste collection company, began redirecting its collected waste from Green County to a private landfill near Darien. Some user-member municipalities, including the county, have since required its trash to be taken to the Green County station, but the operation is still about 40 percent below its 2011 revenues.
When the city compared contractors' prices with in-house costs of trash collection in May, one company, Pellitteri Waste Systems, submitted a bid with the commitment to use the county transfer station. Veolia, Rock Valley Disposal and Waste Management Inc. also submitted bids, but using the transfer station was not included.
Several townships in Green County are now using Pellitteri for their trash collection service.
A council vote in July on keeping trash collection services under the control of the city was deemed a failed passage at the meeting last night.
The resolution was originally considered passed, by a slim 5-4 vote on July 17, but last night council members were informed the motion needed a 2/3 majority to pass, because the resolution was a change to the 2012 budget. The resolution gave approval to implement an automated garbage collection service system and authorized the city to obtain trucks and trash bins for the system using up to $950,000 from the city's general fund. Aldermen Brooke Bauman, Michael Boyce, Tyler Schultz and Louis Armstrong had voted against the motion.
No action was taken at the meeting Tuesday. The council is preparing for another special meeting to convene after cash accounts are fully reconciled and the 2011 audit is finished, hopefully in early October. No date has been set yet.
"Once we get the numbers in, then we can look at the numbers and see where we are," said Mayor Bill Ross. "This is a very important decision that needs to be made. We'll have a special council meeting and lay it all out there."
At the special council meeting, aldermen are expected to look at new proposals from trash collection contractors and the Green County transfer station, as well as the resonating cost effects on city employees and transportation costs to haul the city's trash outside the county.
Timing will be important for the trash collection issue to make it into the 2013 budget, and it could be vying for money against the city's parking ramp sorely in need of repairs.
Council members noted that new trucks need to be ordered in October, for delivery in six months, if the city stays with providing the service itself. A contract with the local transfer station is due in the spring, but council members want the certainty of numbers to use in the budget now.
Multiple issues surrounding trash collection services were meted out by the aldermen and city administrator Phil Rath. Mixed into the discussion were the future relationship with the Green County transfer station and the city labor costs for displaced workers if the service is contracted out.
Some council members want the county's Solid Waste Management board to make the city an offer that would make using the station more feasible for the city.
The transfer station receives no funding through taxes, and operating expenses are distributed among user-members on a proportional usage basis. Monroe contributes about 42-54 percent of the usage, pays the same rate in expenses and owns the same percentage in the assets.
Some council members are also concerned that, without Monroe's trash, the station will not be operational, and the city would need to make other arrangements for trash dumping in Madison or Janesville.
The transfer station saw a 70 percent decrease in trash dumping in late 2011, when Veolia Environmental Services, a private waste collection company, began redirecting its collected waste from Green County to a private landfill near Darien. Some user-member municipalities, including the county, have since required its trash to be taken to the Green County station, but the operation is still about 40 percent below its 2011 revenues.
When the city compared contractors' prices with in-house costs of trash collection in May, one company, Pellitteri Waste Systems, submitted a bid with the commitment to use the county transfer station. Veolia, Rock Valley Disposal and Waste Management Inc. also submitted bids, but using the transfer station was not included.
Several townships in Green County are now using Pellitteri for their trash collection service.