Grace Kirchner, Leader Correspondent
Harter’s Fox Valley Disposal submitted the low bid to become the city of Clintonville’s only garbage hauler, and the city’s street committee voted Tuesday to recommend the Clintonville Common Council approve a five-year contract with Harter’s at its meeting Feb. 14.
The city has been discussing moving to one garbage hauler for several months to save wear and tear on city streets. Currently there are three companies providing garbage pickup in the city.
Under the proposed contract with Harter’s, residents will be charged $9.50 per month ($114 per year) for refuse and recycling collection/disposal.
Residents will be sent an invoice for the first year of service; thereafter the fee will be included in the tax bill.
Andy Gayhardt, general manager of Harter’s, said the firm runs about 70 trucks with 150 employees, including four who live in Clintonville, and does its best to meet customer needs.
“The nice thing is that we have 15 trucks within a year old,” Gayhardt said. “Every day something will happen. There can be issues with fill-in drivers. We make 150,000 stops a week.”
If the Common Council approves the proposal, a letter will go out to residents by March 1, and they will have 30 days to return paperwork to opt out of the service.
Residents who want to continue to use Clintonville Area Waste Service will be able to do so. CAWS is operated by the city of Clintonville and town of Larrabee and Matteson. Residents of the municipalities may bring their garbage and recyclables to the site on Beacon Avenue for disposal.
There are about 1,500 households, with 1,800 customers, in Clintonville, and about 1,300 of those already use a pickup service. About 25 to 35 haul their own garbage and recyclables to the CAWS site, according to the city.
“I think we will see opt out at first, but residents will see how wonderful it is to have the pickup available and they will want to get back in,” street committee member Lance Bagstad said. “If there are complaints that people are using their neighbors’ container, we will have to have the city ordinance in full force and there will be consequences.”
Gayhardt admitted there will be growing pains, and if too many people decide to opt out, that would affect the days of pickup for others.
“We serve 80 to 100 communities that we pick up and we have never had a community with opt out,” Gayhardt said. “It causes headaches and a lot of extra work.”
Harter will be asked to provide different sizes of refuse carts. Single-family residences likely will get 94- to 96-gallon carts, though residents could request 35- or 65-gallon carts.
Collection hours are expected to remain between 7 a.m and 5 p.m Monday through Friday.