North Battleford council has made its decision to move the management of the landfill to an in-house operation.
The City has passed a resolution to take over operation of the waste management facility in a unanimous vote. The city officially takes over July 1.
The issue had been a somewhat contentious one, as the City’s practice had previously been to outsource the contract to operate the facility to commercial operators.
Private bidders Loraas Environmental Services and K & B Environmental Services each submitted bids around the $580,000 range. K & B had previously held the contract to run the facility. Representatives from the private bidders were in the gallery at council Monday.
However, city administration was clearly put off by a proposed increase in fees of 44 per cent by the lowest bidder.
That massive increase prompted administration to make the proposal to council to take over operation of the landfill, a move they claim will save the City more than $100,000 annually.
Their proposal was brought to council a couple of weeks earlier, but was tabled to May 11 as councillors sought more information on the implications.
One issue they had wanted investigated was the cost of purchasing the necessary equipment to go in-house. Loraas had suggested in their correspondence the cost of used equipment would be more than $800,000, but administration quoted a much lower figure of $601,500.
Operations manager Stewart Schafer noted this was based on prices on equipment from across North America, including older and newer equipment from various locations.
“They were all over the place but they are out there,” Schafer said.
The quotes were based on a timeline of five years, but Schafer indicated they expect the actual life span of the equipment to be closer to 10 years.
The items they were looking at had “major overhauls” of engines and transmissions, he noted. “They’re basically new machines,” said Schafer.
The priority now for administration is dealing with the transition from the private contractor, a process that could take a lengthy period of time.
“That requires a lot of work from us to now start working on getting the equipment in place and determining an estimated date to take it over,” said City Manager Jim Puffalt.
“Again, the business plan we presented to council indicated there were substantial cost savings for taxpayers if we were to do that, so we’re certainly full steam ahead.”
Puffalt expects when the list of equipment to be purchased is finally put together it will come back to council for approval. There will also need to be staff hired.
The expectation the equipment should be in place by August or September.
