Health and Rec Meeting 10/25

I attended the H&R Meeting on10/25 and here's what I saw.

I was very encouraged that we have 2 bidders this year, as I thought it would create a healthy tension that could help the Village financially.  However I am disappointed in two things:  the significant rise in the Rumpke bid vs 2012, and the disqualification of Forest Green due to what we were told is an incomplete bid packet.  FG's packet had no net cost, only a per Household cost, so our Solicitor told us (via the Mayor) to not consider it.

Companies

While we made the best decision we could, I am very frustrated we didn't consider a bidder with previous Village experience.  We could have saved the village nearly $25000 yearly vs 2012 (-9%) but instead recommended Rumpke at an increase of approx $20,000 (+8%).  We're heading in the wrong direction.


Service
While I find it helpful to see additional service options in the bid packet, I don't support front service in the Village.  I also wish to further incent recycling, but I don't think we should shoulder a big cost.  I do thing we should consider Thurs/Fri service even though it would be a major transition headache for the Village Office as well as residents.  Forest Green's Thurs/Fri option is very creative in my opinion.

Bid Packet problems
FG pointed out that our Bid packet had no reference to the number of HH's.  They also pointed out we made no reference to our Sticker program.  These are both oversights on the part of the Village.  It's not fair to blame any person, but collectively the Village didn't get it right.  We have important work to do before the next bid process.

Net net, we'll recommend status quo at a +8% rate from a known supplier.  But I think we missed out on a very worthy vendor and am frustrated we can't consider it.

Cortney