Council: Garbage In, Garbage Out

The City of Grove must re-advertise for bids on solid waste collection in the city, which will take nearly another month. Meanwhile the current collector, Allied Waste Services of Galena, Ks, which has had the contract for nearly 10 years, says it isn't interested unless it can have an "exclusive" contract, something that is not legal.

Pete Forst, General Manager of the firm, told Council Tuesday night that he was no longer interested and withdrew his bid, after hearing that he could not have an exclusive contract. He had submitted bids of $13 per house per month for once a week pickup, and $9.49 if awarded the commercial, industrial business; the other bidder, Bernice Sanitation owned by Wayne Crouse bid $10.10 per house per month for once a week pickup, and $10.10 if awarded the commercial, industrial business. The above figures include the 50 cent city fee for billing.

Crouse said he would need to charge an additional 50 cents a bag for lawn/leaf materials left out on a "habitual" basis while Forst said it would be the same type pickup as it has been for the past 10 years, except once a week instead of the current twice weekly service.

City Attorney Ron Cates advised both that no exclusive contracts for any services could be signed by the city as a result of legislation passed several years ago. "The business is open to anyone who wants it," he said.

So now the city must re-advertise another Request for Bids. After the ad is published, probably some time this weekend, the city must wait 21 days for bids to come in. City Manager Bill Galletly said the current contract with Allied has a 60-day hold time so the city is in no danger of being without service at this time.

The city incorrectly wrote the bid specs, which included the word "exclusive" in it, under "Term."

Grove has approximately 2523 residential and 454 commercial accounts, on 213 miles of roadway within the city.

In other action, Council:

--approved a Change Order #1 from APAC of Oklahoma deleting $161,143.43 for the 18th street project, which was the amount to build a concrete bike path along 18th street and down Shundi to 9th.
On September 13, District Attorney Eddie Wyant sent a letter to Jeff McMahan, state auditor and inspector, seeking an audit of the 18th Street Road Project, questioning "two specific areas of concern--the acquisition of the property for the road project, and the associated construction of a bicycle path/sidewalk without properly bidding same."
Wyant said "I understand that the City of Grove Officials are working hard for their community interests, and I believe it would be beneficial for them to have an opportunity to fully and fairly represent the various decisions they have made with regard to these matters. Therefore, I would like to make certain that a more thorough review of these transactions are completed prior to my office taking any further action."

--in Executive Session, Council voted to deny a pending claim from former city attorney Dorothy Parker.

--received a refund check from Charlotte Johnson, President of the Grand Lake Association, for $28,817 for monies unspent for June's Bassmaster Elite 100 event. The city had given GLA $75,000 to help put on the event and Johnson said they had promised to refund any unspent monies.

--heard an in-person activity report from Lisa Friden of the Grove Chamber of Commerce.

--Set a Fee Schedule for reproduction of records and time used by staff in their preparation. City staff will now charge a minimum of $25 for labor, if the request is "for commercial purposes or would clearly cause excessive disruption of the public body's essential functions." Staff cited one case in which an attorney had requested copies of all City Ordinances dating back to 1908 which took staff four days to put together.

--Set council/staff workshop sessions for 4:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month, prior to Council meeting at 6 p.m.