WASTE PRO, MAYOR’S COMMITTEE MEET

February 8, 2020

City personnel and Waste Pro managers met in City Hall this past Thursday, February 6 at 10 am.   Representing the city were Mayor Heath Davis, Commissioner Susan Rosenthal, and City Clerk Crystal Sharp; representing Waste Pro were Trip Lancaster and Dayna Miller. Several interested Cedar Key residents and Vice-Mayor Sue Colson comprised the audience.

Mayor Davis convened the meeting by providing some context.

·       Waste Pro’s current contract was written July 5, 2010, ten years ago.

·       Much has changed since 2010: access to smaller garbage containers is difficult or impossible; contract verbiage has changed; concerns have morphed throughout the ten years.

·       Two meetings have preceded this meeting:   one unproductive meeting with city and Waste Pro personnel; a second with only city staff who attempted to better organize concerns.

This meeting’s goal, said Davis, is to place “facts on the table” and to “make a recommendation to the commission.”

Among the concerns that arose were the following.

·       The county changing its rules, expectations, allowances, and demands abruptly, leaving little or no lead time for Waste Pro to discuss with the city the change’s impact.

·       An educated community about what Waste Pro can and cannot do would be most helpful.

·       Davis adamantly instructed Waste Pro personnel that no leaking trucks can be on city streets because of the city’s dependence on clean water.

·       City Clerk Sharp will forward a copy of the specific concerns that have come to City Hall to Dayna Miller at the meeting’s end.

The hour-long meeting ended with Waste Pro understanding that its personnel would study the extant contract, modify it to reflect what the company could and could not do now, and return it to the city as soon as possible. All agreed that a ten-year contract may be too long to adequately address the city’s and Waste Pro’s needs and abilities.

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