Fox Chapel officials have approved a new five-year deal for garbage collection, maintaining the same garage door service with the same hauler, Vogel Disposal Service.
The company was the lowest of two bidders. Bids were opened on March 5.
Council unanimously voted 6-0 on March 17 to award the contract.
Councilwoman Sarah Hanna was absent.
The current contract with Vogel expires in February.
Borough documents show the contract runs from March 1, 2026, through Feb. 28, 203,1 with two option years extending the deal to Feb. 28, 2033. The total cost with the option years is about $9.334 million.
Council Vice President Harrison Lauer said the borough bid out its trash collection with two options.
One was to keep service as is with collection at residents’ garage door. The second option was curbside pickup with an option for folks to pay an out-of-pocket fee for collection at their door.
“Bids were highly favorable, relative to what we were expecting,” Lauer said.
He said the difference in cost to the borough between the two options was minuscule, and the overall cost to residents could have been more had the curbside service been selected.
It would also potentially cause an aesthetics issue with some trash pushed to the curb and others left at garage doors, Lauer said.
Garbage collection is about 10% of the borough’s estimated $10.46 million budget.
Borough manger Gary Koehler said about $934,400 is budgeted for that service this year.
The current collection rate for weekly pickup is $39.64 per house. That is expected to go up to $50.83 the first year of the new contract. Cost to the borough would be about $1.182 million.
Rates go up about $2 per house each year of the contract.
What is not set yet is how much of the increase would be absorbed by the borough or passed on to taxpayers.
Vogel charges the borough and garbage collection bills are paid for out of tax dollars instead of individual billing.
Lauer said council will address potential tax hikes later this year during budget talks.
Council passed this year’s budget with significant investments in public safety and no tax increase.
The millage rate at 2.95 mills. The borough has not raised taxes since 2019.
In the bin
Council knew more than a year ago its next garbage contract was going to be a major decision.
After seeing neighbors Sharpsburg and Blawnox approve new deals in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and their rates increase, Fox Chapel launched a survey last spring to get resident input on what service they wanted and if they would support a tax increase to pay for it.
“The pricing in the regional contracts for comparable service to the borough’s garage door service was close to double what we were then paying,” Lauer said.
Borough officials also had informal talks with Vogel and Waste Management last year to talk about trends in the industry.
Lauer said both vendors at the time confirmed costs would significantly increase by potentially $1 million.
Waste Management also pitched the idea of an automated curbside service to reduce expenses.
Lauer said only about a third of respondents were OK with a possible one-mill tax hike to pay for the same trash collection. About 700 people said to avoid tax hikes.
About 42% of respondents said they would be willing to pay an additional out-of-pocket cost for garage door service.
Lauer said the survey results inspired the borough to bid out its garbage contract with the two aforementioned options.
The hope was the options would result in lower bids than what was projected in the informal discussions. That proved true.
Vogel bid on both options. The other bidder, County Hauling, only bid on the garage door service.
A pre-bid meeting took place last month with several haulers, including Vogel, to ensure companies knew what the borough was asking.
Lauer said he believes that may have spurred competition and drove prices down.
“I never imagined that the most exciting news that I would ever get as a council member would relate to garbage,” Councilman Jonathan Colton said shortly before this vote. “It’s very exciting.”